GIFT OF 
 
HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 AND 
 
 WHERE TO FIND ONE. 
 
 SHOWING THAT 
 
 HOMESTEADS MAY BE HAD BY THOSE DE 
 SIROUS OF SECURING THEM: 
 
 THE PUBLIC LAW ON THE SUBJECT OF FREE HOMES, 
 AND SUGGESTIONS FROM PRACTICAL FARMERS; 
 
 TOGETHER WITH 
 
 NUMEROUS SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCES OF OTHERS, WHO, THOUGH 
 BEGINNING WITH LITTLE OR NOTHING, HAYE BE 
 COME THE OWNERS OF AMPLE FAJLMS. 
 
 BY THE AUTHOR OF 
 
 "TEN ACRES ENOUGH." 
 
 31 tb gorfe: 
 PUBLISHED BY JAMES MILLEE, 
 
 (SUCCESSOR TO c. s. FRANCIS * co.) 
 522 BROADWAY. 
 1SG4. 
 
H? 
 
 Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864, 
 
 BY JAMES MILLER, 
 
 In the Clerk s Office of the District Court of the United States for 
 the Southern District of New York. 
 
 RENNIE, SHEA & LINDSAY, ANDERSON & KAMSAT, 
 
 STEKEOTYPKRS AND ELBCTBOTYPBRg "Mrfntrrf? 
 
 81, 83 & 85 Centre-street, IpUUieiS, 
 
 Njtw YoRK - 28 Frankfort Street, N. Y. 
 
 . : 
 
 >! . : 
 
 
 - : 
 
PREFACE 
 
 THE rich man needs no such work as this. His 
 ample purse will enable him to purchase land where- 
 ever his fancy may lead, paying for other men s im 
 provements, and lavishly expending his means on 
 new ones. He has his idols in common with the 
 poor man. The first thought of the former is to im 
 prove and embellish ; that of the latter is simply to 
 acquire. 
 
 The now wealthy man was at one time actuated 
 by a similar impulse. Henceforth his ambition is 
 to spend. As the poor are always with us, there is 
 a constantly existing crowd whose aspirations are 
 identical with those which he once entertained. 
 Many of them are equally deserving with their 
 successful predecessors. Many of them have no 
 thought of achieving fortune by commerce, trade, 
 or manufactures, or the national vice of office-seek 
 ing. Their attention is directed exclusively to agri 
 culture, and the acquisition of land. They have 
 either been brought up as farmers, or a passion has 
 been born with them to become such, or disappoint- 
 
 288117 
 
4 PREFACE. 
 
 ment elsewhere has turned their thoughts in the 
 same direction. 
 
 In all these cases, they are aiming for a common 
 goal the securing of a farm. Multitudes succeed 
 in their object, while other multitudes fail some 
 from ignorance, some from incurable incapacity, 
 others from misdirection. The man who digs for 
 gold at random will invariably become poor, while 
 he to whom the precise spot has been pointed out 
 wherein the precious deposit lies concealed, will, 
 with a fraction of the same industry, become rich. 
 To be successful in any thing, effort must be directed 
 by intelligence. Fortunes may be stumbled on oc 
 casionally, but stumbling will be found to be a very 
 precarious dependence. 
 
 So far as misdirection may be a cause of failure, 
 it can to some extent be avoided. My object is to 
 show how such result may be prevented, by suggest 
 ing practical methods for insuring success some 
 original, some derived from the ripe experience of 
 others. I write with no reference to mere land 
 speculation, such as induces men to purchase to-day 
 for the sole object of selling at a higher price to 
 morrow, the new buyer selling a week later to a 
 still newer one, while neither has, in the interval, 
 expended a dollar in improvements. I treat almost 
 exclusively of gradual increase of value, and only in 
 cidentally of sudden enhancement. Incidents of 
 
PKEFACE. 5 
 
 the latter do occur without the owner s having ever 
 contemplated them. While not to be disregarded 
 as incidentals, they are not adopted as primaries. 
 
 My effort has been to group together in the fol 
 lowing pages some of the many remarkable openings 
 for agricultural enterprise which exist in our country. 
 Wherever we turn they are to be found. The great 
 West has long abounded with them, and the South 
 will soon be equally prolific. The Middle States, 
 New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland, contain thou 
 sands of these openings, where cheap lands within 
 reach of cash markets have long been waiting for 
 purchasers. But they have remained comparatively 
 unknown to the agricultural public. The owners 
 have not prized them as they deserved to be, and 
 the speculators have overlooked them. The great 
 West has carried off the honors as well as the popu 
 lation. 
 
 It is believed that an acceptable service will be 
 rendered to inquirers, by bringing together, in a 
 single compact view, a description of these several 
 classes of openings. By thus having them in a 
 hand-book, they can be readily and conveniently ex 
 amined. Each inquirer can read and determine for 
 himself. The variety may be pronounced confusing. 
 ]STo other country offers a tithe of the inducements 
 that are held out to all classes in this. Wherever a 
 man may incline to settle, there some eligible open- 
 
6 PREFACE. 
 
 ing will be found to exist, no matter whether he con 
 templates engaging in agriculture or not. In en 
 deavoring to show all how to get a farm, it was 
 important to inform them where it might be had. 
 On both points they will here find abundant in 
 formation ; the action must be taken by them 
 selves. 
 
 An effort has been made to draw attention to 
 the great but unappreciated value of the numerous 
 tracts of swamp-lands which are to be found among 
 the centres of population in all the older States. 
 The subject might have been further elaborated by 
 suggesting the application of organized capital to 
 this enterprise on a large scale. It has been thus 
 organized and applied in Europe ; but our country 
 is probably too young, and land too abundant, for 
 an extensive undertaking of that character to be en 
 tertained. 
 
 Particular reference has been made to the vast 
 quantities of cheap lands for sale in the three States 
 of New Jersey, Delaware, and Maryland. The in 
 formation touching these lands and their produc 
 tions, has been derived, in some instances, from cor 
 respondents on the spot. In others, as in Delaware 
 and New Jersey, my account is mainly from per 
 sonal inspection. I could reach them conveniently, 
 and had the fullest opportunity for making a very 
 thorough examination. I conversed with many per- 
 
PREFACE. 7 
 
 sons who had settled there from other States, saw 
 their improvements, as well as their crops, and re 
 ceived candid replies to all inquiries as to how they 
 liked their new locations, and how they were suc 
 ceeding. The facts thus acquired are reported with 
 out suppression or exaggeration. 
 
 I have travelled over most of the Illinois Central 
 Railroad, and seen the astonishing improvements to 
 which that great enterprise has given birth. Euro 
 peans, in common with Americans, are familiar with 
 the wonderfully liberal terms on which the Com 
 pany are offering their fertile lands to actual settlers. 
 They have made thousands of industrious families 
 the possessors of noble homes, and will enable other 
 thousands to become equally independent. I have 
 given a connected history of the Company s lands, 
 with some items of information heretofore unpub 
 lished, which will be useful both to foreign and 
 domestic readers. 
 
 It is known that foreigners are now seeking this 
 country in larger numbers than for several years 
 past. This coming stream of immigration promises 
 to expand into greater volume than ever. Multi 
 tudes of these are ignorant of our true condition, 
 and need correct information. The majority are in 
 search of land. Even our own citizens are deplora 
 bly ignorant of where to find the most eligible, and 
 how to secure it. The facts contained in these 
 
8 PREFACE. 
 
 pages have been collated with, especial reference to 
 the wants of both these classes of inquirers. 
 
 Some pages, not mentioned as quotations from 
 other writers, may be recognized by the reader as 
 having already appeared in the columns of different 
 newspapers. All such were written by myself. 
 Where the labors of others in the same field of 
 inquiry have been used, the proper acknowledg 
 ment has been made. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Poverty no Hindrance Government Lands Free Farms 
 The Homestead Law Its Friends and Enemies Settlers 
 in "Wisconsin Germans in the Union Immigration A 
 Southern Homestead Law Continued Grants of Public 
 Land 13 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 Number of Free Farms Population, Present and Future 
 Increase of Public Wealth Past and Future Immigra 
 tion Gold Mines Farms Enough for All 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 What makes Land valuable Prices balancing each other 
 How poor Men pay for high-priced Farms A practical Il 
 lustration A Farm for the Right Man 52 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 More Opinions and Experiences Some Objections Addi 
 tional Light Encouraging the Young A personal His 
 tory Getting an Illinois Farm One Example Good 
 Suggestions Buying and going in Debt Value of the 
 
 Discussion 
 
 1* 
 
10 CONTENTS. 
 
 CHAPTER V. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Exhausted Farms always to be had Thriving Tenants 
 Owners anxious to sell Bartering Farms A lucky Begin 
 ner City Owners Taking Advice Where to search 
 Saving a poor Farm Struggling with limited Means A 
 Cry from a Working Man 103 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Wanting the Best The Poorer Lands first Cultivated, then 
 the Richer Ones Value of Swamps History of three of 
 them Cranberry Swamps of New Jersey Power of Ex 
 ample The Mississippi Swamp Interest Wealth follow 
 ing Reclamation Public Loans to aid Drainage John 
 Johnston, the Great American Tile Drainer 119 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Getting the first Thousand Dollars How to save Man 
 wants but little here below Actual Cost of Food Great 
 Successes A Dime a Day 163 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 The Long Island Barrens Their Condition, Pnce, and 
 Crops 190 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The neglected Lands of Delaware Repeopling the Slave 
 Region Condition, Soil, and Products Crops and Lum 
 ber Farms for Sale, and Prices Railroads Maryland 
 Farms . . . 205 
 
CONTENTS. 11 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Wild Lands of New Jersey Opening of the first Railroad 
 Rapid Improvements New Towns Harnmonton, Egg 
 Harbor City, Vineland, its history, condition, and future 
 The neighboring Lands 228 
 
 CHAPTER XL 
 
 The Wesk Illinois, and the Central Railroad Lands Cli 
 mate, Soil, and Productions Vine-growing in Missouri 
 Free Lands in the Territories . . . 253 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Land in the South Effect of Civil War on Titles Progress 
 and Results of Pacification Openings in Louisiana, South 
 Carolina, and Virginia Great demand for Labor Cotton- 
 growing Society after the War 271 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Many kinds of Farmers Women managing Farms Very 
 Small Ones Eleven Acres A Two-acre Farm The Spade 
 and the Fork A Single Acre Heads better than Hands 
 Help Yourself 302 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 Why Land so often changes Owners Tenures and Estates 
 in England Absorption there and here Results of En 
 glish Husbandry The real Value of Land Stick to the 
 Farm Scarecrows Why Farming is Unprofitable Go 
 where most wanted . . ... 318 
 
HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 AND 
 
 WHERE TO FIND ONE. 
 
 CHAPTER I. 
 
 Poverty no Hindrance Government Lands Free Farms The 
 Homestead Law Its Friends and Enemies Settlers in Wis 
 consin Germans in the Union Immigration A Southern 
 Homestead Law Continued Grants of Public Land. 
 
 THE buyer of a commodity seeks to purchase it 
 at the lowest price ; the seller, to dispose of it at the 
 highest. This is the unvarying law of trade. The 
 wealthy merchant acts up to it as closely as the 
 poor man whose whole capital is the shilling on 
 which he expects to dine and sup. It may be said, 
 indeed, that it is the successful practice of this rule 
 that constitutes the difference between the rich and 
 the poor. It breaks down the barrier between the 
 two, and elevates the latter to the condition of the 
 former ; for it is an accepted dogma of trade, that a 
 thing cheaply purchased is already half sold. 
 
