430 
COUNTY AGRICULTURAL SOCIETIES. 
imperfect culture, spasmodic Lurry, wild confusion, and ruin¬ 
ous waste of force, and tools, and grain, of the year’s operations 
are but legitimate and inevitable consequences of the escape of 
Lis business from Lis control. It is not w r Lat we raise , but 
wbat we clear that makes us ricL. 
THRIFT NEVER CONSORTS WITH DEBT. 
It is a common complaint that farm labor is less adequately 
compensated than labor in most other vocations. I Lave 
endeavored to show that every branch of Agricultural industry 
would pay better with- better management. But, it is urged, 
the farmer, of all producers, is most at the mercy of the buyer, 
compelled to take a price for what he has to sell which is arbi¬ 
trarily fixed for him. The fact is precisely the reverse. No 
calling places those engaged in it so independent of every other, 
as that of tilling the soil; provided* only , the farmer carefully 
guards the natural independence of his position by keeping 
free from debt. If pressing obligations force the producer to 
sell the earliest day he can possibly crowd his commodities into 
market, he is, generally, at the buyer’s mercy, and the chances 
are against his getting a price adequately compensating him for 
his toil. But if the farmer be free to choose his time for mak¬ 
ing sales, who is to interfere with him in placing a remunerative 
price upon his surplus products, and “holding” until that price 
is offered? The buyer waits upon the seller when demand is 
greedy. The seller is at the buyer’s mercy only when he must 
sell, and no one is under equal necessity of buying. It makes 
all difference in the profits on a year’s labor, whether the farm¬ 
er is forced to hurried sales, or can coolly choose through a 
year or two years’ range of prices. Interest is a great leech, 
especially at prevailing rates for the use of money. It absorbs 
a great deal of the products of labor without increasing, in the 
least, accumulation of means, or reducing liabilities. But if, 
in addition to “twelve per cent” interest, or the enhanced price 
paid for everything bought on time, (for credit always, in some 
way, exacts interest) the farmer submits to a sacrifice of from 
