THE ADVANTAGES FROM CAPITAL 99 



lizers, tools, implements, seed and all the appliances, 

 average $95, from Texas $45, from Illinois $70, from the 

 Norfolk district of Virginia the reports vary from $75 to 

 $125, according to location, and from Long Island, New York, 

 the average of estimates at the east end is $75, and at the 

 west end $150." 



I have before me now one of the roseate advertisements, 

 which we so often see in the newspapers, telling how fortunes 

 can be made by investing a few dollars in a tropical planta- 

 tion in Mexico. 



It gives what are supposed to be startling yields per acre, 

 and yet the returns, which must necessarily be taken with 

 considerable allowance, are only from $580 to $1087 per 

 acre on various plantations. 



There are market gardeners and nurserymen near New 

 York City who are making their acres produce better returns 

 than this. It is not necessary to go off into the tropical 

 wilderness seeking a fortune which is usually a gold brick 

 that some fellow is trying to sell you, when as good results 

 can be secured right at home. 



Market gardeners in and near Philadelphia pay $25 to 

 $50 an acre and upwards rent for land, and work from five 

 to forty acres. This is as much as similar land in many 

 parts of the country could be bought for. But it is not a 

 high rent when they are right at the market one man 

 makes the round trip in two and one half hours manure 

 costs them nothing for years they have been using the 

 excavations from the old style privy wells, which has been 

 hauled to their farm and deposited where they wished it, 

 free. They have modern facilities, such as trolley and tele- 

 phone, and are as much city men as any clerk in an office. 

 They clear far higher profits from an acre than the average 



