10 HANDY-BOOK OF HUSBANDRY. 



land of this sort we should calculate to pay out from thirty to 

 sixty dollars an acre for draining tiles and labor, — an expenditure 

 which not unfrequently comes back in two or three years, from 

 the increased production ; while the improvement is permanent, 

 and often increases yearly for a long time ; yet which does con- 

 sume capital. 



Fifth. — Be sure that the place is adapted to the sort of farm- 

 ing you mean to follow. Do not hope to raise the best fruit on 

 moist, cold land, exposed to the highest winds, nor to raise the 

 best grass on a ground that is too high and dry. If your soil 

 will require heavy manuring, and your system of farming will not 

 produce much manure, you should be near enough to a town to 

 haul out stable manure or other fertilizers without too great cost. 



Sixth. — I don't know but that this should follow next after the 

 question of health. Bear in mind the fact that the farm is to be 

 your home. You are a man and your work is out of doors. If 

 you have comfortable lodging, and sufficient shelter, you may get 

 on without being made unhappy by a dismal house. But your 

 wife and your children have equal claims to consideration, and 

 you make a grave mistake if you compel them to live in an 

 uncomfortable or cheerless house, with no pleasant surroundings, 

 and no hope of having them. 



Unhappily a very large majority of farmers do make this mis- 

 take, and they are rewarded for it by the promptness with which 

 their children run from the old roof-tree as soon as their age and 

 circumstances will allow it, not always, it is true, to better their 

 condition, but always in the hope of a more agreeable life. It 

 will be better for agriculture in America, and, therefore, better 

 for America and for the world, when farmers' children can find 

 no pleasanter place than the home where they were born and 

 when they realize the fact, (for it is a fact,) that the life of a 

 farmer may be as comfortable and as elegant as that of a mer- 

 chant or a manufacturer. Buy a good farm, — or one that you 

 can afford to make good, in a good situation, — with schools, 

 churches, and society for your family, and you will have a good 

 prospect of a happy life. 



