20 



tho fact that farmers seldom wholly fail and come to 

 nothing. While they are generally sure of a living, and 

 many add to their stores, only a very few engaged in 

 commerce acquire fortunes, and in one of the largest and 

 most important branches of manufactures in New Eng- 

 land, scarcely a man has failed to fail. I have no expec- 

 tation that the majority of young men will be influenced 

 by this consideration, or that they will cease to be excited 

 by the magnificent results that occasionally attend mer- 

 cantile adventures, but I am none the less convinced 

 tliat, takhig all things together, and in the long run, the 

 intelligent cultivation of the soil offers a most reasonable 

 prospect of success, a sure path to competence if not to 

 wealth. 



3d. For this additional reason, the system of farming 

 among us is in a state of transition from the established 

 routine of practice to a better order founded upon the 

 diffusion of science and upon the greater employment of 

 machinery. The sturdiest conservative must admit the 

 increase of knowledge and its increased application to 

 agriculture. It diffuses itself slowly yet surely from the 

 studious mind to the laboring multitude, suggesting im- 

 provements in every department of the business. There 

 is an active spirit of research, of enquiry, of experiment. 

 Science, and especially the science of chemistry, is suc- 

 cessfully applied to the analysis of soils and the compo- 

 sition of manures. Prejudices are conquered, doubts 

 solved, light let in upon darkness, and the effect is seen 

 in more thorough culture and in annually increasing 

 crops. The process advances, and its blessings reach even 

 those who set themselves defiantly against it. 



Machinery is destined to work an immense change in 

 farming. The ingenuity of our mechanics is unbounded. 

 Already they have discovered valuable applications of 

 great principles to the facilitation of labor ; and there is 



