ANNUAL EXHIBITION—ADDRESSES. 
127 
CONCENTK-iTION OF LABOR ON THE FARM. 
AN ADDRESS BY HON. CHARLES L. FLINT, OF MASSACHUSETTS.. 
[As reported for the Western Farmer^ Sept. 24,1869 ] 
The speaker began by saying it was with much diffidence 
he appeared before a western audience, at the earnest invitation 
of his friend Dr. Hoyt and the officers of the state society. 
His own personal experience and his observations had been 
confined, for the most part, to a condition, of agriculture quite 
different from that prevailing here, and it would be highly 
presumptuous in him to attempt to instruct them in the details 
of western farming. If he were to come here to settle, to be¬ 
gin a new agricultural career, the first thing would be to visit 
their own farms, to seek information and instruction from 
them, to observe and to learn the results of their expe¬ 
rience, before attempting to start a plow in the furrow. But, 
without pretending to advise with regard to the details of 
western farming, there are certain general principles which are 
applicable and valuable everywhere, and it was to these that 
he should ask attention. 
In traveling over the country with an eye to the condition 
of agriculture, a vast difference will be noticed in the looks of 
farms, and as great a difference in the thrift and enterprise of 
the farmers. Farmers that appear to have a soil equally 
good, will often present quite strange contrasts to the eye of 
even a casual observer. How do you account for this ? With 
a soil equally as good, with about the same amount of labor 
perhaps, how is it that results will differ so widely ? Is it not 
the difference in the quality, and especially in the direction of 
labor ? The one seems to be mere physical force; the other is 
guided by mind and thought, calculation and energy. It is 
