220 
The distance of the farmer from market will determine the amount of his 
profits. 
The rotation of crops is a part of the subject which should have been 
alluded to in another place. In this State the want of it has been the 
bane of the wheat crop. Wheat does the best following clover. The 
second best crop for it to follow, is peas mixed with oats. Oats alone are 
nearly as exhausting to the soil as wheat itself, but with peas they are a 
good preparatory crop for wheat. The last and worst crops which wheat 
can follow is corn, and wheat after wheat. 
After what has been said it may be unnecessary to enlarge upon the 
importance to this State of a more thorough, more careful, it may be 
added more honest, system of farming. The ground should be plowed 
deep ; it should be manured, fallowed and seeded. By these means only 
can the exhausted soil be reclaimed, and the weakened energies of na¬ 
ture restored. By such a system of farming as has made old and barren 
States a garden, might this be made a paradise, the very home of the 
harvest—the abode of wealth and plenty—the prolific source from which 
human necessity and comfort would be supplied. The ground must be 
thoroughly tilled, to be tilled with success. The earth is a poor giver, 
but a grateful borrower. The support it receives will be bounteously re¬ 
paid, and in due time. 
A satirist, whose philosophy was as profound as his wit was brilliant 
and severe, puts into the mouth of the royal Brobdignagian—a gigantic 
and barbaric king sixty feet high, the following words: “Whoever 
could make two ears of corn, or two blades of grass to grow upon a spot 
of ground where only one grew before, would deserve better of mankind 
and do more essential service to his country, than the whole race of poli¬ 
ticians put together.” 
This is a noble maxim. It estimates the worth of men by the substan¬ 
tial good which they do—by the means of social comfort they provide— 
by the human wants they supply—by the necessities for which they fur¬ 
nish the means of relief. It is wise—it is true. He is the true benefactor 
of our race who lessens our burdens of toil and adds to our strength to 
bear them. 
