WHERE TO FIND ONE. 133 



sent up the price of numerous waste places of sim 

 ilar character, and caused others to be as effectually 

 drained. Exhortation had been lost upon the 

 owners; but when the example was placed before 

 them, imitation came of itself. 



The young man whose personal energy converted 

 twenty-six acres of utterly waste land into a pro 

 ductive farm, created for himself, at a single stroke, 

 a capital that set him up for life. He proved con 

 clusively that it is the best lands which come last 

 into cultivation. The single acre of upland in his 

 purchase now contains his house and barns, and 

 from the remaining acres he produces all that his 

 family needs. In ten years from the day that he 

 first struck his spade into the main ditch of an ap 

 parently worthless swamp, he will be out of debt, 

 and worth his thousands. 



In the estimation of some, an undertaking of this 

 character will smack of speculation. It is out of 

 the old routine it is a new way to get a farm 

 and being new, is therefore speculative, and being 

 speculative, is not only foolish, but hazardous. But 

 here the prevailing ingredients are good sense and 

 resolute industry. The speculators hate work the 

 industrious hate speculation. Timid minds will re 

 ject the example just given, not only because con 

 stitutionally fearful of a new thing, but because of 

 an equally constitutional incredulity. But the ex 

 perience of many in this country could be adduced 

 in confirmation of the idea that one of the surest 

 ways to get a farm cheaply, is to purchase and re 

 claim a swamp. It involves hard work as well as 



