BUYING A FARM, — OR LEASING. H 



before you buy, and, having bought it, don't entertain the idea of 

 selling it, nor consider the money you invest in improvements in 

 the light of the selling value they will add to the farm, so much 

 as with reference to the annual return they will bring in conve- 

 nience, economy, or fertility. In short, consider your farm as a part 

 of yourself, and let it "grow with your growth, and strengthen 

 with your strength;" — you will find your yearly advantage in so 

 doing. 



Under all circumstances, make the purchase of a farm a matter 

 of the most careful study. Probably it is the only farm that you 

 will ever buy, and it will have very much to do with your pros- 

 perity and your happiness throughout your whole life. If you have 

 been bred a farmer you will be able to decide what you want, and 

 can form an opinion that will be more satisfactory (to yourself at 

 least) than any that you will get from books or from men. 



If you have passed your previous life in another occupation, 

 and now mean to make your living by farming, the best advice 

 that any one could give you would be to go and pass a whole year 

 with the best farmer you know. Become a regular "farm hand," 

 with an understanding that you are to be allowed to learn to do 

 all kinds of farm work. "Work away for dear life at his farm, 

 " and make him tell you all he knows. Fancy it is your money in- 

 " stead of his that buys every ton of manure he expends."* After 

 such an experience, and with the aid of what you can learn from 

 books, you will probably be able to judge for yourself, better than 

 any one else can judge for you, what sort of farm you want. 



It is a good plan, (for a man who has an opinion of his own,) to 

 ask the advice or opinion of others pretty freely, not that such 

 opinions are generally worth much, but they are often suggestive 

 of new points to be considered. 



I do not propose to say much in the way of advice on the 

 subject of farm buying. The variety of tastes to be suited, and 

 the variety of wants to be supplied, are about as numerous as the 

 men themselves who are seeking farms, and, while taste may be 

 in a great measure educated and modified, and while the real 



* Talpa. 



