214 OUT-OF-TOWN PLACES. 



ments ? Not one in ten of those freshly smitten with 

 a desire to purchase a country residence can definitely 

 say. So much the more need of one who can intelli- 

 gently, by a few practical questions, interpret their 

 own wishes to the purchasers themselves and fathom 

 the full reach of their country longings. 



Cost and Returns of Fifty Acres. 



A FARM of fifty acres may be a large thing, or it 

 -- may be a small thing ; small, if remote, and 

 submitted only to the "hand to mouth" culture of 

 the average farm-holder ; but large, extravagantly, 

 if it be favorably placed, and be wrought to the 

 full measure of its capacity by the best appliances 

 of agricultural and horticultural art. Yet the appli- 

 cant at the city offices can form no idea of this dis- 

 tinction, nor will his queries in such a quarter put 

 him in the way of arriving at the just grounds of such 

 distinction. If, on the other hand, such applicant 

 (Mr. Urban, we will say,) were to address himself to 

 one of wide experience and observation in such 

 matters, he would probably say : " My dear sir, do 

 you wish a fifty acre farm, that shall return revenue ? 

 Do you wish it as a plaything, for which you will be 

 willing to pay as much annually as for your opera-box 

 and its attendant expenses ? Do you wish to engage 



