102 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



great and general importance, and that a large 

 number of intelligent and experienced men hastened 

 to engage in publicly discussing it. As in a multi 

 tude of counsellors there is sometimes wisdom, so in 

 this friendly collision of opinion the seeker after 

 knowledge on the subject will obtain new light, 

 strong encouragement, and every reasonable incent 

 ive to induce a beginning. This country must con 

 tain thousands of men who, in the various ways 

 thus indicated, are now living on homesteads which 

 their fathers or themselves have thus acquired. 



It was the reading of this discussion in the col 

 umns of the Country Gentleman that led me to pre 

 pare this volume. It struck me that all that ought 

 to be said on the subject had not been discussed. 

 Indeed, the columns of a weekly journal do riot 

 afford space for a consideration of the numerous 

 aspects in which it might be presented. It was evi 

 dent, from the number of writers who volunteered 

 to throw light on the question, that it was one in 

 which a general interest must be felt. Hence my 

 effort to increase the usefulness of the discussion by 

 grouping together all that has been already said, 

 with more that has been omitted. 