 Apply it to the acquisition of land. The man 
 desirous of obtaining a farm seeks to obtain the 
 
HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 greatest number of acres for the smallest amount of 
 money. It is as much the governing principle of 
 the rich as of the poor. Common sense, sharpened 
 by long habit, teaches it to the former, but necessity 
 teaches it to the latter. But it happens that the 
 poor of this country cannot allege poverty as a bar 
 to the acquisition of as much land as one man 
 ought to possess. The vast public domain of the 
 Union has been thrown open for them to enter in 
 upon it as a gift. No such munificence has been 
 displayed by any other government, either ancient 
 or modern. When the Norman overran and con 
 quered England, the land was partitioned off among 
 those who assisted in the subjugation ; but the mere 
 poor man received no share because of his poverty. 
 In our own day, the boundless fields of Australia 
 and New Zealand are sold, not given away. This 
 government alone has enunciated the principle that 
 the poor man who desires to acquire land is entitled 
 to it without price. It seeks no money compensa 
 tion, but looks for remuneration to the growth and 
 prosperity of the nation consequent on the settle 
 ment and cultivation of its vast unoccupied domain. 
 The stranger from a foreign country, though he 
 neither fought for it nor has been taxed for it, comes 
 in an equal sharer with the native-born citizen. 
 
 Such lands would therefore seem to be cheaper 
 than all others, and hence the most to be sought 
 after. Price has no bearing upon them they are 
 to be given away. The causes of this unexampled 
 liberality, the men in whose comprehensive states 
 manship it originated, the opposition they encoun- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 15 
 
 tered in its advocacy, and the conditions on which 
 the great boon was finally wrung from its slavehold- 
 ing enemies, should be fully known and understood. 
 
 It will be seen hereafter how immense the public 
 domain yet is, even after the squandering of mil 
 lions of acres on speculators and monopolists, which 
 the last few years have witnessed. What disposition 
 was to be made of this vast domain, was a question 
 which long occupied the minds of thoughtful men, 
 and of all who had the best interests of society at 
 heart. Like most other questions in this country, it 
 degenerated ultimately into one of party. It was 
 clearly seen by one body of citizens that unless some 
 radical change were made in the law, the public 
 domain would continue to be the spoil of monopo 
 lists and speculators, the inevitable end of which 
 would be the creation of an odious landed aristoc 
 racy. To prevent an evil so dangerous to public 
 liberty, they determined that the only remedy was 
 to set it aside for the exclusive use of actual settlers, 
 in small quantities, giving it to them either at a 
 nominal price, or as an absolute gift. 
 
 The question was an exceedingly simple one, if to 
 be decided on its own merits. But no sooner had 
 the free-land policy been enunciated, than the slave- 
 power rose up in opposition. It was a measure in 
 the interest of freedom, and slavery could not tol 
 erate it. As the latter had for many years con 
 trolled the action of the government, so it was to 
 override it now. Being itself a huge landed aris 
 tocracy, it saw with instant alarm the prospect of a 
 multitude of small freeholds being established, 
 
16 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 knowing that in such a community an aristocracy 
 could not exist. It had uniformly been hostile to 
 pre-emption laws, and all others which tended to 
 aid the settler in acquiring a small tract of land, 
 and hence its bitter opposition to the free-soil scheme. 
 Such settlers would be working men, mostly from 
 the Free States, who would not only till the soil with 
 their own hands, but would build school-houses, 
 establish newspapers, and diffuse education. As no 
 such community of intelligent toilers was permitted 
 in the South, so should it be forbidden in the 
 West. 
 
 On the 20th of January, 1859, a bill relating to 
 pre-emptions being before the House of Represent 
 atives, Mr. Grow, of Pennsylvania, moved a section 
 that no public land should thereafter be exposed to 
 public sale by the President, unless it had been sur 
 veyed for ten or more years before such sale. The 
 force and effect of this provision would be to give 
 pre-emptors a start of ten years ahead of the spec 
 ulators, that is, settlers would have ten years in 
 which to choose, buy, or locate on the public lands 
 before they could be sold to the speculators thus 
 giving the poor and industrious man abundant time 
 to cle-ar up his farm and pay for it from the pro 
 ductions of the soil. 
 
 The slave-power wanted no such liberty extended 
 to the poor man. It therefore sought to defeat the 
 bill; but Mr. Grow s amendment was adopted by a 
 vote of 98 to 81. 
 
 The Republican vote was unanimous in its favor, 
 and the entire slave-power voted against it, nine 
 
WHERE TO FIND ONE. 17 
 
 only excepted. Mr. Grow s amendment thus became 
 part of the bill ; but when the vote on the bill itself 
 came to be taken, 91 Republicans voted for it, while 
 the whole body of slaveholders, with their Xorthern 
 allies, 95 in number, went against it. Only two 
 members from the Slave States voted for the bill, 
 Mr. Blair, of Missouri, and Mr. "Winter Davis of 
 Maryland, who represented the free-labor interests 
 of Baltimore. 
 
 In February, the Homestead Bill was voted on in 
 the House, and was passed by 120 to 76, only three 
 Southern members voting for it. The bill was killed 
 in the Senate by smothering it, all but five of the 
 Southern Senators going against it. It was then 
 abandoned for the session. In both Houses of Con 
 gress the Republicans had gone solid for it, while 
 the slaveholders and their allies had so unanimously 
 opposed it as to insure its defeat. 
 
 In I860, another Homestead Bill was introduced 
 into the House by the Republicans, and was passed 
 by 115, all from the Free States but one, to 65 against 
 it, all from the Slave States but one, and he a 
 Pennsylvania!!. When this bill went into the 
 Senate, it was superseded by a substitute, which the 
 House subsequently accepted, with slight amend 
 ments, the Republicans as usual voting for free 
 homes, and the slaveholders and their allies opposing 
 them. This took place in June. But Buchanan, 
 then President, and the feeble and truculent tool of 
 the slaveholders, vetoed the beneficent enactment, 
 and once more it fell to the ground. 
 
 But undismayed by these reverses, the friends of 
 
18 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 the bill persevered in their determination to provide 
 free homes for the poor ; and overcoming all oppo 
 sition, passed the present law, which Mr. Lincoln, 
 on the 20th of May, 1862, did not hesitate to sign. 
 The provisions of this act are as follow : 
 
 AN ACT to Secure Homesteads to Actual Settlers on the Public 
 Domain, and to Provide a Bounty for Soldiers in lieu of Grants 
 of the Public lands. 
 
 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives 
 of the United States of America in Congress assembled : 
 That any person who is the head of a family, or who has 
 arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of 
 the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of 
 intention to become such, as required by the naturalization 
 laws of the United States, and who has never borne arms 
 against the United States Government, or given aid and 
 comfort to its enemies, shall, from and after the 1st of 
 January, 1863, be entitled to enter one quarter section, or 
 a less quantity, of unappropriated public lands, upon which 
 said person may have filed a pre-emption claim, or which 
 may, at the time the application is made, be subject to pre 
 emption at $1.25, or less, per acre; or eighty acres or less 
 of such unappropriated lands, at $2.50 per acre, to be lo 
 cated in a body, in conformity to the legal subdivisions of 
 the public lands, and after the same shall have been sur 
 veyed : Provided, That any person owning and residing on 
 land may, under the provisions of this act, enter other land 
 lying contiguous to his or her said land, which shall not, 
 with the land so already owned and occupied, exceed in the 
 aggregate 100 acres. 
 
 SECTION 2. And be it further enacted, That the person 
 applying for the benefit of this act shall, upon application 
 to the Register of the Land-office in which he or she is 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 19 
 
 about to make such entry, make affidavit before the said 
 Register or Receiver that he or she is the head of a family, 
 or is twenty-one years or mere of age, or shall have per 
 formed service in the army of the United States, and that 
 he has never borne arms against the Government of the 
 United States, or given aid and comfort to its enemies, and 
 that such application is made for his or her exclusive use 
 and benefit, and that said entry is made for the purpose of 
 actual settlement and cultivation, and not either directly or 
 indirectly for the use or benefit of any other person or per 
 sons whomsoever ; and upon filing the said affidavit with 
 the Register or Receiver, and on payment of $10, he or she 
 shall thereupon be permitted to enter the quantity of land 
 specified : Prodded, however. That no certificate shall be 
 given or patent issued therefor until the expiration of five 
 years from the date of such entry ; and if, at the expiration 
 of such time, or at any time within two years thereafter, 
 the person making such entry or if he be dead, his widow ; 
 or, in case of her death, his heirs or devisee ; or, in case of 
 a widow making such entry, her heirs or devisee, in case of 
 her death shall prove by two credible witnesses that he, 
 she, or they have resided upon or cultivated the same for 
 the term of five years immediately succeeding the time of 
 filing the affidavit aforesaid, and shall make affidavit that 
 no part of said land has been alienated, and that he has 
 borne true allegiance to the Government of the United States 
 then, in such case, he, she, or they, if at that time a citizen 
 of the United States, shall be entitled to a patent, as in 
 other cases provided for by law : And provided further^ 
 That in case of the death of both father and mother, leav 
 ing an infant child, or children, under twenty-one years 
 of age, the right and fee shall enure to the benefit of said 
 infant child or children ; and the executor, administrator, 
 or guardian may, at any time within two years after the 
 
20 HOW TO GET A FAEM, 
 
 death of tlie surviving parent, and in accordance with the 
 laws of the State in which such children for the time being 
 have their domicil, sell said land for the benefit of said in 
 fants, but for no other purpose ; and the purchaser shall 
 acquire the absolute title by the purchase, and be entitled 
 to a patent from the United States, on payment of the 
 office fees and sum of money herein specified. 
 
 SEC. 3. And be it further enacted, That the Register of 
 the Land-office shall note all such applications on the tract 
 books and plats of his office, and keep a register of all such 
 entries, and make return thereof to the General Land-office, 
 together with the proof upon which they have been 
 founded. 
 
 SEC. 4. And be it further enacted, That no lands acquired 
 under the provisions of this act shall in any event become 
 liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted 
 prior to the issuing of the patent therefor. 
 
 SEC. 5. And be it further enacted, That if, at any time 
 after the filing of the affidavit, as required in the second sec 
 tion of this act, and before the expiration of the five years 
 aforesaid, it shall be proven, after due notice to the settler, 
 to the satisfaction of the Register of the Land-office, that 
 the person having filed such affidavit shall have actually 
 changed his or her residence, or abandoned the said land, 
 or shall have ceased to occupy said land for more than six 
 months at any time, then and in that event the land so 
 entered shall revert to the government. 
 
