426 
COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
they will fail, any year, to find wherewith to meet their obliga¬ 
tions, provide additional comforts for their families, and add 
somewhat to previous accumulations. There are greater num¬ 
bers, of whom we seldom expect they will overtake their liabil¬ 
ities, multiply the little luxuries of good living, or begin to 
lay up gains. 
To all those farmers who are toiling hard, from year to year, 
and only “holding their own”—to the great company of hard 
workers, who find themselves yearly running behind in property 
and conveniences for conducting their business, I would make 
it a word of cheer, that “It is not in their stars that they are 
underlings.” There is better luck in better management. 
WHERE TI1E PROFITS ARE. 
In every kind of business, the great bulk of returns go to 
repay the inevitable cost of outfit and management. The items 
of that tempting, coy, coquettish sum termed “profit ” which 
is, after all, the main object of endeavor and excitement to en¬ 
terprise, can be computed only on the “margin” of our opera¬ 
tions, and consist in the little savings and advantages which in¬ 
telligence, industry, and ingenuity, glean precisely where igno¬ 
rance, indolence, and heedlessness make their wastes. For 
example: 
IN GRAIN GROWING. 
An average yield of grain, at the average market price, no 
more than pays cost, if it does that. To make anything clear, 
the producer must raise it at a less cost per bushel, or get more 
for what he raises, than The scale that only quits cost. If he 
can make both advantages, his profits will be considerable. 
Now the little wastes that enhance and the little heeds that 
cheapen the costs of production, demand attention every day. 
Upon sound judgment in determining between different pat¬ 
terns of farming implements, and care in selecting good tools of 
their kind, depends the saving or the waste of a great deal of 
expensive force in farming. 
