38 An American Fruit-Farm 



valuable for farming. Most purchasers must be 

 content with "second best" land, — with the less 

 or even the least valuable location. One must 

 come first, or command equivalent resources, would 

 he have the pick of the land. Every farm has its 

 price, and youth and cash are the best credit. 

 Land best located is a permanent asset and may 

 be sold at any time with slight risk of loss. In 

 ease and opportunity of transfer such land re- 

 sembles the most valuable personal property, such 

 as jewels and the precious metals. He who owns 

 the farm everybody wants owns the best farm. 

 The best located farm is, economically, the most 

 productive. Primacy of location is the supreme 

 advantage. Only the wise man discovers this. 

 He recognizes the possibilities of the site; he fore- 

 sees favoring changes, — ^markets, roads, trade, 

 commerce, associations. 



Or, indifferent to conveniences, the investor 

 ignores all demands save his own, subordinates 

 himself as a world-producer and selects a site 

 exclusively pleasing to himself. He deliberately 

 cuts himself off from relations which the world at 

 large demands. He locates in isolation, apart, 

 by himself, remote from men; beyond the whistle 

 of steamer or train; beyond trolleys and even be- 

 yond automobiles. He builds a retreat, a little 

 world of his own. His site, however delightful to 

 him, cannot be called other than exceptional. Few 

 shall ever desire it; it is not a commercial article. 

 His is the exception, not the rule, in locating a farm. 



