4 PREFACE. 



ment elsewhere has turned their thoughts in the 

 same direction. 



In all these cases, they are aiming for a common 

 goal the securing of a farm. Multitudes succeed 

 in their object, while other multitudes fail some 

 from ignorance, some from incurable incapacity, 

 others from misdirection. The man who digs for 

 gold at random will invariably become poor, while 

 he to whom the precise spot has been pointed out 

 wherein the precious deposit lies concealed, will, 

 with a fraction of the same industry, become rich. 

 To be successful in any thing, effort must be directed 

 by intelligence. Fortunes may be stumbled on oc 

 casionally, but stumbling will be found to be a very 

 precarious dependence. 



So far as misdirection may be a cause of failure, 

 it can to some extent be avoided. My object is to 

 show how such result may be prevented, by suggest 

 ing practical methods for insuring success some 

 original, some derived from the ripe experience of 

 others. I write with no reference to mere land 

 speculation, such as induces men to purchase to-day 

 for the sole object of selling at a higher price to 

 morrow, the new buyer selling a week later to a 

 still newer one, while neither has, in the interval, 

 expended a dollar in improvements. I treat almost 

 exclusively of gradual increase of value, and only in 

 cidentally of sudden enhancement. Incidents of 



