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 
difficulties. They are equivalent to the difh- 
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 