 SEC. 6. And be it further enacted, That no individual 
 shall be permitted to acquire title to more than one quarter 
 section under the provisions of this act; and that the Com 
 missioner of the General Land-office is hereby required to 
 prepare and issue such rules and regulations, consistent 
 with this act, as shall be necessary and proper to carry its 
 provisions into effect ; and that the Registers and Receivers 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 21 
 
 of the several land-offices shall be entitled to receive the 
 same compensation for any lands entered under the pro 
 visions of this act that they are now entitled to receive 
 when the same quality of land is entered with money, one- 
 half to be paid by the person making the application at 
 the time of so doing, and the other half on the issue of the 
 certificate by the person to whom it may be issued ; but 
 this shall not be construed to enlarge the maximum of com 
 pensation now prescribed by law for any Register or Re 
 ceiver : Provided, That nothing contained in this act shall 
 be so construed as to impair or interfere in any manner 
 whatever with existing pre-emption rights : And provided, 
 further, That all persons who may have filed their ap 
 plications for a pre-emption right prior to the passage of 
 this act shall be entitled to all privileges of this act. Pro 
 vided further, That no person who has serv 7 ed, or may here 
 after serve, for a period of not less than 14 days in the 
 army or navy of the United States, either regular or vol 
 unteer, under the laws thereof, during the existence of an 
 actual war, domestic or foreign, shall be deprived of the 
 benefits of this act on account of not, having attained the 
 age of 21 years. 
 
 SEC. 7. And be it further enacted, That the fifth section 
 of the act entitled "An act in addition to an act more 
 effectually to provide for the punishment of certain crimes 
 against the United States, and for other purposes," approved 
 the 3d of March, in the year 1857, shall extend to all oaths, 
 affirmations, and affidavits, required or authorized by this 
 act. 
 
 SEC. 8. And be it further enacted, That nothing in this 
 act shall be so construed as to prevent any person who has 
 availed him or herself of the benefit of the first section of 
 this act, from paying the minimum price, or the price to 
 which the same may have graduated, for the quantity of 
 
22 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 land so entered at any time before the expiration of the five 
 years, and obtaining a patent therefor from the Government, 
 as in other cases provided by law, on making proof of 
 settlement and cultivation as provided by existing laws 
 granting pre-emption rights. 
 
 Here is land for almost nothing. A quarter sec 
 tion is a hundred and sixty acres. The whole cost 
 of obtaining such a farm is the ten dollars to be 
 paid to the Receiver of the Land-office in which 
 the farm may be located. On payment of this sum 
 he enters into immediate possession, and after re 
 maining five years upon it, he receives a patent 
 from the government, which is equivalent to a deed 
 in fee. 
 
 It may be supposed that this cheap way of getting 
 a farm would occasion an instantaneous rush from 
 East to West, to secure locations on the public do 
 main, as well as an enormous influx of European 
 immigrants. The act did not go into effect until 
 January 1, 1863 ; yet, within four months from that 
 date, notwithstanding the troubled state of the coun 
 try, more than a million of acres were taken up 
 under its provisions, and, by the close of September, 
 this amount was increased to nearly a million and 
 a half. But the great bulk of enterprising and ad 
 venturous Americans have either been drawn into 
 the army or been too much occupied at home by 
 the pressure of business forced upon them by the 
 brisk demand for manufactures, occasioned by the 
 war, to undertake the founding of a new home in 
 the "West. Neither of these classes has been at full 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 23 
 
 liberty to embrace the provisions of this beneficent 
 act. Neither, until very recently, have Europeans 
 been well enough informed of our actual condition 
 during the rebellion, to feel themselves safe in ven- 
 
 O / 
 
 turing among us, even for the purpose of securing 
 the magnificent gift which Government holds out 
 for their acceptance. 
 
 They have been led by rebel emissaries to believe 
 our whole Northern and Western country to be the 
 scene of battle, with desolation everywhere, and 
 safety nowhere. The same dishonest agencies have 
 been employed in leading them to believe that for 
 eigners were conscripted at the moment of their 
 landing among us. As men avoid rather than seek 
 tumult, so, from these causes, the foreigner has been 
 content to remain at home. But when the country 
 shall have become entirely at peace, and when the 
 provisions of the Homestead Law shall be thoroughly 
 known in Europe, we may look with confidence for a 
 revival of the vast stream of immigration which, a 
 few years since, was seen pouring into our country. 
 
 What this influx has already done for us may be 
 learned by looking at the single State of Wisconsin. 
 The Legislature of that State found it necessary, in) 
 1864:, to order the Governor s message to be printed! 
 in eight different languages English, German, Nor-J 
 wegian, Irish, Welsh, Holland, French, and Bohe/ 
 mian. " The North American* remarks, on this 
 singular spectacle, that, in Wisconsin, " the old vig 
 orous Teutonic stock is thus largely represented. 
 The sons of the Jarls and Yikings ; the descendants 
 of Eric and Hengist ; the riders of the sea, and for 
 
24 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 many generations its rulers a brave, thrifty, intelli 
 gent, and economical people are building up the 
 Northwest with a rapidity which is most wonderful, 
 and with a strength of basis which cannot be toppled 
 over. .They have contributed nobly to the nation 
 in putting down the rebellion. They will contribute 
 even more largely to its future welfare. They draw 
 to them, by the irresistible magnetism of prosperity 
 and happiness, hundreds of thousands who enjoy 
 little of either at home ; they assimilate readily with 
 our interests and institutions. Let them continue to 
 come. ~No long period will elapse, nor many gen 
 erations pass to the great majority, before they will 
 be bone of our bone and flesh of our flesh wedded 
 into our great unity : an element of new strength, a 
 means of more lasting national coherence and vigor. 
 They are of the pillars which support the power of 
 the present and give promise to the future." 
 
 It was the cheap Government lands which drew 
 to us all this mixed population of Wisconsin, as well 
 as the overshadowing immigration from Germany. 
 The still cheaper lands that can now be secured, will 
 bring them hither in even greater numbers. The 
 census of 1860 shows how powerful has been the 
 attraction of cheap farms. The percentage of na- v 
 tive Germans in this country at that period was as 
 follows : 
 
 Wisconsin 15 . 97 California 7.10 
 
 Indiana 14.94! New York 6.G1 
 
 Minnesota 10.59 Maryland 6.; 
 
 Illinois 7.65 
 
 Iowa . . .5.71 
 
 Missouri 7 . 50 I Michigan 5 18 
 
 Ohio 7. 19 I New Jersey 5 03 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 25 
 
 Pennsylvania 4. 74 Rhode Island 0.47 
 
 District Columbia, ... 4 . 33 South Carolina, . 38 
 
 Kansas 4.03 Tennessee 0.35 
 
 Louisiana 3 . 48 Florida .34 
 
 Texas 3.40 Alabama 0.27 
 
 Kentucky 2 36 Arkansas 0.26 
 
 Oregon 2 . 00 Mississippi . 25 
 
 The Territories 1 .86 Georgia 0.23 
 
 Connecticut 1 . 85 New Hampsliire 013 
 
 Delaware 1 . 13 North Carolina . 08 
 
 Massachusetts . 81 Vermont . 07 
 
 Virginia 0.66 Maine 0.06 
 
 The total foreign-born population of the Union 
 was 4,136,175, or 13.15 per cent, of the aggregate 
 population. The English formed 1.37 per cent., the 
 Irish 5.12, the Germans 4.1-4. The number of the 
 natives of Germany was 1,301,136. The number of 
 Germans (including their children born in this coun 
 try) was four millions. 
 
 When this volume was ready for the press, the 
 settlement of the public lands, under the provisions 
 of the Homestead Law, was rapidly increasing. 
 Some portions of Europe had already been made 
 acquainted with our true condition, by means of in 
 telligent agents sent there to circulate facts and in 
 formation ; while the subsequent movement in Con 
 gress in -aid of immigration, attracted general atten 
 tion abroad. Early in 1864, England and Ireland 
 began to throw off their swarms of adventurers. 
 In April, the American Consul at Liverpool wrote 
 to Mr. Seward, as follows : 
 
 " Emigration may be said never to have been so active 
 as it is now. It is quite unprecedented. For the past two 
 months all the emigrant vessels from Liverpool to the States, 
 both with steam and sails, have taken emigrants to their 
 
-O HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 utmost capacity. At the present time there are not half 
 enough ships to carry those who want to go. I called this 
 morning on two or three of the leading shipping houses to 
 ascertain the true state of the business, and will briefly de 
 tail what I learned. Imnan s steamers the Liverpool, 
 New York, and Philadelphia line told me that every pas 
 sage on all their steamers up to the 18th of May next, is 
 now engaged, and one-half of those of the steamers to sail 
 after this period up to the 1st of June. Guion & Co., and 
 C. Grimshaw & Co., two other large houses, told me that 
 all the passages on their respective vessels to sail between 
 now and the 1st day of June next, are already taken, and 
 that they are turning off people every day for want of ac 
 commodations ; that they are so pressed that they do not 
 know what to do. They have not half vessels enough, and 
 cannot procure them to carry the passengers that want to go. 
 What they say will apply with equal force to all the other 
 shippers at this port. A large proportion of the emigrants 
 have had their passage paid in the States. These have a 
 preference. They have raised the price of their tickets for 
 passage, within the last few weeks, at least a third higher than 
 they were. All the vessels sailing are filled with passengers, 
 and the only way emigration can now be increased, so far as 
 England and Ireland are concerned, is to increase the means 
 of transportation. One of the houses told me this morning 
 that they could send out fifty thousand emigrants in two 
 months if they had the ships to carry them." 
 
 Here, then, is one way to get a farm. It is, be 
 yond all question, the cheapest, surest, and most 
 expeditious of any that can be suggested. It may 
 also be the least laborious ; but whether it is the 
 most desirable in the end, each aspirant must de 
 termine for himself. It will suit many, but cannot 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 1:7 
 
 be expected to suit all. To the strong and hardy, 
 such as are accustomed to rough work and humble 
 fare, it will probably be the easiest method. It 
 must be so to thousands, or they would not so read 
 ily embrace it. How such a farm may be put in 
 shape, and what it may be expected to produce, 
 will be indicated in a future chapter. 
 
 Of this Homestead Law, Mr. Julian, of Indiana, 
 thus speaks in his eloquent argument on the bill to 
 extend its provisions to the soldiers : 
 
 "Its enactment was a long delayed bat magnificent 
 triumph of freedom and free labor over the slave- power. 
 While that power ruled the Government its success was im 
 possible. By recognizing the dignity of labor and the equal 
 rights of the million, it threatened the very life of the oli 
 garchy which had so long stood in its way. The slave 
 holders understood this perfectly ; and hence they resisted 
 it, reinforced by their Northern allies, with all the zeal and 
 desperation with which they resisted abolitionism itself! Its 
 final success is among the blessed compensations of the 
 bloody conflict in which we are plunged. This policy takes 
 for granted the notorious fact that our public lands have 
 practically ceased to be a source of revenue. It recognizes 
 the evils of land monopoly on the public domain, as well as 
 in the old States, and looks to its settlement and improve 
 ment as the true aim and highest good of the Republic. It 
 r.s, as iniquitous, the principle which would tax our 
 landless poor men a dollar and a quarter per acre for the 
 privilege of cultivating the earth ; for the privilege of mak 
 ing it a subject of taxation, a source of national revenue, 
 and a home for themselves and their little ones. It assumes, 
 to use the words of General Jackson, that 4 the wealth and 
 
28 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 strength of a country are its population, and that * the best 
 part of that population are the cultivators of the soil. This 
 bold and heroic statesman urged this policy thirty-two years 
 ago ; and had it then been adopted, coupled with adequate 
 guards against the greed of speculators, millions of landless 
 men, who have since gone down to their graves in the 
 weary conflict with poverty and hardship, would have been 
 cheered and blest with independent homes on the public 
 domain. Wealth incalculable, quarried from the mountains 
 and wrung from the forests and prairies of the West, would 
 have poured into the Federal coffers. The question of 
 slavery in our national territories would have found a peace 
 ful solution in the steady advance and sure empire of free 
 labor, whilst slavery, in its strongholds, girdled by free in 
 stitutions, might have been content to die a natural death, 
 instead of ending its godless career in an infernal leap at, the 
 nation s throat." 
 
