CHAPTER XII 



CAN WE MAKE IT PAY? 



WE come to this problem at last, and if we 

 cannot solve it in the affirmative this 

 whole business of making country homes 

 for everyone is out of the question. We have in- 

 volved more or less of a reply in several of the pre- 

 ceding chapters; what we want now is to get at 

 the dollars and cents. Land costs, experience costs, 

 trees and plants cost; one must feed and clothe his 

 family; coal bills and meat bills and taxes count in 

 the country as well as in the city. In addition to 

 our common needs, we must keep a horse and a 

 cow and some other domestic animals as cooperators 

 and their feed cannot be had for nothing. The 

 problem of health is not to be dodged, and wages 

 are double what they were forty years ago. 



Facing these difficulties I should not be willing to 

 invite into the country anyone who does not stand 

 a fair chance of overcoming them. I am going to 

 try to show you that the majority can do this and 

 so we shall find out that making a country home is 

 not only a matter of sentiment, but of economy. 



A letter from Chicago says, " I am willing to work 

 hard if I can just hear a brook all day and I would 



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