132 TOM'S EXPERIENCE 
plain: this would be made productive, while no in- 
come could possibly be realized from mine. 
There is no need of saying that it is very much 
better for the farmer to bring his land into cultiva- 
tion without making a loan if he can; but if he can- 
not, it will pay him to make a moderate loan to do it. 
HURRY UP THE BREAKING. 
I wish to urge strongly the importance of making 
the land productive as rapidly as possible, because I 
have seen in so many cases great carelessness in re- 
gard to this matter. Too many men with a rich 
quarter-section of land or more plod leisurely along, 
breaking but fifteen or twenty acres of sod each year 
when, by pushing things during the season for that 
work, they might easily break two or three times as 
much, and that without going into debt. Almost 
without exception my observation has been that the 
most prosperous farmers in Dakota are those who 
have brought their land rapidly into cultivation, even 
where they have been obliged to borrow some money 
to enable them to do it. Make every possible acre 
productive just as soon as it can be done, and then 
cultivate in the best possible manner, and success is 
as certain as anything in the future can be. 
STOCK-RAISING. 
There is another mistake to which I will here re- 
fer. It was that of declining the offer of my friend 
Bright to engage in the cattle business—he to fur- 
