AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 77 



part of it may not be ascribed to the high reputation in 

 which the farm is held. 



&quot;But there is another class of farms that I wish to more 

 particularly recommend to those wishing to make their 

 money go as far as possible in buying land which is those 

 farms that, though naturally good, have been run down 

 more or less. There are many of this class of farms in all 

 parts of the country. They have been and are usually occu 

 pied by poor farmers, that whether owners or tenants 

 generally do the work to halves, and only raise half crops, and 

 as they seed down but little, if any, their farms soon have a 

 very poor, barren appearance, causing their reputation to go 

 down very fast, and often causing them to be sold for much 

 less than their real value. That is, while the high reputa 

 tion of extra farms causes them to sell for all or perhaps 

 more than they are really worth, the bad name and poor 

 appearance of badly run farms, often leads to their being 

 sold for much less than their actual value. True, the farm 

 er that commences on a badly run farm, will have to adopt 

 some course of improvement by which the soil may be again 

 made productive, or it would not do to run in debt for the 

 farm. But it will not be very difficult to do this if the land 

 is naturally good, and has only been run down by poor cul 

 tivation and neglect. I hold it an undoubted fact, that nat 

 urally good land cannot be thoroughly run down and worn 

 out without a more thorough working and course of cultiva 

 tion than such farms usually receive ; and also, that much 

 of the credit that is often ascribed to this or that course of 

 improvement, is due to the latent goodness of the soil, de 

 veloped by more thorough cultivation. Of course, before 

 buying, we should be sure that the land is naturally good, 

 and that its present bad appearance is due to poor cultiva 

 tion and neglect, instead of a more thorough course of 

 cropping on the skinning system, by which the soil is actu- 



