THE BOOMERS AND THE BOOMEES 27 



as investing in land and making a fortune. This for- 

 tune, however, does not usually come the agricultural 

 way. You may acquire a piece of land where the future 

 city will stand ; you may get land at a cheap rate and 

 the development of tha country round about you will 

 rapidly increase its value ; coal oil or gas may be found 

 underneath, but these chances are much less common 

 now than formerly. Towns are pretty well located in 

 this country, railroad building is not very vigorously 

 pushed, new towns that amount to anything are rare; 

 and the man who places his hope of a fortune, when he 

 invests in land, in the development of a new town, is 

 hanging his future on a very fragile thread. 



My advice to intending investors is to keep carefully 

 away from investing in any boom advertised scheme. 

 I would not say that they are all bad, but I never yet 

 have seen an advertisement of a land scheme that wasn't 

 grossly exaggerated. All the things that make for dif- 

 ficulty and labor are concealed, while the possibilities of 

 income are enormously distorted to gigantic propor- 

 tions. The best place to invest is a place that you 

 know. Don't go so far from your base as to lose your 

 line of supplies. Better get a poor piece of land nearby 

 where you know the market and the people, than to 

 take the risk of a very fertile piece of the same size 

 three thousand miles off. If I am to make my living 

 on sand, I would rather get a field on Long Island than 

 to have a section of sand in Florida. Oranges and 

 apples come with tribulation and much labor. 



All is not gold that is yellow, and this is particularly 

 true of the citrus fruits. All is not silver that has a 

 sheen and this is particularly true of the gorgeously col- 

 ored apple. The stories of profit in agriculture should 

 be subjected to the corrections of rigid criticism. 