 In the following extract Mr. Julian foreshadows 
 the establishment of another vast land monopoly in 
 the South, or rather the substitution of Dew monop 
 olists in place of the slaveholders, unless the opera 
 tion of the Homestead Law is extended to the rebel 
 States : 
 
 " We shall certainly win ; and our triumph will inevitably 
 divest the title to a vast body of land in the rebel States, and 
 place it under our control. I think it entirely safe to con 
 clude that it will constitute more than half, and probably 
 three-fourths, of all the cultivated lands in the rebellious 
 districts. It will certainly, in any event, cover many mil 
 lions of acres. It will include all lands against which pro 
 ceedings in rem, shall be instituted, under the provisions of 
 the act to suppress insurrections, and to punish treason and 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 29 
 
 rebellion, approved July 17th, 1862; all lands which may 
 be sold under the provisions of the act for the collection of 
 direct taxes in insurrectionary districts, approved June 7th, 
 1862; and all lands which may be sold under the provi 
 sions of the act to provide internal revenue to support the 
 Government, approved July 1st of the same year. 
 
 " What shall be done with these immense estates, brought 
 within our power by the acts of rebels ? One or two poli 
 cies, radically antagonistic, must be accepted. They must 
 be allowed to fall into the hands of speculators, and become 
 the basis of new and frightful monopolies, or they must be 
 placed under the jurisdiction of the Government, in trust 
 for the people. The alternative is now presented, and 
 presses upon us for a speedy decision. Under the laws of 
 Congress now in force, unchecked by counter legislation, 
 these lands will be purchased and monopolized by men who 
 care far more for their own mercenary gains than for the 
 real progress and glory of our country. Instead of being 
 parcelled out into small homesteads, to be tilled by their 
 own independent owners, they will be bought in large 
 tracts, and thus not only deprive the great mass of landless 
 laborers of the opportunity of acquiring homes, but place 
 them at the mercy of the lords of the soil. The old order 
 of things will be swept away, but a new order, scarcely less 
 to be deplored, will succeed. In place of the slaveholding 
 landowner of the South, lording it over hundreds of slaves 
 and thousands of acres, we shall have the grasping monop 
 olist of the North, whose dominion over the freedman and 
 poor whites will be more galling than slavery itself, which 
 in some degree tempers its despotism through the interest 
 of the tyrant in the health and welfare of his victims. The 
 maxim of the slaveholder that capital should own labor, will 
 be as frightfully exemplified under the system of wages 
 
30 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 slavery, the child of land monopoly, as under the system of 
 chattel slavery, which has so long scourged the Southern 
 States. What we should demand is, a policy that will 
 guarantee homes to the loyal millions who need them, and 
 thus guard their most precious rights and interests against 
 the remorseless exactions of capital and the pitiless rapacity 
 of avarice." 
 
 The reading of a law so comprehensive as this 
 will naturally induce a belief that, so far as the pub 
 lic domain is concerned, it is a final settlement of 
 an angry question. But, unfortunately, this is riot 
 the fact. Mr. Julian says the overthrow of the 
 Homestead Law is already threatened, both directly 
 and indirectly. " Since the date of its passage," he 
 says, " Congress has granted nearly 7,000,000 of acres 
 for the benefit of agricultural colleges, and about 
 20,000,000 to aid in the construction of railroads. 
 There are now pending before Congress (March 18, 
 1864), bills making other grants for railroads 
 amounting to nearly 70,000,000 of acres. "We have 
 a project before us which grants nearly 7,000,000 
 of acres for the education of the children of soldiers ; 
 another, granting 200,000 acres in Michigan for the 
 establishment of female colleges, which, of course, 
 would be extended to the other States ; and anoth 
 er, granting 10,000,000 of acres for the establishing 
 of normal schools for young ladies. Every day 
 witnesses the birth of new projects, by which our 
 public lands may be frittered away, and the benefi 
 cent policy of the Homestead Law mutilated and 
 destroyed." 
 
AXD WHERE TO FIND OXE. 31 
 
 Here are grants, perfected and in embryo, which 
 embrace nearly 115,000,000 of acres of the lands 
 which had been consecrated to free homes. Yast 
 as is the quantity, the remainder is still large 
 enough, as will be seen hereafter, for many millions 
 of families. 
 
32 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 CHAPTER H , 
 
 Number of Free Farms Population, Present and Future In 
 crease of Public Wealth. Past and Future Immigration Gold 
 Mines Farms Enough for All. 
 
 IT is known that when land could be obtained 
 from Government at $1.25 per acre, the demand was 
 very active, both from settlers and speculators. As 
 the same description of lands are hereafter to be 
 given away, many persons will presume that they 
 will be rapidly absorbed by claimants. But there 
 are two potent causes to prevent such result first, 
 the obligation to occupy the land for five years be 
 fore any title whatever can be acquired, and secondly, 
 the enormous quantity to be distributed. The fol 
 lowing remarkable statistics on this subject are given 
 by Mr. Samuel B. Ruggles, in his late report to the 
 International Statistical Congress : 
 
 " The territorial area of the United States at the peace 
 of 1783, then bounded west by the Mississippi river, was 
 820,680 square miles, about four times that of France, 
 which is stated to be 20*7,145, exclusive of Algeria. The 
 purchase from France of Louisiana, in 1804, added to this 
 area 899,680 square miles. Purchases from Spain, and from 
 Mexico, and the Oregon treaty with England, added the 
 further quantity of 1,215,907 square miles; making the 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 33 
 
 total present territory at 2,936,166 square miles, or 
 1,879,146,240 acres. 
 
 " Of this immense area, possessing a great variety of 
 climate and culture, so large a portion is fertile that it has 
 been steadily absorbed by the rapidly increased population. 
 In May, 1863, there remained undisposed of, belonging to 
 the Government of the United States, 964,901,625 acres. 
 
 " To prevent any confusion of boundaries, the lands are 
 carefully surveyed and allotted by the Government, and are 
 then granted gratuitously to actual settlers, or sold for prices 
 not exceeding $1.25 per acre to purchasers other than 
 settlers. It appears by the report of the Commissioner of 
 the General Land-office, that the quantity surveyed and 
 ready for sale in September, 1862, was 135,142,999 acres. 
 The report also states, that the recent discoveries of rich 
 and extensive gold fields in some of the unsurveyed por 
 tions, are rapidly filling the interior with a population 
 whose necessities require the speedy survey and disposition 
 of large additional tracts. The immediate survey is not, 
 however, of vital importance, as the first occupant practi 
 cally gains the pre-emptive claim to the land after the sur 
 vey is completed. The cardinal, the great continental fact, 
 so to speak, is this : that the whole of this vast body of 
 land is freely open to gratuitous occupation, without delay 
 or difficulty of any kind." 
 
 All these lands will necessarily rise in value as 
 settlements are scattered through them. Our pop 
 ulation is increasing with a rapidity not witnessed 
 in any other ^country, and it is notorious that it is 
 population which gives value to land. In 1860, we 
 had 31,455,080 inhabitants, of whom -4,4:41,766 were 
 colored, and of these, 3,953,760 were slaves. Hence 
 forth they may be counted as freemen. The increase 
 
 2* 
 
34 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 of population since the establishment of the govern 
 ment has been as follows, as given by Mr. Haggles : 
 
 1790 3,929,827, 
 
 1800 5,305,937, increase 35.02 per cent. 
 
 1810 7,239,814, increase 36.45 per cent. 
 
 1820 9,638,191, increase 33.13 per cent. 
 
 1830 12,866,020, increase 33.49 per cent. 
 
 1840 17,069,453, increase 32.67 per cent. 
 
 1850 23,191,876, increase 35.87 per cent. 
 
 1860 31,445,080, increase 35.59 per cent. 
 
 "This rate of progress, especially since 1820, is owing in 
 part to immigration from foreign countries. 
 "There arrived, in 10 years, 
 
 From 1820 to 1830 244,490 
 
 From 1830 to 1840 552,000 
 
 From 1840 to 1850 1,558,300 
 
 From 1850 to 1860 2,707,624 
 
 Total 5,062,414 
 
 " Being a yearly average of 126,560 for the last 40 years, 
 and 270,762 for the last ten years." 
 
 The rebellion checked the tide of foreign immi 
 gration ; but in 1863 it again commenced setting 
 towards our shores. Mr. Ruggles says : 
 
 "The records of the Commissioners of Emigration of 
 New York show that the arrivals at that port alone have 
 been, for 
 
 From From Total, including 
 
 Ger mally . ^ 
 
 1861 27,754 27,159 65,529 
 
 1862 32,217 27,740 76,306 
 
 1863, up to Aug. 20, 7| mos. . . 64,465 18,724 about 98,000 
 
 "The proportions of the whole number of 5,062,414 ar 
 riving from foreign countries in the forty years from 1820 
 to 1860, were as follows : 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 35 
 
 From Ireland 967,366 
 
 From England 302,665 
 
 From Scotland 47,800 
 
 From Wales 7,935 
 
 From Great Britain and Ireland 1,425,0182,750,784 
 
 From Germany 1,546,976 
 
 From Sweden 36,129 
 
 From Denmark and Norway 5,5401,588,145 
 
 From France 208,063 
 
 From Italy 11,302 
 
 From Switzerland 37,732 
 
 From Spain 16,245 
 
 From British America 117,142 
 
 From China (in California almost exclusively) 41,443 
 
 From all other countries, or unknown 291,558 723,485 
 
 Total 5,062,414 
 
 " It is not ascertainable how many have returned to for 
 eign countries, but they probably do not exceed a million. 
 If the present partial check to immigration should con 
 tinue, though it is hardly probable, the number of immi 
 grants for the decade ending in 1870 may possibly be re 
 duced from 2,707,624 to 1,500,000. 
 
 " The ascertained average increase of the whole 
 population in the seven decades from 1790 to 1860, which 
 is very nearly 33^ per cent., or one- third for each decade, 
 would carry the present numbers (31,445,080) 
 
 By the year 1870, to 41,926,750 
 
 From which deduct for the possible diminution of ) i OQ7 6 9 4 
 immigrants, as above j " 
 
 There would remain 40,719,126 
 
 "Mr. Kennedy, the experienced Superintendent of the 
 census, in the Compend published in 1862, at page 7, esti 
 mates the population of 1870 at 42,318,432, and of 1880, 
 at 56,450,241. The rate of progress of the population of 
 the United States has much exceeded that of any of the 
 European nations. The experienced statisticians in the 
 
36 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 present Congress can readily furnish the figures precisely 
 showing the comparative rate. 
 The population of France was, in 
 
 1801 27,349,003 
 
 1821 30,461,875 
 
 1831 32,569,223 
 
 1841 34,230,178 
 
 1851 35,283,170 
 
 1861 37,472,132 
 
 "Being about 37 per cent, in the 60 years. It does not 
 include Algeria, which has a European population of 
 192,746. 
 
