114 HOW TO GET A FARM, 



est and other payments, allowing for disasters and contin 

 gencies, a purchase may be made. 



&quot;Great judgment and skill should be exercised in select 

 ing first, those improvements which promise the greatest 

 returns with the least outlay. On this branch of the sub 

 ject a large book might be written. We can only say 

 here, make a list of proposed improvements examine from 

 all the practical knowledge that can be collected, and to 

 some extent from limited experiment on the spot, the prob 

 able cost on the one hand, and the probable advantages on 

 the other, and then select first, those showing the largest 

 percentage of profits. These may be some kinds of ma 

 nuring, or some cheap and efficient underdraining, or deep 

 plowing of the tillage land, or heavy seeding of the grass 

 land, or the cultivation of certain crops, or the introduc 

 tion of certain animals, remembering the rule in all cases, 



FEEL YOUR WAY. 



&quot; Sixteen acres constitute but a small farm, but such a 

 farm, skilfully managed, may after a while be made to pro 

 duce a considerable amount. Ordinary field crops alone 

 will not be likely to produce even one-half of the $400 now 

 made by law practice ; but these, with fruit raising, rearing 

 fine animals, producing marketable garden crops, and per 

 haps the more salable fruit trees, may, with skilful hands, 

 be made to increase the product to an almost indefinite 

 extent. 



&quot; We have heard wealthy farmers assert, that not over 

 two per cent, on the cost of their farms and the capital to 

 stock them, could be fairly relied on as an average for all 

 seasons. But this estimate is made for ordinary superficial 

 farming. We have found, by experience, that a better 

 mode of practice, economically pursued, would, without 

 any special trouble, double the products, and triple or 

 quadruple the net profits. For instance, where a ton and 



