40 An American Fruit-Farm 



without for a moment weighing the superior oppor- 

 tunities of New Zealand. Indeed, the instances 

 of scientific procedure in locating farm lands are 

 almost limited to capitalists who combine for 

 profit in the exploitation of a region, as a Texan 

 fruit-belt, or a wheat-belt in British Columbia; 

 rubber fields in Central America, or guano beds 

 on the Pacific islands. 



Ordinarily the man who buys a farm buys within 

 a region limited by his own associations. He buys 

 land which reflects himself. The farm is a landed 

 edition of himself. The so-called economics of 

 farming is essentially the psychology of the farmer. 

 He doubtless never thinks of himself as a psy- 

 chologist. His mind is his farm. The psychology 

 of farming may seem an obscure, not to say a rare 

 and uncertain crop, though it truly includes all 

 the labors of the farmer all the days of the year. 

 He may miss the moon at bean-planting, but he 

 cannot escape the psychology. Indeed, the psy- 

 chology of farming is the function of which the 

 farmer is unconscious his life long. But in select- 

 ing the site for his farm he responds to this func- 

 tion. No nice analysis of motives strains his 

 mind, when, rapidly casting his eye about him, he 

 resolves that the site suits him, or can be made 

 to suit. He desires himself in the site and so is 

 satisfied. 



When you have decided to purchase a farm [says Cato, 

 that rare old Roman farmer], be careful not to buy rashly; 

 do not spare your visits and be not content with a single 



