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gained in the search for success in agriculture, through the door of the earnest, working grange, backed as it is by the boards of agriculture, than by any other organization in existence. The great problem is still before us, calling for united study and investigation, and only by uniting our efforts can the question be solved.

The day for increased prices has gone. If the great beef industry has touched bottom, as many believe it has, the profits of the future are to be found not in a higher range of prices so much as in a more active demand. This admitted, the first great question to be solved is that of cost of production. Here the individual will fail. There must be a coming together, a union of effort in study and investigation. He must be in constant touch with those engaged in the same line of work, and this calls for organization. Had this been the practice of the past, the cry to-day would not be, show us the way to success.

There must be more faith in ourselves, our calling and our farms. I do not stand here as a farmer fresh from the fields, but as one who, out of years of experience in certain lines of work, years of study and observation, and an acquaintance with farmers who, having faith, have secured results, has satisfied himself that farming in New England is being and can be made profitable, and to-day, in spite of difficulties, this faith is unshaken. Here are the farms. ready to respond to the call of the intelligent laborer. Here at our doors are the best markets of the world. Here are blessings, born of necessity, nurtured in poverty, and firmly planted in our New England institutions. Here are social privileges unequaled anywhere. Here is a standard of education which calls forth admiration from every quarter of the earth. If more of earnest toil is required, greater blessings wait the struggle. If climate and soil, on this rock-bound coast, demand sturdier blows, they insure a more rugged type of manhood; and the men and women grown on our hills and under the shadow of our great mountains go out to all quarters of the globe, and there lead the thought of the inhabitants wherever they may pitch. their tents. The West or South cannot offer like attractions, they cannot insure the full measure of compensation.

The same self-denial and toil will give better results in Maine or Massachusetts than can be possible on the ranches of the West. I would not have our children live as their grandfathers did. I rejoice that our farm-houses are so rich in comforts and adornments; but I would that we had a better appreciation of these, because here are some of the conditions for success. It is not the amount of crops or stock grown, but the profit which may be realized, that should determine location.

I said I believed in New England. Had we sung its praises and made prominent its possibilities, had our homes been full of love and faith, we should not to-day be considering the conditions for success.

One of the conditions lies within us. It is that we look for success, that we believe in success, that we in faith work for success. Drifting does not develop manhood. What should we say of a merchant who should commence business with his mind full of doubts?

Last winter a terrible disease prevailed in a foreign country. Our public prints were full of it in all its phases. It reached our shores, and found a people anxious to embrace it, and who would have been disappointed had it passed our doors. It was "Hinglish, you know," and therefore popular. The symptoms were so minutely described that one couldn't sneeze but those who heard said "La Grippe." I do not question the prevalence or deadly ravages of this disease; but what I do claim is this, that talking about it, preparing for it, expecting it, placed people in condition physically and mentally where they were unable to successfully cope with it. I am not here to discuss psychological facts or theories, and only give this as an illustration of my thought.

During the past ten years the public print has been full of dark pictures of agriculture; even the agricultural press has printed column upon column, questioning whether farming paid. In the homes doubts have grown into beliefs; questionings about the prospects and possibilities of the farm have filled the ears of the children. From morning until night one song has been sung, that farm life is drudgery, that it doesn't pay, and there's no sunshine in it. To seal the lesson, State bureaus of information have advertised, far

and wide, every deserted farm, no matter what the cause or location. Is it any wonder that faith in agriculture in New England is lacking, and that results are not forthcoming? No man ever rose above his ideals, and if, as he toils, he questions, the end is just as certain as that time passes. Success does not lie in this direction, and it is your duty and mine to bend every energy, to labor faithfully, carnestly, continuously, to create faith in and a love for New England farm-homes. The hill is before us, but we must climb; and, doing this, the door opens wide leading to

success.

