212 THREE ACRES AND LIBERTY 



The effect of the agricultural colleges and experiment 

 stations is plain to the eye in the better appearance of farms 

 as we near the centers of instruction. 



Some years ago a clergyman published a book upon the 

 Adirondacks ; it was full of poetry, and he sent men up there 

 who afterwards became known as "Murray's Fools." They 

 knew nothing about the life and had no suitability and little 

 preparation for it. We do not wish to bring out a crop of 

 "Three Acres and Liberty Fools." We are telling what has 

 been done and what can be done again. It does not follow 

 that every man can or will do it, much less teach it or ad- 

 vance the art, but the field is a large one and holds out great 

 promise to those who persevere and excel in it. 



If any one thinks that the profit of the earth will come to 

 the cultivator without very intelligent and steady work, he 

 is mistaken. No owner of land, unless others require it to 

 live upon, can make money by neglecting it. 



Says Maxwell's Talisman: "The greatest good that can 

 be done to the American farmer to-day is to teach him to 

 make the greatest possible profit from the smallest tract of 

 land from which a family can be supported in comfort. A 

 great influence operating to-day against keeping the boys 

 in the country is that the boy does not have money enough 

 to buy a farm. It is unfortunately true that in some places 

 there is a trend in the direction of absorbing farms into still 

 larger farms with a consequent diminution of population, 

 as in Iowa and other sections. The remedy for this is to 

 demonstrate that if the value is in the boy rather than in the 

 farm, and the boy is taught intensive, diversified, scientific 

 farming, a good living with a surplus profit that will provide 

 amply for old age, may be made from a comparatively small 

 tract of land. The tract may be, say, ten acres, with ample 



