AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 139 



expense. Our country abounds with desirable fields 

 for such operations. Every reader can call to mind 

 some worthless swamp or cripple, admirably situ 

 ated as to neighborhood and market, large enough 

 to make a respectable farm, and obtainable at a low 

 price on such terms of payment as a small capitalist 

 could comply with. In some locations the neigh 

 bors would be disposed to aid the man who had en 

 terprise enough to undertake the abatement of a 

 nuisance which was not only offensive to the eye, 

 but dangerous to public health. 



The surpassing richness of such lands, when re 

 deemed from the dominion of the water, has long 

 been proverbial. They need no manure, yet they 

 produce double crops. Strangely enough, though 

 the best soil on the continent, yet it comes last into 

 cultivation. Hence I am free to urge this process 

 as one of the best, the quickest, and the surest, by 

 which to get a farm. Like the cranberry swamp, 

 it possesses peculiar advantages for a small beginner, 

 as it yields immediate returns, and as there are long 

 intervals between the different stages of work, during 

 which he can employ himself at other labor. When 

 his drains have once been laid, the land will be dry 

 ing while he sleeps; and if, when seeking for a 

 farm, he had been recommended to plunge into a 

 swamp, he will find, in the end, that it was not ask 

 ing for bread and receiving only a stone. , 



Such an example operates powerfully on others. 

 Mr. Beecher says, that &quot; if men are to become in 

 telligent, we must give them specimens of intelli 

 gence. Let a man go into a village where the 



