10 



and it is this hatred, more than any other influence, that prevents the more 

 rapid improvement of our agriculture. Our best chance for succeeding against 

 it is to unite our forces, those of us who do not believe that an old fashioned 

 farmer knows so much that he has a right to cry us down, and to make a stout 

 fight, 



I am not jesting. I really believe that the influence of those who cay out 

 against "book-farming," as they call all attempts at improvement, is one of the 

 greatest stumbling blocks that the improving farmer meets in his path ; and that 

 many a timid man has been sickened, and deterred from his work by the 

 thought of the ridicule he must encounter from his neighbors, men who accept 

 to-day what they decried yesterday, but who none the less vehemently decry to- 

 day what we know r they will accept to-morrow. We must either ignore them, 

 or w T e must combine to overcome them. It will be the shortest way to combine 

 against them, for this will give us an organized support that will be of the great 

 est value to the younger men, and it is the help of the younger men that we 

 need above all things. 



This is a movement that will win as it grows, Its liist steps Will be faltering 

 and it will be opposed on all sides by the united prejudice of every community. 

 Never mind. Let us try it, we are not fair to our comrades when we leave them 

 unaided in their contests with their neighbors. We must realize the fact that it is 

 our neighbors — wherever we are — who (without really meaning us harm) stand 

 the most in our way ; and we must, remember that our best allies are timid boys 

 who are still debating the great question of their lives, to be, or not to be farm- 

 ers. A little help from us may decide them and may secure able heads for our 

 councils, which if we neglect them will turn away to trade and cr unt against us. 



To sum up, then : How shall New England farming be made to keep even 

 with the other arts of the day ? The process must necessarily be a slow one, 

 but its result is certain. 



We must use more capital, more enterprise, and more 1 trains in the manage- 

 ment of the business. We must make the first aim of all our work, the (jetting 

 of money, and we must work for it in our farming, as we would do in any 

 other employment. The easy going way of taking our returns as luck may send 

 them will not answer. We must compel our luck to be good ; that is, so far 

 as possible, we must remove the element of luck or chance entirel3 r from our 

 calculations, and study to turn to our advantage influences which, if left to 

 themselves, would turn against us. We must drain our wet lands and manure 

 all our lands. We must not lose the use of a grain of manure, and we must 

 never raise a poor crop, when it would be possible to raise a good one. We 

 mutt farm far less land. Every acre we cultivate costs interest, labor, and 

 seed — as much with a poor crop as with a good one — and we must cultivate only 

 so many of them as w r e can by thorough work, thorough manuring, and, (if 

 need be,) thorough draining, make to produce a full profit beyond this neces- 

 sary cost. 



Farming mu3t be made attractive to men of intelligence. They must see 

 what there i3 in it (.and heaven knows there is enough) to afford profitable em- 



