HOW TO BUY THE FARM 21 



it, you can make the biggest wages by buying rough or neg- 

 lected land, and hewing it into shape. 



If you have a knowledge of soils, you may be able to find 

 land that will grow something that no one supposes it will 

 grow. This will be particularly useful in the case of land 

 thought to be valueless. The lands about Miles, Michigan, 

 were considered sterile until some one found out that they 

 would grow mint, a valuable crop, which made the land sal- 

 able at high prices. 



Get hold of a desirable bit of the earth. All that men 

 wear or eat or use; everything shelter, food, tools, and 

 toys comes from the land by labor. Even the capital used 

 to make more of those things is taken from the land. The 

 employer and the capitalist are, at bottom, only men who con- 

 trol the land or its products, who own rights of way, mining 

 rights, or the fee of valuable lands. Thousands have " made " 

 money by finding unexpected products in their land or of their 

 lands, oil, coal, mineral, plants; thousands more because 

 their land was needed by some one else, and they were paid 

 to get out of the way. 



To speculate on these chances is risky business; to keep 

 land that enables you to make good pay while you wait, is 

 profitable. 



