L I li i: A :. . 



UN IV KIJSITY o 



rALIF<)U*NlA. 



CHAPTER I. 



BUYING A FARM, 



The very large class of men in America who are either leaving 

 other pursuits to establish themselves in the country, or who, 

 having been brought up on their fathers' farms, are about starting 

 for themselves, find the question of buying a farm to be, for the 

 time, the all-absorbing question of their lives j and it is very natu- 

 ral that it should be so, for the business is, emphatically, one of a 

 lifetime. 



Being, unfortunately, the occupier of leased land, which has 

 so much of another man's affection and interest invested in 

 it, that its purchase is impossible, I can rpeak with very cordial 

 earnestness on this point ; and I can all the more strongly urge 

 absolute ownership, as of all things almost the most desirable, be- 

 cause I daily feel the uncertainty and unsatisfactoriness of a lease- 

 hold tenure. 



So much of the man himself, so much of the daily sweat of his 

 face, so much of his hope, and of his anxiety, goes to the ground 

 that he tills ; so many of the assoQiations of his home, with its joys 

 and sorrows, are entwined around every tree and shrub in his door- 

 yard, that I can conceive for him no more dismal thought in life 

 than that, some day, he must pull himself up by the roots, and, 

 further on in his years, must take a fresh start, with all his inter- 

 est to cultivate anew. Apart from any question of economy or 

 of interest, I would strongly urge every man, who finds it possible 

 for him to do so, and who means to end his days on a farm, to 

 buy his land. Let the farm be smaller than he could hire, and 

 less convenient ; let him go in debt for it if he must, but I deem 



