Ko. 4.] GOING WEST. 419 



of America, we must not forget that we do not possess all 

 the brains of the country. The great West has its share 

 of mental activity, as its wonderfully rapid development 

 testifies. 



It is useless for a farmer to ffo West unless he has con- 

 siderable capital. Everything, save fruit culture, is done 

 on so large a scale that much capital is required at the start. 

 And even for fruit culture you must have capital enough to 

 support you for several years until your trees and vines 

 reach the bearing age. Even if you have this capital, you 

 had better stay here with your friends and enjoy it. If you 

 cannot make farming pay here, you may be sure you cannot 

 there. If you want to be a pioneer and a martyr to the 

 development of agriculture and civilization, go West by 

 all means. You are just the man they want there. If you 

 want to buy government lands at a dollar and a quarter an 

 acre, five, ten or twenty miles from any habitation, and 

 live on them a few months, just long enough to meet the 

 requirements of the law, why go. But as soon as your 

 time is up you will be glad to return to your old New 

 England home, 



I rarely met a lady from New England in the agricultural 

 districts of the far West who was not j^earning to return 

 East. If married, you had better stay at home, for your 

 wife's sake as well as your own. There are plenty of farms 

 in New England waiting for young men who are up with 

 the times in improved methods of agriculture, men with 

 brains and energy enough to take advantage of the oppor- 

 tunities of the situation. To the man fitted for the business 

 of farming, and possessed of a genuine love for it, there 

 is money in it here, and as much if not more than on the 

 farms in the far West. 



