ANNUAL EXHIBITION—ADDRESSES. 
129 
will impoverish the sons, and the earlier this fact is realized, 
and the sails are trimmed accordingly, the better it will be for 
the west. Where are the black soils of Russia that were 
considered absolutely inexhaustible ? Where are the soils of 
western New York, once called the great granery of the 
east ? They require manure for the wheat crop, almost as 
much as the thinner soils of New England. And the west 
will as surely, have to come to a system of higher manuring as 
the laws of nature are sure to last. 
If you talk with such a farmer from the east, you may be 
sure he’ll maintain that there is no profit in farming. He 
shuts his eyes to the leaks about the place; or if he sees them, 
they seem so small as to be wholly unworthy of notice, while 
in the aggregate, they are eating up his substance and are the 
source of all his embarrassments. And ten chances to one 
he’ll tell you he wants capital. He has hands and feet and 
muscle and brains, the only capital God has given to any man, 
but he does’nt appear to know how to use them. He allows 
the hand and the muscle to lead, instead of making the brain 
the guide of the hand. His plans are loose and defective, if 
he has any plan at all. 
The great mistake the farmer is liable to make is that of 
making his work too diffusive. He spreads it over too much 
ground, instead of concentrating thought and energy and skill 
upon a few leading crops. It may not be good policy to cul¬ 
tivate one crop to the exclusion of all others; to put all the 
eggs into one basket, and in fact every farmer should culti¬ 
vate even a greater variety of crops for the supply of his 
own family. It would promote the comfort, the health and 
the economy of every household to raise a greater variety of 
vegetables for the home table, and especially all the vegeta¬ 
bles essential to the health of the family in their season, like 
asparagus, celery, lettuce, rhubarb, and many others that might 
be named ; but so far as the management of the farm is con¬ 
cerned, the labor should be concentrated upon a few special¬ 
ties, bringing them to the highest degree of productiveness 
Ag. Tr.—9. 
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