The Farm

There are a certain class of farmers who are never satisfied with the results of their labor, and they look upon the mercantile business as something to be envied, and to be got into as soon as they can raise the necesaary capital. They seldom consider how the successf ul merchant has striven to establish himself in the way of raaking money, and how watchful he has to be to sustain himself ; still, there is no reason why the same processes may not lead to as great succeases on the laúd as in the store ; indeed, i t isa common experience that it is so. Hundreds oí men every year make money to their entire satisfaction out of agricultural or horticultural pursuits. They are not so well known - do not make as much show as a storekeeper- agrieulturists are too much scattered to make this imposing appearance; but the profits we speak of are there as surely in the one case as in the other. These successíul businesses are siniply the result of a series of experiments as to what can be done. Ilardly a business that we know of, that may be pointed out as iliustrative oí great success, achieved that success ia the line marked out f or it at the start. A general knowledge of some one thing may have sugge3ted the enterprise, but one after another, as some parts would be better understood, the least profltable would be dropped, and, in many instances, firms that began dealing in a dozen articles would end in only a few. We have frequently pointed out the fact, aud urged on cultivators that this is the only way to get into the special erop business. There is scarcely a district of county in the whole United States but that is able to grow soine one thing or a few things a little better than another thing. It should be a continued subject of experiment on every farm as to what will grow and thrive remurkably well ; and having found this out, what would be the prospects of a good market f or it. It is rare indeed that any one who raises just exactly wbat his neighbor does, ever makes a great stride in the way of wealth. He makes out of wheat, or co n, or pork, a fair average living price; and if he is a little more intelligent than some as to the niceties of cultivation he may make more thau his neighbors ; but the rich farmer is generally he, who, by careful observation and calculation, is able gradually but surely to get out of the beaten track.