104: HOW TO GET A FAKM, 



generally a bad season, of poor crops, poorer 

 prices, and a still poorer return to the expectant 

 owners. 



If the plundering tenant were discharged, he was 

 generally succeeded by another whose genius for 

 stealing was superior to that of his predecessor, as 

 upon an exhausted farm he must skin more severely 

 and steal more largely, to obtain a living. If the 

 iirst thief took nearly all, the second was sure to 

 take what was left. The owner being thus annually 

 robbed, becomes tired of what he once considered 

 the safest investment, and is anxious to sell. 



But a farm thus long the victim of spoliation, 

 finds few cash buyers. It will require time, labor, 

 and money, to restore it. Depreciation is a rapid 

 process, but restoration a slow one. Cash buyers 

 prefer land in good condition, considering it cheaper 

 to enter on a farm in prime order, at a high price, 

 than on a poor one at a- low figure. It is fortunate 

 for the country that all who are looking for farms 

 do not entertain the same opinion. If they did, the 

 numerous tracts which have been thus skinned to 

 death would be reoccupied by the forest, as none 

 would be found courageous enough to undertake 

 the slow and costly process of resuscitating them. 



The disheartened owner thus finds neither a buyer 

 nor an acceptable tenant, nor is he so situated as to 

 give his farm the least attention himself. He does 

 not need the purchase-money all he desires is to 

 find some reliable man to relieve him of the care 

 of an intolerable burden, by taking the farm on 

 some terms. It must be occupied by somebody, as 