Go with me along the business streets of the city, and the intelligent man will inform us that here one attempted trade, and, having no knowledge of details, failed; there one embarked, and, because of poor debts, went under; again, one started on a penny-wise plan, and met defeat. Have these things been advertised? Has the press constantly called attention to the business failures? Turn for a moment to manufactures, and deserted shops and privileges may be seen in every direction. Why not gather up these statistics, and publish broadcast? Why not bring into prominence the failures here? Simply and only because doing so would injure the material prosperity of the people. Will not the same effect be produced here? Why do we, lovers of and believers in the farms of New England, allow these burdens to be shifted upon the farmers? The facts are, men succeed in trade when, seeking suitable locations, they stamp their individuality upon their business by attending strictly to details. Failures in manufacturing are due to poor locations, changed conditions, or for want of business methods, properly applied. Deserted farms are to be found, but they were located when times were different, and their present owners in many cases showed greatest wisdom when they gathered their flocks and came down from the high, rocky hills and light soils, and located in fertile meadows or near good markets. One of the conditions for success, then, is to be found in ceasing to do evil and learning to do good, ceasing to advertise deserted farms, and advertising the successful farm operations which lie all about us. We must put a stop to negative preaching and teaching, whether in public print

or on the farms. Positive work is wanted, for this will insure positive results. Plant in the mind of the young man the thought that upon the farms of Massachusetts he can win success, while all the time being lifted into a higher and truer manhood, and he will go out and demonstrate the truth of your teachings. Plant but a single doubt, and you have destroyed all hope.

A condition for success not appreciated as it should be, is that of checking the outgo of so much money from the farms, for farm products. To what extent we, as a people, are paying out for what might be produced at less expense at home, no one can imagine. Here is the work of the future, to multiply the farm products adapted to the farms of Massachusetts. If you are protecting, saving and utilizing all the wastes about the place, liquids and solids, you are not only adding to the fertility of your farm, but you are in best condition to use understandingly, and with greatest profit, commercial fertilizers. If any portion of the natural means of fertilization is lost, your farm is in danger of slipping from under you. The commercial article has its mission, and it is to supplement, but not to take the place of. At our desks we make complete formulas for growing all crops, but the land cries for the natural food, the farms fail for want of barn-yard manure.

In Maine, from $600,000 to $700,000 were paid out in 1889 for commercial fertilizers; in New Hampshire, $650,000; and in Massachusetts, nearly, if not quite, $1,000,000. If all had been saved about the buildings, and properly utilized, would this investment have been necessary? Should not a measure of this drain be checked by better methods?

What per cent of the corn consumed in Massachusetts is grown here? In Maine one firm in 1888 sold almost 9,000,000 bushels. In this State the amount purchased by the members of the Boston Chamber of Commerce aggregated 12,000,000 bushels, and a large per cent of this was distributed over the State, and fed by the farmers. If corn can be grown in New England for forty cents, is it good business practice to pay sixty or more, unless one is bending all his energies, and producing to the utmost a still

more profitable crop? Success in agriculture does not admit of slip-shod, indifferent methods. It has become fashionable to complain and question, and at the same time do virtually nothing, because the fire is scattered over the whole range of products, and details are neglected.

As in the mercantile world success lies in doing a larger business and thus overcoming the loss otherwise sustained by reason of a lower range of profits, so in agriculture it must be found in more intensive culture, the introduction of labor-saving machines, and the complete cultivation of larger areas, thus reducing cost of production. The lower range of prices sure to prevail in coming years can thus be successfully met, and profit realized. By conducting farm operations to-day upon strictly business principles, a fair measure of success may be secured.

Away up in the north-east of Maine may be seen the most wonderful section of country to be found in all the eastern or middle States. Those Aroostook fields, lying in gentle swells, are rich and fertile, but they are removed from the great centres, and transportation is a heavy item; yet the farmers there are finding prosperity, for they have solved this question, and, by putting business into their farm work, are happy, contented, and growing wealthy.

Is there a stock feeder finding the balance on the right side of the ledger at the close of the year? then every other feeder might find the same by the application of the same degree of skill and intelligence. If these are not introduced, shall we charge failure to the industry, or the man? Why have you not a hundred Deerfoot farms in this State? Is it not because you have not the men willing to give the energy and application which have insured success there?

us.

Gentlemen, the opportunities for success lic all about Precious gems are at our feet; but, in the mad rush for wealth, in the vain endeavor to grasp the whole, we stumble over the little things out of which enduring results are to be builded.

The dairymen of Maine, who have, by a careful study of individuals, by breeding and weeding, by weighing and selecting, secured a herd every one of which will yield three hundred pounds of butter yearly, have success within

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