AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 125 



thickly scattered over our country, unimproved and 

 unappreciated, as much to the shame of their own 

 ers as to the discredit of that shrewdness which 

 ought to be manifested by the many who are seek 

 ing ways and means to get a farm. Five years ago, 

 I was applied to by a young man who was anxious 

 to begin his effort to secure a home of his own. He 

 was a capital farm-hand, possessed great energy, and 

 had saved $200 of his earnings. After learning his 

 views, I suggested to him the propriety of purchas 

 ing a piece of swamp land, containing twenty-six 

 acres, which was very nearly the counterpart of that 

 above described. It produced nothing whatever 

 was too wet for a cow pasture, and was in fact a 

 neighborhood nuisance. I had long noticed it, and 

 had studied its capabilities. I had even pointed 

 them out to the owner, but he was one of those 

 farmers who have little faith in any one s knowledge 

 but their own, and he refused to believe his only 

 desire was to sell. 



I took the young aspirant for a home all round 

 the swamp, and into it as far as we could penetrate 

 in a very wet season. It was grown up with alders, 

 young dogwood bushes, and maples, with here and 

 there a clump of tolerably large trees of other va 

 rieties. In some places where there was a slight 

 rise in the land, it was firm and solid. I drew his 

 attention to this circumstance, as proving that if the 

 water could be as effectually drained away from the 

 whole swamp as it was from these elevated spots, it 

 must become equally dry. He recognized the rea 

 sonableness of the inference ; and, after a thorough 



