22 BULLETIN 425, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
milk, butter, eggs, meat, vegetables, and small fruit for home use and 
sells one or more of these products. On nearly every farm there is 
an abundance of firewood and plenty of good timber for fence posts. 
Lumber, stone, sand, and gravel needed hi the construction of farm 
buildings can usually be secured on the farm or in the immediate 
vicinity. As a rule the farmers of this district are very quick to rec- 
ognize the advantages to be secured by reducing the living and farm 
expenses to the minimum. 
COMMUNITY BREEDERS' ASSOCIATIONS. 
More and better live stock is needed on the farms of this district. 
There are already a number of wide-awake community live-stock 
organizations. They are accomplishing much that would be impos- 
sible to individuals working alone. Cooperative ownership of sires 
makes it possible to secure animals of a quality far beyond the reach 
of the individual farmer. More economical advertising, cooperative 
buying and selling, prevention and eradication of animal diseases, 
and the raising of standards due to education and competition, are 
a few of the advantages to be secured through community breeders' 
organizations. To improve the dairy herds of this district more 
cow-testing associations are greatly needed. A community desir- 
ing to take up work along any of these lines should communicate 
with the State agricultural colleges, with one of the substations within 
the district, or with the local county agricultural agent. 
SELECTING A FARM. 
Great care should be taken in selecting a farm in the cut-over 
district. The price of unimproved land, from which most of the 
valuable timber has been cut, usually varies from $5 to $25 per acre, 
depending on quality of soil, topography, and location. Improved 
farms, including buildings, are ordinarily held at prices ranging from 
$25 to $100 per acre. The range in price between the most desir- 
able and the least desirable undeveloped agricultural land is now a 
matter of only a few dollars. When the region becomes thickly 
settled and these lands are improved, the difference in value per 
acre will undoubtedly be much greater than the present difference 
in price. During this period the better soils should also yield larger 
net profits per acre. The prospective purchaser of farm land will, 
therefore, be amply repaid for time and expense of making careful 
investigation of soil, topography, drainage, water supply, amount of 
salable timber, cost of clearing, markets, schools, and social condi- 
tions. He should reserve a part of his capital to develop the farm 
and to support his family until he can get a fair acreage under culti- 
vation. 
