8 



rule to like what is allotted to us. Our children don't like it, and if they can 

 help themselves they won't stand it. Preach to them as you may, they will seek 

 the easiest and most comfortable life that is open to them, as naturally as sparks 

 fly upward. 



All this implies not only a radical change, but a Radical Reform. It is a re- 

 form that can be sought by no royal road. It is too radical and too far reaching 

 in its effects on human ecomony and on human society to be secured in a mo- 

 ment or at trifling cost. It is not by speeches at Agricultural Fairs, nor by the 

 resolutions of Farmers' clubs, nor by the exhortations of the agricultural press 

 that the work is to be done, though those will all help and stimulate the 

 effort. No real progress will be made until the farmers themselves (in their in- 

 dividual capacity,) undertake the work, and undertake it with a will, with a 

 real conviction that there is a better way of farming than any they have yet 

 tried ; and that their best chance for improving their own condition, for making 

 more money, and for securing their sons as helpers and successors, lies in seek- 

 ing out this better way, and in devoting themselves to its untiring and unfalter- 

 ing prosecution. 



I have said that if wa would improve we must risk something — "nothing ven- 

 ture, nothing have. " If you are content as you are, remain as you are, however 

 that may be. Do the best you can in your own little treadmill, and never mind 

 that others are getting on while you are standing still. If you are happy in the 

 simple fact that you make both of your narrow ends meet, and meet at the same 

 point, year after year, far be it from me to wish to disturb } r our serenity. You 

 have your use in the world : you are a good tally-mark to count from ; and the 

 more unmoved you remain, the easier will it be to see how the better men pro- 

 gress. If, on the other hand, you are not satisfied to standstill, but wish to join 

 in the march that is carrying the best men of your time to the highest favor, 

 prosperity, and consideration, and which promises as much for you as for any 

 of them, then you must make up 3'our mind to risk something of what you have 

 (as they all do) in order to gain what without the risk it is impossible for you to 

 get. Only be careful to cast your ventures with judgment. 



The tendency of enterprising farmers is often to risk too much, or to risk for 

 too uncertain ends. No man can afford to hazard his self-respect, his self-reli- 

 ance, his hopefulness, his courage ; for those imply (among other things) his 

 ability to work. And this is the one thing that will secure him comfort and 

 happiness, and nearly all else that is worth the having, no matter what befalls. 

 Therefore, in every undertaking, he should mark well all his ways, and forecast 

 carefully his chances of success and failure, lest he bring upon himself needless 

 loss ; loss that entails discouragement and so takes away the self-reliant and 

 hopeful condition that makes his task easy and effective. Necessary losses hurt 

 no one ; but losses that are born of neglect or folly inevitably bring self-reproach 

 and discouragement. 



Let us, therefore, be cautious how we proceed for ourselves, and cautious how 

 we influence others ; but let us give our best efforts to the solution of the prac- 



