BUYING A FARM,— OR LEASING I5 



that it be near one of the larger towns at the East, what are 

 the considerations which should decide us in the selection of the 

 farm ? 



First. — Avoid a malarious district. There is no* curse like fever 

 and ague, — which will bring more misery to a family than any 

 amount of prosperity can overcome, and of which there is far too 

 much both at the East and at the West. 



Second. — Choose a small farm, — small, that is, in proportion to 

 your capital. I think no man is wise who at the East goes in 

 debt for more than fifty acres. With plenty of capital, a farmer 

 of good executive ability can hardly have too much land. Any 

 one who has to work himself out of debt, mainly by the labor of 

 his own hands will find fifty acres better than more. His chances 

 will be better with ten acres than with a hundred. So far as one 

 man's work is concerned, especially with small means for the 

 purchase of stock, implements, and manure, the more it is con- 

 centrated, the better it will tell in the end, and fifty acres brought 

 to the highest state of cultivation of which the land is susceptible, 

 will produce more at much less cost than will a hundred acres 

 only half so well cultivated. 



Third. — Buy a farm that is very much run down and out of 

 repair, rather than a good farm with good improvements which 

 are not exactly what you will require, unless you can get the im- 

 provements for much less than it would cost you to replace them. 

 Better pay fifty dollars an acre for a place that fifty dollars more 

 will make exactly right, than a hundred dollars for a place that 

 never will be exactly right. 



Fourth. — Remember that to clear up swamps, build stone walls, 

 and dig out rocks and stumps costs much labor, and delays legit- 

 imate farm operations. Farmers are not apt to reckon these 

 things at their full cost, because they do not usually pay out 

 money to have them done — forgetting that their own labor, thus 

 spent, might be more advantageously applied to better land. The 

 tile drainage of wet clays may be undertaken with more con- 

 fidence, because such soils when thoroughly drained are usually 

 the most profitable of all for cultivation. Still, in purchasing 