 "The population of Prussia has increased since 1816, as 
 follows : 
 
 1816 10,319,993 
 
 1822 11,664,133 
 
 1834 13,038,970 
 
 1849 16,296,483 
 
 1858 17,672,609 
 
 1861.- 18,491,220 
 
 1840 14,928,503 
 
 "Being at the rate of 79 per cent, in 45 years. 
 " The population of England and Wales was, in 
 
 1801 9,156,171 
 
 1811 10,454,529 
 
 1821 12,172,664 
 
 1831 14,051,986 
 
 1841 16,035,198 
 
 1851 18,054,170 
 
 1861 20,227,746 
 
 "Showing an increase of 121 per cent, in 60 years, 
 against an increase in the United States in 60 years, of 
 593 per cent. 
 
 "The natural and inevitable result of this great increase 
 of population, enjoying an ample supply of fertile land, is 
 seen in a corresponding advance in the material wealth of 
 the people of the United States. For the purpose of State 
 taxation, the values of their real and personal property are 
 yearly assessed by officers appointed by the States. The 
 assessment does not include large amounts of property held 
 by religious, educational, charitable, and other associations, 
 exempted by law from taxation, nor any public property of 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 37 
 
 any description. In actual practice, the real property is 
 rarely assessed for more than two-thirds of its cash value, 
 while large amounts of personal property, being easily con 
 cealed, escape assessment altogether. 
 
 " The assessed value of that portion of property which is 
 thus actually taxed increased as follows: In 1791 (esti 
 mated), $750,000,000 ; 1816 (estimated), $1,800,000,000; 
 1850 (official valuation), $7,135,780,228 ; 1860 (official val 
 uation), $16,159,616,068, showing an increase in the last 
 decade alone of $9,023,835,840. 
 
 " A question has been raised, in some quarters, as to the 
 correctness of these valuations of 1850 and 1860, in em 
 bracing in the valuation of 1850, $961,000,000, and in the 
 valuation of 1860, $1,936,000,000, as the assessed value of 
 slaves, insisting that black men are persons and not prop 
 erty, and should be regarded, like other men, only as pro 
 ducers and consumers. If this view of the subject should 
 be admitted, the valuation of 1850 would be reduced to 
 $6,174,780,000, and that of 1860, to $14,223,618,068, leav 
 ing the increase in the decade $8,848,825,840. 
 
 "The advance, even if reduced to $8,048,825,840, is suf 
 ficiently large to require the most attentive examination. 
 It is an increase of property over the valuation of 1850, of 
 130 per cent, while the increase of population in the same 
 decade was but 35.99 per cent. In seeking for the cause 
 of this discrepancy, we shall reach a fundamental and all- 
 important fact, which will furnish the key to the past and 
 to the future progress of the United States. It is the power 
 they possess, by means of canals and railways, to practi 
 cally abolish the distance between the seaboard and the 
 wide-spread and fertile regions of the interior, thereby re 
 moving the clog on their agricultural industry, and virtually 
 placing them side by side with the communities on the 
 Atlantic. During the decade ending in 1860, the sum of 
 
38 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 $413,541,510 was expended within the limits of the interior 
 central group known as the * food-exporting States, in con 
 structing 11,212 miles of railway to connect them with 
 the seaboard. The traffic receipts from those roads were : 
 In 1860, $31,335,031; in 1861, $35,305,509; in 1862, 
 $44,908,405. 
 
 " The saving to the communities themselves in the trans 
 portation, for which they thus paid $44,908,405, was at 
 least five times that amount ; while the increase in the ex 
 ports from that portion of the Union greatly animated not 
 only the commerce of the Atlantic States, carrying those 
 exports over their railways to the seaboard, but the manu 
 facturing industry of the Eastern States, that exchange the 
 fabrics of their workshops for the food of the interior. 
 
 "By carefully analyzing the $8,048,825,840 in question, 
 we find that the six manufacturing States of New England 
 received $735,754,244 of the amount; that the middle At 
 lantic, or carrying and commercial States, from New York 
 to Maryland, inclusive, received $1,834,911,579; and that 
 the food-producing interior itself, embracing the eight great 
 States of Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin, Min 
 nesota, Iowa, and Missouri, received $2,810,000,000. This 
 very large accession of wealth to this single group of States is 
 sufficiently important to be stated more in detail. The group, 
 taken as a whole, extends from the western boundaries of 
 New York and Pennsylvania to the Missouri river, through 
 14 degrees of longitude, and from the Ohio river north to 
 the British dominions, through 12 degrees of latitude. It 
 embraces an area of 441,167 square miles, or 282,134,688 
 acres, nearly all of which is arable and exceedingly fertile, 
 much of it in prairie and ready at once for the plough. 
 There may be a small portion, adjacent to Lake Superior, 
 unfit for cultivation, but it is abundantly compensated by 
 its rich deposits of copper and of iron of the best quality. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 39 
 
 " Into this immense natural garden, in a salubrious and 
 desirable portion of the temperate zone, the swelling stream 
 of population, from the older Atlantic States and from Eu 
 rope, had steadily flowed during the last decade, increas 
 ing its previous population from 5,403,595 to 8,957,690 ; an 
 accession of 3,554,095 inhabitants, gained by the peaceful 
 conquest of nature, fully equal to the population of Silesia," 
 which cost Frederick the Great the seven years war, and ex 
 ceeding that of Scotland, the subject of struggle for centuries. 
 
 " The rapid influx of population into this group of States 
 increased the quantity of the * improved land, thereby mean 
 ing farms more or less cultivated, within their limits, from 
 26,680,361 acres, in 1850, to 51,826,395, in 1860; but 
 leaving a residue, yet to be improved, of 230,308,293 acres. 
 The area of 25,146,054 acres, thus taken in ten years from 
 the prairie and the forest, is equal to seven-eighths of the 
 arable area of England, stated by its political economists to 
 be 28,000,000 of acres. 
 
 " The area embraced in the residue will permit a similar 
 operation to be repeated eight times successively, plainly de 
 monstrating the capacity of this group of States to expand 
 their present population of 8,957,690, to at least 30,000,000, 
 if not 40,000,000 of inhabitants, without inconvenience. 
 
 " The effects of this influx of population in increasing the 
 pecuniary wealth as well as the agricultural products of the 
 States in question, are signally manifest in the census. The 
 assessed value of their real and personal property ascended 
 from $1,116,000,000, in 1850, to $3,926,000,000, in 1860, 
 showing a clear increase of 82,810,000,000. We can best 
 measure this rapid and enormous accession of wealth, by 
 comparing it with an object which all nations value the 
 commercial marine. The commercial tonnage of the Uni 
 ted States, in 1840, was, 2,180,764 tons ; in 1850, 3,535,454 
 tons; in 1860, 5,358,808 tons. 
 
40 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 "At $50 per ton, which is a full estimate, the whole pe 
 cuniary value of the 5,358,808 tons, embracing all our com 
 mercial fleets on the oceans, and the lakes, and the rivers, 
 numbering nearly thirty thousand vessels, would be but 
 $267,940,000 ; whereas the increase in the pecuniary value 
 of the States under consideration, in each year of the last 
 decade, was $281,000,000. Five years increase would pur 
 chase every commercial vessel in the Christian world. 
 
 " But the census discloses another very important feature, 
 in respect to these interior States, of far higher interest to 
 the statisticians, and especially to the statesmen of Europe, 
 than any which has yet been noticed, in their vast and rap 
 idly increasing capacity to supply food, both vegetable and 
 animal, cheaply and abundantly, to the increasing millions 
 of the Old World. In the last decade their cereal products 
 increased from 309,950,295 bushels, to 558,160,323 bush 
 els, considerably exceeding the whole cereal product of 
 England, and nearly if not quite equal to that of France. 
 In the same period the swine, who play a very important 
 part in consuming the large surplus of Indian corn, in 
 creased in number from 8,536,182 to 11,039,352, and the 
 cattle from 4,373,712, to 7,204,810. Thanks to steam and 
 the railway, the herds of cattle who feed on the meadows 
 of the Upper Mississippi are now carried in four days, 
 through eighteen degrees of longitude, to the slaughter 
 houses on the Atlantic. 
 
 " It is difficult to furnish any visible or adequate meas 
 ure for a mass of cereals so enormous as 558,000,000 of 
 bushels. About one-fifth of the whole descends the chain 
 of lakes, on which 1,300 vessels are constantly employed in 
 the season of navigation. About one-seventh of the whole 
 finds its way to the ocean through the Erie canal, which 
 has already been once enlarged for the purpose of passing 
 vessels of two hundred tons, and is now under survey by the 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 4:1 
 
 State of New York for a second enlargement, to pass ves 
 sels of five hundred tons. The vessels called canal boats, 
 now navigating the canal, exceed five thousand in number, 
 and if placed in a line, would be more than eighty miles in 
 length. 
 
 "The barrels of wheat and flour alone, carried by the 
 canal to the Hudson river, were, in 1842, 1,146,292; in 
 1852, 3,937,366; in 1862, 7,516,397. 
 
 A similar enlargement is also proposed for the canal 
 connecting Lake Michigan with the Mississippi river. When 
 both the works are completed, a barrel of flour can be car 
 ried from St. Louis to New York, nearly half across the 
 continent, for fifty cents ; or a ton, from the Iron Mountain 
 of Missouri, for $5. The moderate portion of the cereals 
 that descends the lakes, if placed in barrels of five bushels 
 each, and side by side, would form a line of five thousand 
 miles long. The whole crop, if placed in barrels, would en 
 circle the globe. Such is its present magnitude. We leave 
 it to statistical science to discern and fully estimate the fu 
 ture. One result is, at all events, apparent. A general 
 famine is now impossible; for America, if necessary, can 
 feed Europe for centuries to come. Let the statesman 
 and philanthropist ponder well the magnitude of the fact, 
 and all its far-reaching consequences political, social, and 
 moral in the increased industry, the increased happiness, 
 and the assured peace of the world. 
 
 " The great metalliferous region of the American Union 
 is found between the Missouri river and the Pacific Ocean. 
 This grand division of the Republic embraces little more 
 than half of its whole continental breadth. Portland, in 
 Maine, is the meridian 70 west from Greenwich ; Leaven- 
 worth, on the Missouri river, in 95 ; and San Francisco, on 
 the Pacific, in 123. By these continental landmarks, the 
 western or metalliferous section is found to embrace 28, and 
 
42 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 the eastern division between the Missouri and the Atlantic, 
 at Portland, 25 of our total territorial breadth of 53 of 
 longitude. 
 
 " It has been the principal work and office of the Amer 
 ican people, since the foundation of their government, to 
 carry the machinery of civilization westward" from the At 
 lantic to the Missouri, the great confluent of the Mississippi. 
 So far as the means of rapid intercommunication are con 
 cerned, the work may be said to be accomplished, for a 
 locomotive engine can now run without interruption from 
 Portland to the Missouri, striking it at St. Joseph, just be 
 low the fortieth parallel of latitude. In the twenty years 
 preceding 1860, a network of railways 31,196 miles in 
 length was constructed, having the terminus of the most 
 western link on the Missouri river. The total cost was 
 $1,151,560,829, of which $850,900,681 was expended in 
 the decade between 1850 and 1860. The American Gov 
 ernment and people had become aware of the great pecuni 
 ary, commercial, and political results of connecting the 
 ocean with the food-producing interior by adequate steam 
 communications. But the higher and more difficult problem 
 was then presented of repeating the effort on a scale still 
 more grand and continental ; of winning victories still more 
 arduous over nature ; of encountering and subduing the 
 massive mountain ranges interposed by the prolongation of 
 the Cordilleras of our sister continent through the centre of 
 North America, rising, even at their lowest points of de 
 pression, far above the highest peaks of the Atlantic States. 
 
