THE FARM AND FARM BUILDINGS. 483 



have them done ; forgetting that their own labor, thus spent, 

 might be more advantageously applied to better land. The tile 

 drainage of wet clays may be undertaken with more confidence, 

 because such soils when thoroughly drained are usually the 

 most profitable of all for cultivation ; still, in purchasing land of 

 this sort, we should calculate to pay out from $30 to $60 an 

 acre for draining tiles and labor, an expenditure which not 

 unfrequently comes back in two or three years, from the in- 

 creased production, while the improvement is permanent, and 

 often increases yearly for a long time, yet does not consume 

 capital. Be sure that the place is adapted to the sort of farm- 

 ing you mean to follow. Do not hope to raise the best fruit on 

 moist, cold land, exposed to the highest winds, nor to raise the 

 best grass on a ground that is too high and dry. If your soil 

 will require heavy manuring, and your system of farming will 

 not produce such manure, you should be near enough to a 

 town to haul out stable manure, or other fertilizers, without 

 too great cost. 



Bear in mind that the farm is to be your home. You are a 

 man, and your work is out of doors. If you have comfortable 

 lodgings and sufficient shelter, you may get on without being 

 made unhappy by a dismal house. But your wife and children 

 have equal claims to consideration, and you make a grave mis- 

 take if you compel them to live in an uncomfortable or cheerless 

 house, with no pleasant surroundings and no hope of having 

 them. Unhappily, a very large majority of farmers do make 

 this mistake, and they are rewarded for it by the promptness 

 with which their children run from the old homestead as soon 

 as their age and circumstances will allow it ; not always, it is 

 true, to better their condition, but always in the hope of a more 

 agreeable life. It will be better for agriculture in America, and 

 therefore better for America and for the world, when farmers' 

 children can find no pleasanter home than the place where they 

 were born, and when they realize the fact (for it is a fact), that 

 the life of a farmer may be as comfortable and as elegant as that 

 of a merchant or manufacturer. Buy a good farm, or one that 

 you can afford to make good, in a good situation, with schools, 

 churches, and society for your family, and you will have a good 

 prospect of a happy life. 



