V. 



BUYING A FARM. 



No one need be told at this day that good land is 

 cheaper than poor that the former may be bought 

 at less cost than it can be made. Yet this, like 

 most truths, may be given undue emphasis. It 

 should be considered in the light of the less obvious 

 truth that Every farmer may make advantageous use 

 of SOME poor land. The smallest farm should have 

 its strip or belt of forest ; the larger should have an 

 abundance and variety of trees ; and sterile, stony 

 land grows many if not most trees thriftily. Even 

 at the risk of arousing "Western prejudice, I maintain 

 that New-England, and all broken, hilly, rocky 

 countries, have a decided advantage (abundantly 

 counterbalanced, no doubt) over regions of great fer- 

 tility and nearly uniform facility, in that human 

 stupidity and mole-eyed greed can never wholly di- 

 vest them of forests that their sterile crags and 



o 



steep acclivities must mainly be left to wood forever. 

 Avarice may strip them of their covering of to-day; 

 but, defying the plow and the spade, they cannot be 

 BO denuded that they will not be speedily reclothed 

 with trees and foliage. 



(34) 



