AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 105 



absolute desertion of house and grounds is as 

 ruinous to a farm as idleness to the machinery of a 

 cotton-mill. Should a young and competent man 

 now offer himself as purchaser, fortified by good 

 character and a knowledge of his calling, the 

 chances are that he can secure the farm on such 

 terms as to price and payment, as will make it the 

 great and successful operation of his life. Such a 

 man, having constantly looked forward to beginning 

 for himself, will have saved a few hundred dollars ; 

 and these will be found sufficient for a start. Others 

 have begun in like circumstances, with no capital 

 but their hands, and have succeeded. 



I have seen more than one farm thus owned, thus 

 plundered and exhausted, thus an encumbrance on 

 the owner s hands, and thus passing into the pos 

 session of men with little or no capital, who in a 

 few years had paid, from its own products, every 

 dollar of the purchase money. From the day they 

 entered into possession they enjoyed the comforts of 

 a home. It might at first be scanty, rough, and in 

 convenient, but still it was home. Every tree they 

 planted became an investment for their own exclus 

 ive benefit. In every furrow they turned, some 

 golden particles were discoverable at the bottom. 

 Every spoonful of manure they bought or manufac 

 tured, was equivalent to a fund invested at more 

 than compound interest. 



There are hundreds of poor farms now held by 

 their owners because no buyers can be found. Men 

 in search of land should seek them out, bargain for 

 them at low prices and at long terms of payment, 



