INTRODUCTION 14 



One of the obstacles in the way of town 

 families going to the country is separation from 

 friends and going among strangers. Another 

 is the conscious ignorance of the work and a 

 sense of helplessness. These are real and valid 

 difl&culties. They are equivalent to the diffi- 

 culties besetting a German or Norwegian farmer 

 coming alone into an American community in 

 a new state. The hundreds of thousands of 

 European farmers who came to the states every 

 year from the forties to the end of the eighties 

 overcame this difficulty by organizing colonies 

 of friends and neighbors and settling in one 

 spot. They thus had society and they had the 

 benefit of their best leaders. Then their old 

 friends kept coming in smaller squads. This 

 is the way for town people to do. Find six 

 or ten or a dozen and go together. Even if all 

 are not relatives or friends they may be of the 

 same class or trade. 



To any such colony I will furnish the money 

 to pay for all the land they need and let them 

 begin paying the cost price of it at the end of 

 five years and finish in ten, with 4 per cent, 

 interest. They may pick the tract and bargain 

 for the price. Upon their showing that the 

 agreed number are ready to go and are able 

 to make the improvements and provide the 