 " The Government, feeling the vital, national importance 
 of closely connecting the States of the Atlantic and of the 
 Mississippi with the Pacific with all practicable dispatch, 
 has vigorously exerted its power. On the 1st of July, 1862, 
 nearly fifteen months after the outbreak of the existing in 
 surrection, and notwithstanding the necessity of calling into 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 43 
 
 the field more than half a million of men to enforce the na 
 tional authority, Congress passed an act for incorporating 
 * The Union Pacific Railway Company, and appropriated 
 $66,000,000 in the bonds of the United States, with large 
 grants of land, to aid the work, directing it to be commenced 
 at the 100th meridian of longitude, but with four branches 
 extending to the Missouri river. The necessary surveys 
 across the mountain ranges are now in active progress, and 
 the construction of the eastern division, leading westward 
 from the mouth of the Kansas river, or the Missouri, has 
 actually commenced. The whole of that division, including 
 that part of the line west of the 100th meridian to the foot 
 of the Rocky Mountains, is on a nearly level plain, and is 
 singularly easy of construction. Its western end will strike 
 the most prominent point of the auriferous regions in the 
 Territory of Colorado, where the annual product of gold, as 
 stated ia the official message of the Territorial governor, is 
 from $5,000,000 to $10,000,000. The gold is there ex 
 tracted by crushing-machines from the quartz, in which it is 
 found extensively distributed, needing only the railway from 
 Missouri to cheaply carry the necessary miners, with their 
 machinery and supplies. The distance to that point will be 
 about six hundred and fifty miles, which will be passed in 
 twenty-eight hours. When completed, as it easily may be, 
 within the next three years, it will open the way for such 
 an exodus of miners as the country has not seen since the 
 first discoveries in California, to which the American peo 
 ple rushed with such avidity, many of them circumnaviga 
 ting Cape Horn to reach the scene of attraction. 
 
 " Meanwhile a corresponding movement has commenced 
 on the Pacific, in vigorously prosecuting the construction 
 of the railway eastward from the coast at or near San Fran - 
 cisco, which will cross the Sierra Nevada at an elevation of 
 about 7,000 feet, on the eastern line of California, in the 
 
44: HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 120th parallel of longitude, and there descend into the 
 territory of Nevada, at the rich silver mines of Washoe. 
 
 " It is not yet possible to estimate with any accuracy the 
 extent of these deposits of gold and silver, but they are al 
 ready known to exist at very numerous localities in and be 
 tween the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada, not to 
 mention the rich quartz- mining regions in California itself, 
 which continue to pour out their volumes of gold to affect, 
 whether for good or ill, the financial condition of the civil 
 ized world. During the last six months gold has been ob 
 tained in such quantities, from the sands of the Snake river 
 and other confluents of the Columbia river, as to attract 
 more than 20,000 persons to that remote portion of our 
 metalliferous interior. The products of those streams alone 
 for the present year are estimated at $20,000,000. 
 
 "The Commissioner of the General Land-office, in his 
 official report of the 29th December, 1862, states as follows : 
 
 " The great auriferous region of the United States, in 
 the western portion of the Continent, stretches from the 
 49th degree of north latitude and Puget Sound, to the 
 30 30 parallel, and from the 102d degree of longitude 
 west of Greenwich, to the Pacific Ocean, embracing por 
 tions of Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, all of New Mexico, 
 with Arizona, Utah, Nevada, California, Oregon, and Wash 
 ington Territories. It may be designated as comprising 17 
 degrees of latitude, or a breadth of 1,100 miles from north 
 to south, and of nearly equal longitudinal extension, making 
 an area of more than a million square miles. 
 
 " This vast region is traversed from north to south, first, 
 on tlie Pacific side, by the Sierra Nevada and Cascade 
 Mountains, then by the Blue and Humboldt ; on the east, 
 by the double ranges of the Rocky Mountains, embracing 
 the Wahsatch and Wind River chain, and the Sierra Madre, 
 stretching longitudinally and in lateral spurs, crossed and 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 45 
 
 linked together by intervening ridges, connecting the whole 
 system by five principal ranges, dividing the country into 
 an equal number of basins, each being nearly surrounded 
 by mountains and watered by mountain streams and snows, 
 thereby interspersing this immense territory with bodies of 
 agricultural lands equal to the support not only of miners, 
 but of a dense population. 
 
 " * These mountains, he continues, 4 are literally stocked 
 with minerals ; gold and silver being interspersed in pro 
 fusion over this immense surface, and daily brought to light 
 by new discoveries. In addition to the deposits of gold 
 and silver, various sections of the whole region are rich in 
 precious stones, marble, gypsum, salt, tin, quicksilver, as- 
 phaltum, coal, iron, copper, lead, mineral and medicinal, 
 thermal and cold springs and streams. 
 
 " The yield of the precious metals alone of this region 
 will not fall below one hundred millions of dollars the pres 
 ent year, and it will augment with the increase of popula 
 tion for centuries to ^corne. Within ten years the annual 
 product of these mines will reach two hundred millions of 
 dollars in the precious metals, and in coal, iron, tin, lead, 
 quicksilver, and copper, half that sum. He proposes to 
 subject these minerals to a government tax of eight per cent., 
 and counts upon a revenue from this source of $25,000,000 
 per annum almost immediately, and upon a proportionate 
 increase in the future. He adds, that i with an amount of 
 labor relatively equal to that expended in California applied 
 to the gold fields already known to exist outside of that 
 State, the production of this year, including that of Cali 
 fornia, would exceed four hundred millions. In a word, 
 says he, the value of these mines is absolutely incalcu 
 lable. " 
 
 The foregoing facts and deductions set forth not 
 
46 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 only the inexhaustible quantity of land now freely 
 open to all who choose to occupy it, but refer to its 
 variety of character as adapted to suit the diversi 
 fied wishes of the many who seek to acquire farms. 
 The farmer can be accommodated with woodland or 
 prairie, the lumberman or mechanic with densely 
 wooded forest, the miller or manufacturer with 
 mill-sites, the miner with either silver, gold, or 
 coal. 
 
 The quantity is without limit, and the uses to 
 which it may be profitably applied are so numerous 
 that the most fastidious applicant may be supplied 
 with what he wishes. Millions of families may thus 
 obtain farms before the quantity now open for se 
 lection can be appropriated. It will require cen 
 turies to fill it up. Hence those either here or 
 abroad, who learn for the first time that farms may 
 be had on the simple condition of living on them 
 for five years, may entertain no fear that a sudden 
 absorption will deprive them of the opportunity of 
 obtaining one. It is the monopolists and specula 
 tors who are repudiated, not the actual settler. 
 
 How this national liberality is to affect the value 
 of land generally, may be inferred from what has 
 followed the abolition of serfdom in Russia. That 
 great measure threw open millions of acres to the 
 occupancy and ownership of a people who had here 
 tofore only tilled them for the benefit of a master. 
 The privilege of obtaining land, even by paying for 
 it, revolutioned the feelings and industry of the en 
 tire mass. Emancipation was completely triumphant 
 in every respect. All the forebodings of the re- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 4:7 
 
 actionaries have been disappointed. A recent 
 traveller says : 
 
 " There has been no bloodshed, no excess, no social dis 
 order, no decline of industry. Twenty-three millions of 
 people have been raised at once from the degradation of 
 chattelism to the dignity of freemen, by the fiat of one 
 man, in the space of two years, in the face of a most formi 
 dable opposition of nearly the whole Russian nobility. The 
 bitterest opponents now admit that as the operation had to 
 be performed some time, it was well to do it at once. In 
 tellectual and social energies which had been frozen up for 
 centuries, are set free ; the peasantry are a promising race 
 of people, and they know how to appreciate the boon of 
 liberty. Among the first financial results is the general rise 
 in the price of land all through Russia, at least a million of 
 serfs having already purchased the land which they formerly 
 cultivated for a master. The Government systematically 
 loans money for this object, and all the money which was 
 formerly hidden in earthen pots is brought out and invested 
 in land. Every peasant feels a new incentive to industry 
 and economy, that he may be able to buy land. More 
 houses are now built in a year than used to be built in half 
 a dozen years. The new wants of the people give a sur 
 prising impulse to trade. The nobility, who used to spend 
 their incomes in Paris or in Germany, are coming to live 
 on their estates, and spend their lives in seeking to promote 
 the improvement of the people. The appraised value of 
 property in the kingdom is already enhanced almost beyond 
 computation. 
 
 " The educational and religious efforts are equally signal. 
 Already eight thousand schools have sprung into existence 
 among the peasants, by their own efforts, aided by friends, 
 the Government having no hand in it. Two years ago such 
 
4:8 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 a thing as a day-school among the peasantry was hardly 
 known. There is great anxiety to be able to read the laws, 
 as well as to read the Scriptures. To meet a pressing de 
 mand, the Church authorities have published the Russian 
 New Testament at the low price of sixpence a copy. 
 
 " The changes which have already been made in the mu 
 nicipal arrangements of the country are equally wonderful. 
 Within the last two years the cities of Moscow and St. 
 Petersburg have for the first time had mayors elected by 
 the citizens. In the peasant villages, the chief is elected 
 by the people, and all measures are debated and settled in 
 village meetings the training-schools of freedom, as every 
 philosophical observer considers our American town-meet 
 ings. An honorary local magistracy has been created all 
 over the empire, of men of character and standing, who can 
 execute justice between man and man, repress crime, and 
 protect the weak against the strong." 
 
 The benefits to be conferred on this country by 
 the Homestead Law are strikingly illustrated by the 
 events of the slaveholders rebellion. It has been 
 seen that cheap lands have induced a vast immigra 
 tion, and that by help of this immigration the re 
 public has sprung, in a single lifetime, to the status 
 of a powerful nation. Of the whole number of ar 
 rivals, ninety-five per cent, have settled in the Free 
 States, and only five per cent, in the Slave States. 
 An anonymous essayist presents the following views 
 in relation to this part of the question : 
 
 " It is from the armies, raised from the former and their 
 descendants, that the Government has been mainly enabled 
 to overcome the rebellion. They gave to the nation its 
 magnitude, and that magnitude alone has saved us from 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 49 
 
 foreign intervention. Had the bloody ordeal fallen on 
 us when possessed of but one-tenth of our present popula 
 tion, there can be little question that the intense hostility 
 with which we are regarded by the ruling classes in the 
 nations of Western Europe, would have dictated armed in 
 tervention, the forcible opening of the blockade, and, finally, 
 the dismemberment of the Republic. If the magnitude of 
 our resources and the numbers of our armies appalled our 
 enemies, both at home and abroad, it must be borne in mind 
 that these were but results made possible by our vast popu 
 lation." 
 
 " Our foes shrank from a contest with a nation which, 
 even in the midst of an unexampled rebellion, was still able 
 to pour its armies into the field by the million, and to sus 
 tain the Government by an incalculable store of riches. 
 Our vast northern and western population has saved it from 
 overthrow. If, with this great preponderance of numbers, 
 we have found it so difficult to overcome rebellion, it will 
 be at once perceived, that, if our population had been no 
 greater than that of the South, the task of suppressing it 
 would have been a sheer impossibility. Instead of literally 
 overrunning the South, and crushing it beneath the mere 
 weight of numbers, we should have found ourselves engaged 
 in a war ruinously protracted, the end of which, in all hu 
 man probability, would have been a destruction of the Re 
 public." 
 
