124 
GARDENING AND FARMING FOR COLONISTS AND EMIGRANTS. 
THE CHOICE OF A FARM. 
As many persons will emigrate without 
securing a grant of land, and risk pleasing 
themselves when thej arrive out, by renting 
or buying on the spot, we have first to con- 
sider what is the best general rule for the 
choice of a site, because the emigrant had 
better by far pay double rent or double pur- 
chase money for a plot well placed, than have 
a bad one for nothing. 
There are some points very essential — first, 
proximity to a public road, or the means of 
forming a road easily ; secondly, a supply of 
water, or the means of procuring it ; thirdly, 
contiguity as near as may be to a populous 
place or a market, for on the facilities for 
disposal of produce does every thing turn. 
In vain would it be to have the most noble 
farm without a decent road to get at it at 
all seasons ; worthless too would be the most 
promising spot on the face of the globe, were 
there not water in abundance at all seasons, 
for man and beast would alike suffer from a 
scarcity of that fluid, and no profit could com- 
pensate for the risk of losing stock in the ab- 
sence of water. A fourth consideration is to 
be near a navigable river ; for water car- 
riage is much less expensive than carriage 
over the best of roads. A fifth consideration 
should be, tolerably level ground for a good 
. portion of the farm. The pasturage may be 
hill and dale, because for grazing it is imma- 
terial, so that it be fertile. 
It may be said that there is no temptation 
to emigrate without a grant of land, but this 
is a mistake ; a rental in any of the colonies 
is cheaper in proportion than any thing else ; 
and it arises from a practice pretty general 
with early colonists : they obtain large grants 
for the sake of being landed proprietors, and 
intend letting from the first. The rent of 
farms varies of course according to the facili- 
ties with which produce can be got rid of 
as well as got sold off, and the local advantage 
belonging to it. Many, who never intend 
occupying or cultivating the laud granted to 
them, and who probably never saw it, are 
glad of tenants at a very moderate rent ; and 
certain it is that some land would be more 
profitable to rent at five shillings per annum 
per acre, than the freehold of some other 
portions would be at a pound. In most cases 
proximity to a river is tolerable security for 
the fertility of the land. Avoid, if possible 
land which lies too low, and is naturally 
swampy. Nothing requires more labour 
than to make any quantity of swamp avail- 
able for anything ; a moderate portion may 
be appropriated, when all other features of 
"the ground are promising ; and indeed, to be 
near, and especially on the banks of, a river, 
is almost sure to involve the disadvantage of 
some wet, sloppy, and useless portion. The 
treatment of land under such disadvantages 
will be noticed in the proper place ; but we 
strongly recommend that no sacrifice be made 
before starting, for the purpose of obtaining that 
which may not be approved when seen on 
the spot. If a grant of land can be had easy, 
and at very little cost, it may be worth having; 
but if the capital be small, it would be inju- 
dicious to part with any portion for the sake 
of being landlord of uncultivated tracts, which 
may be of no earthly use, and which may 
remain so for many years, until the popula- 
tion spreads towards it. It is well to look 
out for land immediately on arrival, and to 
keep in view the advantages we have men- 
tioned in the search after a farm. There 
are plenty to let, at not unreasonable rentd, 
to good tenants ; many already cleared and 
in good order ; and we have given some few 
hints about the choice. It is better to turn 
labourer for other colonists, and be looking out 
while you are paid for labouring, than to begin 
farming on unprofitable land. 
In all cases, the expense of travelling must 
be taken into consideration, when the value of 
a farm, or the amount of rental are estimated, 
because this expense forms a reason why they 
should be lower. The land, sooner or later, 
suffers all the tax of travelling ; for the rental 
has to be lowered in proportion to a disad- 
vantage of that kind. If a farm of a hun- 
bred pounds per annum were on this side of a 
sixpenny toll-gate, and a similar farm in every 
respect were on the other, and the produce 
could only be brought to market through the 
toll-gate, the farm taxed with the toll would 
bear a lower rent. The vexatious incubus 
of tithes in England, much as tenant-farmers 
clamour against it, falls entirely on the land- 
lord in like manner ; for the tenant is in pre- 
cisely the same situation in both cases. Of two 
farms, in every respect of the same value, but 
one tithe- free and the other not so, one 
tenant pays 80/. per annum to the landlord, 
and 201. for tithe ; the other pays 100/. 
per annum to the landlord, because the farm 
is tithe free ; the difference in rent in all 
these cases being the amount paid in tithe, 
so that although the tenant really pays tithe, 
it is with the landlord's money. It is no- 
torious that a tithe-free farm bears always a 
higher rent by all that the tithe would 
amount to. Just so with farms in colonies; 
