206 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



proved by the efforts of the many who are engaged in edu- 

 cational and other social movements, most of which result 

 in little net good to the wage-earners. 



Obstacles to small farming near large cities are that farms 

 of three to ten acres with buildings are not plentiful, and 

 that mortgage loans are hard to get in the East and loans 

 to help in building are hardly to be had at all. 



Land is either held intact as large farms or is sold entire 

 to speculators who hold it until it can be divided into city 

 lots. Here, it would seem, is an opportunity for those who 

 are interested in bettering the condition of their fellow men 

 by wholesale, and can invest large capital, but little time, in 

 the work. 



Let them buy up land in large acreages and cut it up into 

 small plots of from one to ten acres, charging enough ad- 

 vance to return interest on the money invested and to meet 

 the necessary expenses in such operation. Then make liberal 

 building loans to buyers. Inquiries among real estate men 

 show that they always have a larger demand for small acre- 

 age than they can meet, so an immediate market with 

 large profits would await those who are first in this field. 



There is no use in blaming people for not leaving the cities 

 to go to the farms; they don't know enough to go, they 

 don't know enough to make a living if they do go, and they 

 don't know enough to enjoy it. Besides this, they have not 

 the capital. We must teach them and help them. 



George H. Maxwell's Homecrofters' Guild at Watertown, 

 Mass., where boys are taught what to do with the earth and 

 how to do it, is worth whole shelves of books on "The Exodus 

 to the Cities" or the "Prosperity of the Settler." 



It is reported that the state of Texas offered six million 

 acres of land for sale to settlers, at one dollar per acre. It 



