SOLON ROBINSON, 1840 147 



Young hearty men, married or single, mechanics, or 

 laborers in agricultural employments, who with an untir- 

 ing industry are unable to "get ahead in the world," if 

 they emigrate to the west, and pursue the same indus- 

 trious course, will find their situation improved by the 

 change. But let no one come here with the expectation of 

 finding wages higher, provisions low, land so cheap that 

 he can get an 80 acre farm for $100, and consequently 

 that he will be able to acquire an independence with little 

 or no exertion on his own part. True, land is cheap — it 

 is hardly possible to imagine a soil more rich, but land 

 bought of the United States at $1,25 an acre, is not a 

 cultivated farm. 



And although it is easy to bring dry prairie land into 

 cultivation, it requires a persevering industry on the part 

 of the settler, sometimes accompanied with great priva- 

 tions and hardships for himself and family; and in this 

 case, "a bad beginning" does not "make a good ending." 



Thousands, who were "well to do in the world," in the 

 eastern States, and who on an old improved farm would 

 have continued "well to do," have had their minds highly 

 excited by overwrought pictures of "a paradise of a 

 place" in the west, and without stopping to inquire 

 whether they were fit for pioneers, have rushed upon the 

 shipwreck of their hopes, health and happiness of them- 

 selves and families. 



Upon the other hand, thousands are toiling from year 

 to year as tenants or owners of some barren little spot, 

 who might with similar industry in this country, become 

 large and wealthy farmers. For what their own little 

 farm or other spare property would sell for where they 

 are, they might procure a farm for themselves and each 

 child around them. A farm, did I say? No, not a farm, 

 only the raw material out of which to manufacture one, 

 by long and constant toil. But then that toil is cheered 

 and supported by the constant exciting pleasure that an 

 industrious man always feels while "making improve- 

 ments," while creating new things. But I have known 