 Tims all that is dear to us as a united people, has 
 depended on a question of numbers. The consider 
 ation of this fact may not have been embraced in the 
 calculations of those who, many years ago, put the 
 public lauds in market at a low price ; but it became 
 a controlling element of the policy which enacted the 
 Homestead Law. As the cheap lands have once 
 
 3 
 
50 HOW TO GT A FARM 
 
 saved the nation from destruction, so the still cheap 
 er ones may be relied on to insure its preservation. 
 
 A recent anonymous writer on this subject fur 
 nishes the following appropriate suggestions : 
 
 " The lands given away will be worth far more to the 
 country, peopled with an industrious population, than lying 
 waste as they now do. They will soon yield up their treas 
 ures of grain or of cotton and tobacco to be exported, and 
 to buy goods that will pay a duty to the Government. 
 Peopled, they will furnish soldiers for the army, and taxes 
 to pay their expenses, should the country need them. Be 
 fore this law was passed, lands were so cheap that every 
 man of real energy and industry could obtain a homestead 
 if he tried, provided he could raise the means to get on to 
 the land. This will be the chief difficulty now. Hundreds 
 and thousands of families, to whom the land would be a 
 priceless boon, will never be able to reach it. They have 
 little forecast, are poor and in debt, and pretty much dis 
 couraged. They cannot find constant employment, and do 
 not know how to employ themselves profitably. If associa 
 tions could be formed for settling these lands in part by 
 such families, it would meet the difficulty. It would help 
 them without damaging the success of the new settlement. 
 It would secure to them at once homesteads and full em 
 ployment, which they so much need. 
 
 . " Many questions are asked concerning this new law by 
 those who desire to avail themselves of its advantages. A 
 careful reading of the law will answer many of them. The 
 lands are to be found in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Minne 
 sota, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Texas, and on the Pacific, 
 in large extent, and some still in Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, 
 though they are probably not of a very inviting character. 
 The lands lying along railroads are of double price, and, on 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 51 
 
 account of the proximity to market, are perhaps cheaper at 
 that rate. Only eighty acres of these can be taken by one 
 individual. 
 
 " The old pre-emption laws are still in force, and a man 
 may locate his land, holding by these laws until the 1st of 
 January, when he can hold by the new law. There are 
 land-offices in the vicinity of all these public lands, where 
 the applicant can make known his wants and secure his 
 homestead. It will be seen that the matter involves either 
 the expense of a personal visit, or that of a delegate, which 
 is a serious obstacle to the poor. The best thing that can 
 be done, probably, in all cases by those who wish to avail 
 themselves of this law, will be to form an association for the 
 settlement of a township, say a hundred families or more, 
 and send out an agent to examine and locate the lands in a 
 body. The advantages of planting a whole Christian com 
 munity in the wilderness at once, over private emigration, 
 are too apparent to need mention here. 
 
 " A farm for ten dollars is only the raw material of a 
 home. Houses, barns, fences, roads, bridges, churches, 
 school-houses, and other public buildings, are to be provided 
 after the colony is located, and these things bring heavy 
 taxes upon every individual for a dozen years or more. A 
 man getting a living at the East should think twice before 
 he goes into the wilderness. It is young men just married, 
 or about to be, men with large families and scanty means 
 of living, and professional men with small fields of labor, 
 that can take this step with the best prospects." 
 
52 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 What makes Land valuable Prices balancing each other 
 How poor Men pay for high-priced Farms A practical Illus 
 tration A Farm for the Right Man. 
 
 WHILE it is thus seen that there are millions of 
 families who desire no better homestead than such 
 as can be secured by settlement on the public do 
 main, it is well known that there are other millions 
 who prefer remaining in the neighborhood in which 
 they were born. They prefer hard work there to 
 hard work in the West. That region is new, and 
 large portions of it are comparatively unsettled. 
 The other is old, and possesses all the conveniences 
 and comforts of a long-established civilization. Re 
 lations and friends are there concentrated, and 
 among them they prefer remaining. It furnishes a 
 quick market for all productions of the earth, and 
 at better prices. Fruits and vegetables, which, on 
 a thousand prairie farms, would find no purchaser, 
 are here salable in every town or city. Here the 
 consumers are collected in great crowded marts, 
 while there they have not yet had time to congre 
 gate in equal masses. 
 
 Land within the seaboard region is consequently 
 more valuable, and, as a general rule, is unattainable 
 by small capitalists in proportion to its value. But 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 53 
 
 its ability to yield quick and certain returns makes 
 its possession extremely desirable. Its money-pro 
 ducing power is enormous, because of its nearness 
 to a dense population of consumers. As to this 
 fact it owes its chief value, so, from the same fact, 
 the small capitalist who becomes possessed of it is 
 enabled to pay for it by the ready and profitable 
 market he finds for all that it may produce. 
 
 Thus price has its compensations. If the cost of 
 land be high, the value which its productions com 
 mand in the market is generally in exact proportion. 
 High price for land, and low price for products, 
 would be ruinous to the farmer. But let the latter 
 maintain a just relation to the former, and if the 
 land be skilfully worked with distinct reference to 
 the most profitable crops it can be made to yield, 
 the lapse of a few years will enable the industrious 
 owner to make full payment. Wheat may be grown 
 with profit on a prairie farm which the owner ob 
 tained as a gift, because for that grain there is a 
 cash market at the nearest railroad station. But 
 asparagus and cabbages would perish on the grow 
 er s hands. Wheat can be shipped to Europe, and 
 hence its universal salability ; but the vegetables 
 must find purchasers within short distances of the 
 spot where they were grown. So, on the other 
 hand, the man who cultivates high-priced land 
 within the suburbs of a great city, will lose money 
 by raising wheat, while by cultivating asparagus 
 and cabbages he will be certain to grow rich. The 
 West can undersell him in wheat, but cannot com 
 pete with him in vegetables. Hence the proper 
 
54: HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 adaptation of crop to location is absolutely indis 
 pensable to success. 
 
 It has been shown how the poor man can gratu 
 itously obtain a farm where he may not happen to 
 be desirous of locating. It remains to be shown 
 how he can get one where he does desire to settle. 
 To promote this laudable ambition of those whose 
 whole capital is industry and labor, much has been 
 already written by ingenious and generous men. 
 Their views and plans have been different, as well 
 as numberless. It is remarkable, however, that 
 while some of them propose methods which would 
 require a lifetime to make successful, none of them 
 present difficulties too great to be in some way over 
 come. I refer now, as well as throughout these 
 pages, to the man who is sober, industrious, am 
 bitious of success, saving, and possessed of ordinary 
 intelligence. The poverty of such may be an in 
 convenience, but it is no insuperable bar to progress. 
 The men whose characters are the reverse, I do not 
 write for. It is they who, instead of acquiring 
 farms, invariably lose them. It will also be seen 
 that feeble health need be no fatal discouragement, 
 and that some men have succeeded even when com 
 paratively disabled by incurable bodily infirmity. 
 
 A practical farmer, writing in the Albany Coun 
 try Gentleman, in 1862, gives the following as his 
 method of getting a farm with no cash capital to 
 begin with. His article is in reply to a writer in 
 the same paper, who wishes to know how to get a 
 farm without money or capital at the outset, and 
 who says that there are. no rlonht. manv men in our 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 55 
 
 country who commenced life under similar circum 
 stances, who have risen to be successful and inde 
 pendent farmers. The reply bears the signature of 
 "F.," and is as follows: 
 
 " Having commenced life under circumstances substan 
 tially the same as those described by your correspondent, 
 and having thought much on this subject, and no answer 
 having appeared as yet, I have concluded to try and see 
 what I can do towards helping him, and others in similar 
 circumstances, in their laudable efforts to get a farm. 
 
 " Well do I remember the intense thought and study 
 with which I first turned my attention to farming as a 
 means of getting a living. Having failed in other business, 
 for want of the capital without which I had always sup 
 posed I could not succeed in farming, I was casting about 
 and considering what to try next, when for the first time I 
 came across some agricultural publications, which were 
 read with all the interest of an exciting romance, and 
 which at once led to a determination to make farming the 
 business of my life. But here I was met by the same 
 difficulty as your correspondent. I had no land, nor nothing 
 to buy with. I was in a strange country, with no friends 
 to assist me in beginning, except such as by industry, 
 economy, and fair dealing, I was able to make. Yet I 
 have succeeded so far, beyond my most sanguine expecta 
 tions ; while my farming prospects are not only improving 
 every year, but they are better now than ever before. 
 
 " But in answering your correspondent, I do not propose 
 to go into the details of my own experience, but rather, as 
 briefly as may be, try to point out the best course for young 
 men to pursue, in order to succeed in getting farms. I am 
 led to take this course, not only by the reluctance felt by 
 most men of laying their private business affairs before the 
 
56 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 public, but because, in giving the combined results of read 
 ing, observation, and experience, I believe I shall be able 
 to more effectually assist G. B. S. and others in similar 
 circumstances. 
 
 " One of the greatest difficulties encountered by young 
 men, in trying to get a farm, is to get a start, or in other 
 words to get the first $500. Almost any young man that 
 will go to work, and earn and lay up that amount of 
 money, may, with good habits, and industry, and economy, 
 be sure of sooner or later owning a good farm. It cannot 
 be too strongly impressed on the minds of all young men, 
 that the great starting point in their fortune, is to earn and 
 lay up the first $500 or $1000. Not only for the help that 
 amount will be in gaining more money, but in firmly fixing 
 in their minds the principles of industry, economy, and 
 self-denial, which are to be the foundation of .their future 
 success. 
 
 " The most usual course taken by farmers sons to get 
 this start, is by working out by the month for farmers ; and 
 perhaps it is the best course open to thousands of young 
 men in our country. But a large portion of these young 
 men are only able to get work for seven or eight months of 
 the busy season, leaving them idle during the winter and a 
 part of the spring and fall. The wages they will earn in 
 this way, will not enable them to lay up money very fast. 
 Hence the enterprising young man that is determined to 
 succeed, will either be sure to hire out by the year, or teach 
 school through the winter, or find some kind of job-work, 
 by which he will be able to make good wages all of the 
 time. He will also keep in mind, that by continual faith 
 fulness, care, and attention, to the business of his employer, 
 he will not only be earning and getting much higher 
 wages than others, but he will be forming habits of care 
 and attention, that will be highly useful as long as he lives. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 57 
 
 By taking this course, a young man ought to lay up $100 
 a year, and many will lay up more. We will suppose he 
 commences when he is 21, and when he is 25 has saved 500. 
 
 " Xow, what is the best course for a young man that has 
 earned, or by some other means come in possession of 500, 
 who wishes to get a good farm ? He desires, and ought to 
 have one worth $4,000 or 85,000, or more, and with him 
 the very important question is, what is the best course for 
 him to take to get it ? Now, without taking into consid 
 eration the question of going into a new country, in pursuit 
 of cheap land, I conceive he must choose one of the fol 
 lowing courses : He will either continue to work out, or he 
 will take or rent a farm, or he will buy and commence 
 farming on a small farm. It being necessary, in order for 
 any one to pursue either one of the two last courses, to 
 have some capital, it is not considered that there is the 
 same necessity for working out after a man has $500 that 
 there was before. Consequently, he may now be considered 
 as fairly in a condition to take his choice between the 
 three courses here pointed out. And, as undoubtedly there 
 are many, in different parts of the country, that may find 
 it desirable to follow each of these different ways, and 
 many more desiring all the information they can get, in re 
 gard to the best course to pursue, perhaps it will be best 
 to bestow some attention on each of these ways to get a 
 farm. 
 
