170 THE TIM BUNKER PAPERS. 



NO. 51. TIM BUNKER ON BUYING A FARM. 



MR. EDITOR: Deacon Smith has just been in to talk 

 over the matter of buying a farm for his son David. You 

 see, I have lots of neighbors that come to me regularly for 

 advice, since I took to wilting for the papers. I expect I 

 have about as much business of this kind on my hands as 

 if I had advertised, &quot; TIMOTHY BUNKER, ESQ., CONSULTING 

 AGRICULTURIST.&quot; How that card would look in the pa 

 pers ! If a neighbor wants to buy a horse, I am expected 

 to tell him whether he is sound, just as if I could read his 

 in ards like a book. If another wants to sow wheat, he 

 seems to think it won t grow, until I have told what lot 

 to sow it on. I declare I believe some of them think wa 

 ter wont run in a tile, unless I have squinted along the 

 bore, and told them just how much fall they must have to 

 the 100 feet. 



You see, the farming business has not caved in yet, not 

 withstanding the hard times. A good many of the fac 

 tories have stopped, and some mechanics that have been 

 doing pretty well, are now idle. Nobody now wants to 

 buy a fine carriage, or to build a splendid house. People 

 who have money do not like to spend it for articles of lux 

 ury, and people who have got their living by making these 

 things, have been thrown out of employment. But the 

 oldest of all employments is yet a thriving business, though 

 the profits are not quite equal to what they have been. We 

 must have breastworks for the w;ir, and when the war is 

 over, there will still be a demand for the fortifications in 

 side. We buy and sell farms out here, and expect to for 

 some time to come. I rather think farming will be the 

 best business going for some years ahead. As a people, 

 we have been living altogether too fast, for the last twenty 



