Homesteading 



It is needless to trouble the kind reader with 

 elaborate profit and loss account and balance- 

 sheet; indeed, the pioneer farmer soon realizes 

 that the work he is engaged on is far too much 

 of a gamble for such an excellent practice as 

 drawing up these documents to aid him much. 

 Not that he should not take careful stock of his 

 position and put it down in figures as far as 

 possible. 



Speaking roughly, on the debit side of the 

 account must be placed two seasons of hard 

 work and the expenditure of about two hundred 

 pounds, or, say, a thousand dollars, while on the 

 credit side, in addition to our live-stock, consist- 

 ing of the two working oxen, we had Nancy 

 and her fine foal, our cow and calf, and our 

 implements, for which, however, we owed about 

 seventy dollars on notes. Then we had put in 

 about half the term needed to make our home- 

 steads freehold, though this did not mean that 

 when we had fulfilled the three years' duties and 

 got our deeds or patents, as they are called, we 

 could sell them for anything like their value. 

 Such a sale depends on a variety of circumstances, 

 liable to great fluctuations. It is true we might 

 raise a loan on that doubtful blessing, a mortgage, 

 with which to improve our farms. 



Finally, in considering our assets, there were 



290 



