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be taken all the discomforts and disadvantages of the change of 

 residence, in comparison with the familiar comforts and advantages 

 of a New England home. But it is idle to start the question of 

 comparative remuneration in the case. Here are three acres of 

 light and almost barren soil, and the question is, whether they 

 cannot be made productive and converted to some profitable use. 

 We cannot abandon them. The farms and homesteads of New 

 England cannot be deserted. We must adopt better methods of 

 cultivation, and make better use of light and unimproved lands. 

 We must renew and enlarge our forests, by a judicious planting 

 of different sorts of trees for fuel, building and the arts. We 

 must adorn and beautify spots now barren, with the growth they 

 are best capable of sustaining, and thus increase their capacity of 

 use to the generations that may succeed us here. In this way, 

 we may do much to lessen the inducements which are now carry- 

 ing so many of the young and active yeomanry away from their 

 homes. 



Besides, if we look closely at the mere profit of the investment, 

 in the case before us, we may be led to regard it in a very differ- 

 ent light. Here are three and a half acres of very light land, 

 worth perhaps, in their present condition, fifteen dollars per acre, 

 the interest and taxes of which would be, say (for we do not in- 

 tend an exact calculation,) one dollar. They are sown with rye 

 one year, and planted or pastured the next. But this cultivation, 

 it is stated, yields no greater return than would cover the cost. 

 They would remain, therefore, unprofitable acres unless converted 

 to some better use. They are now sown with seeds of the pine 

 tree. These germinate well and their growth is rapid ; and at 

 the period of twenty years we find these acres covered with a bur- 

 den of fifteen cords per acre of good merchantable wood, worth in 

 the market say one one hundred and twenty-five dollars ; and it 

 has cost nothing more than the planting and protecting of the trees. 

 But it will yield its owner an interest of more than thirty per 

 CENT, per annum on his original investment. No doubt we have 

 estimated the original value of the land above what its actual or 

 its market is worth. If so, there is of course an equally large ad- 

 dition to be made to the annual interest which the investment will 

 yield. May we not ask if, — all things considered, — the prairie 

 lands of the West are more to be desired in a pecuniary point of 



