BUYING A FARM, — OR LEASING. 13 



the social, educational, and commercial advantages make up for 

 the poorer quality of the soil. I assume that in either case the 

 consideration of health is the most important of all. 



The far West, with its newer and more fertile land, is very 

 tempting to one class of men, and the older-settled parts of the 

 country, with their older civilization and their more dense popula- 

 tion, have equal charms for another class. There is much to be said 

 in favor of both ; but as the broader culture, and more careless 

 feeding which is practiced on the larger farms of new countries, 

 requires less exact knowledge and less close economy than is in- 

 dispensable on higher-priced land, the objects of my book will 

 be best attained if I confine my attention to the requirements of 

 the more thorough system of agriculture that small farms make 

 necessary. These are based on universal principles, and the ex- 

 tent to which they may be, or must be, modified, as land grows 

 cheaper, farms larger, labor dearer, and produce less valuable, 

 must be decided by every man for himself. 



It is possible to keep fifty cows on a farm of fifty acres. 

 Whether it will pay to do so must be decided by the prices of 

 milk and of labor. It would pay to do it near New York City. 

 It certainly would not pay in Western Kansas. Still, a farmer in 

 Kansas could only be benefited by knowing how it may be profitably 

 done by the farmer in New York. 



While the settlement of wild lands is often a good thing for the 

 settler, and always a good thing for the country, I think tiiat it is 

 often undertaken under a very mistaken notion that it offers the 

 only chance for a man of small capital. 



Let us suppose a young man, just married, to have a cash 

 capital of $i,ooo, (and the same principles will hold good in the 

 case of a smaller or a much larger amount,) with which he pur- 

 poses to commence farming. He starts life with his own head 

 and hands, the head and hands of his wife, and his $i,ooo in 

 money. His object is to so use these advantages as to get out of 

 his life the greatest amount of good. The world lies before him 

 for a choice. He can buy — with a mortgage — five or ten acres 

 on the outskirts of a manufactuiing town at the East, or he can 