 " First, in regard to working out. This is a very simple, 
 plain, straight-forward way to get a farm. It is only a con 
 tinuation of the course already pointed out for those who 
 have to start with nothing for an indefinite period of time, 
 which will be longer or shorter in proportion to the amount 
 desired to commence with. The advantages of this course 
 are presented in a very favorable light by Hon. J. W. Col- 
 burn. He says : 
 
 3* 
 
58 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 " Now let us for a moment look at the matter, and see 
 what the real obstacles are which are to be overcome by 
 the resolute young man of 21 years of age, who says, I 
 will own a good farm. His father has had the benefit of 
 his labor up to this time, and is unable or unwilling to give 
 him any thing to start in life. His whole capital consists in 
 muscular strength, good health, good will, self-reliance, and 
 correct principles. He takes the best wages he can get of 
 a responsible farmer in the neighborhood say $15 per 
 month for the year, board and washing included. He pur 
 sues this course for seven years; his economy has taught 
 him that $60 per year is sufficient for clothing and other 
 expenses, leaving $120 at the end of each year to put at 
 interest. At the age of 28 years he has earned and put at 
 interest $840. What the several annual interests have been 
 I will not stop to enumerate. It is sufficient to say that he 
 has a sum sufficient to start him handsomely in a new 
 country, with a half section, 320 acres, paid for, and means 
 enough left for an outfit to commence successful operations 
 upon his new farm. In 22 years more, with ordinary good 
 luck, how will he be likely to stand ? He is now 50 years 
 old, and a man of wealth, and probably of character and 
 influence. 
 
 " Or take another view of it. Suppose at the age of 28 
 he should say, I don t think much of this emigrating, there 
 is some risk in the change of climate ; I like my old asso 
 ciations ; my friends are here, my home scenes are dear to 
 me; the girl of my choice is unwilling to go to the far 
 west, or into a new country ; I will settle in my own neigh 
 borhood. He buys an improved farm with fences and com 
 fortable buildings, say 100 acres, at $20 per acre pays one- 
 half down, balance in ten years, interest annually. What 
 will now be his condition at 50 years of age ? Perhaps not 
 as wealthy as in the first case, with equally good luck in 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 59 
 
 both, for the advance of his land in value above cost in the 
 former case would have been a little fortune; but he has 
 made a sure thing of it as it is, has lived healthily, and saved 
 a competency for all future wants. 
 
 " Mr. Colburn further states that this is not an overdrawn 
 picture. It is what has transpired within the observation of 
 the writer, and at a time too when farm wages were lower 
 than the prices here named, and much lower than at the 
 present time. 
 
 "Now it will be admitted on all sides that these extracts 
 place this part of the subject in the most favorable light; 
 that in fact it would seem that there can scarcely be any 
 need of, even if there is any room for, saying any thing 
 more ou this side of the question ; therefore it only remains 
 to briefly allude to some of the objections that young men 
 may find to pursuing the course so favorably presented. 
 
 "The first objection will be in regard to wages. It will 
 be said, and with a great deal of truth, that such wages are 
 a good deal higher than young men that work on a farm 
 are generally able to realize. And to this it will be added 
 that in most of the older settled sections of the country 
 $800 or $1,000 goes but a little way towards paying for a 
 good farm. Consequently, it will be said a young man will 
 have to work out a great deal more than seven years, in 
 most cases from twice to three times that length of time, 
 before he can even pay half down for a good farm, to say 
 nothing of the money that will be needed to begin farming 
 with. 
 
 "Perhaps there is nothing that a spirited, enterprising 
 young man would view with greater reluctance than the 
 proposition for him to make up his mind to work out for 
 from ten to twenty years of the best of his life in order to 
 get the requisite capital to commence the business of farm 
 ing with. He will probably say that he has not so much 
 
60 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 objection to working out a few years in order to get a few 
 hundred dollars to start with. But as to working out that 
 length of time, it is useless to talk about it ; he is not going 
 to do it. Point him to some one that has succeeded in this 
 way ; he will admit it, but say this is an exception, not the 
 general rule, and will point to many men that have failed 
 of ever getting farms by working out, and will say that no 
 man with a growing family on his hands can lay up any 
 thing, to say nothing of saving enough to buy a farm ; while 
 there are few young men that have not formed ties and 
 made arrangements, that are not to be put off for a very in 
 definite period. Hence, put the case in as strong a light as 
 we may, or argue it ever so strongly, it will be of little use. 
 Consequently, those that would persuade young men to stick 
 to farming, and undertake to point out a way whereby they 
 may get a farm, will, in most cases, have to show them some 
 other way besides working out. Yet it cannot be denied 
 that young men do not always sufficiently appreciate this 
 way of getting a start in the world ; that in many cases it 
 is the best thing a single man can do as long as he remains 
 single, and that many that have left it for other business 
 would have done better if they had not made the change. 
 
 " But we must pass on to consider the second course for 
 a young man to take, in order to get a farm. Renting a 
 farm, or taking one on shares, is, next to owning one, what 
 seems to suit young men the best. G. B. S. seems to have 
 had this course in his mind ; but says that renting a farm, 
 the way it is done in this part of the country, is not very 
 desirable. It generally goes on the " skinning process," mak 
 ing it profitless to both parties. Now here is the main dif 
 ficulty, not only as to those taking farms, in finding this a 
 good way to get a farm, but with those having farms to 
 let. It -is a fact well understood on all hands, that, as poor 
 business as taking or renting land may be, there are many, 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 61 
 
 in all parts of the older sections of the country, that would 
 be glad to get farms to work if they could. In this 
 section, whenever there is a good farm to be let, there are 
 sure to be from eight to ten, and sometimes a score or more 
 applications for it. While at the same time there are many 
 that would like to let their farms, were it not for this one 
 difficulty they are sure to be worked on the skinning sys 
 tem ; which, while it gives them but little present profit, is 
 injuring, if not ruining their land. Hence, I would impress 
 on the minds of all, young or old, in the strongest language, 
 and in the most arnest manner, the great mistake they 
 make in thinking that, because they are working another 
 man s farm, they cannot afford to farm well ; that they are 
 taking a course that not only gives them but little present 
 profit, but one that, more than perhaps any thing else, tends 
 to deprive them of the chance of getting what little they 
 do have ; and that not only will they realize a much greater 
 present profit, by as good farming as the circumstances will 
 allow, but should it be the case that at first they are not 
 able to get a good farm, but have to take up with rather 
 inferior, or badly worn land, they may be sure that, if they 
 are doing their best, it will be known and observed, and 
 they will have no trouble in getting better land when they 
 wish to make a change. 
 
 "The advantages of this course maybe made still plainer 
 by taking a case, many of which may be found in all of the 
 older sections of the country. The owner of a 100-acre 
 farm, that has not only made the principal part of his prop 
 erty out of his farm, but has brought up, educated, and 
 given his children more or less of a start in life, and who 
 has found, by experience, that one-half of the produce of 
 his land will support him satisfactorily, wishes to let his 
 farm, if he can get a tenant that will farm well. Though 
 he well knows that he could make more by hiring his work 
 
02 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 done, yet he wishes to relieve himself and family from the 
 trouble of taking care of the farm, and hired help. Now 
 why can t a tenant, if a young man with a small family, 
 take that farm and go on and make money, and, at the 
 same time, keep the land in good condition ? The owner 
 made money, and kept the land improving ; why may not 
 the tenant make money, and at least keep the land in its 
 present condition ? I see no reason why he can t, nor do I 
 believe there is any except poor management. 
 
 " Again, let those that think they can t afford to farm well 
 on another man s land look to England. Much of the best 
 farming in that, or perhaps any other country, is tenant farm 
 ing. Not only does the tenant have to pay enough, in rent 
 and taxes, to buy land in many sections of this country, but 
 he spends thousands in manuring, and other improvements. 
 Indeed, it is said that his rent, taxes, and other farm ex 
 penses are so large, that he is obliged to cultivate his land 
 in the best manner ; that he could not get along without 
 doing so. Yet he lives well and makes money ; and it is 
 said that many tenant farmers do so well, and are so well 
 satisfied, that they prefer remaining tenant farmers, even 
 after having made money enough to buy and have land of 
 their own. 
 
 " Now allow me to ask, why may not something like this 
 be the case here ? Why may not an American be a good 
 tenant farmer as well as an Englishman ? Have not our 
 young men as much enterprise, intelligence, and ability, as 
 the same class anywhere, and are they not as anxious to 
 make money and go ahead ? Then why not make the busi 
 ness of taking or renting land, one of the best courses a 
 young man can take to get a start in the world ; instead, as 
 is too often the case, making it a losing business for all con 
 cerned ? 
 
 " But it will be said, taking for granted that tenant farm- 
 
AND WHEKE TO FIND ONE. 63 
 
 ing may be made to pay well, how are all that may wish to, 
 going to get land to work ? It has already been intimated 
 that the demand for farms was much greater than the 
 supply ; hence it must be admitted that, though it may be 
 a very good way to get a farm, for those lucky enough to 
 get a good farm to work, yet many will fail, because there 
 are not farms enough to be let to supply the demand. This 
 being the case, we will pass on to consider the third and 
 last course proposed for a young man to pursue in order to 
 get a farm. 
 
 " This course, as well as taking land, is more particularly 
 calculated for a married man. Though the single man that 
 is able to get good wages and steady employment, may do 
 very well, yet when he gets married he wants a home, and 
 generally the sooner he gets one of his own, the better. 
 Time and space forbid giving even a tithe of the reasons 
 why every man should have a home of his own. All are 
 more or less familiar with these reasons ; and as undoubted 
 ly one of the principal reasons why G. B. S. wishes to get 
 a farm, is to have a home, I need only state that I have 
 found, both by experience and observation, that a small 
 piece of good land, even though there may be but a few 
 acres, is a great help to a laboring man that wishes to get 
 along in the world. Here, again, time will not admit of re 
 ferring to the many instances of large amounts of produce 
 grown on a few acres of land, that I have come across in 
 reading and observation. But I must pass on, only stating 
 that few young men are aware of how small a place may be 
 made to give them more net profit for their labor than they 
 can realize by working out. 
 
 " Another advantage in having a small place is, that it 
 will enable the owner to do something at both farming on 
 his own land and working out. Whenever I have seen this 
 step in advance (which it surely is) taken by a man of 
 
64: 
 
 industry and economy, I have always observed that he went 
 ahead much faster than he did when depending on his labor 
 alone. So, too, a small farmer will often find chances to 
 take land by the piece, of farmers having more than they 
 can or wish to cultivate, thus enabling him to add to his 
 farming operations sufficiently to give him all the business 
 he can attend to, and giving him quite respectable profits. 
 
 "But leaving working out, or taking land, out of the 
 question, few that have not tried it, or investigated the sub 
 ject, are aware of how few acres will keep a man profitably 
 employed during the busy season. In a former article on 
 farming on a small farm, I have given estimates of what can 
 be raised on ten acres, and also on twenty acres. These 
 estimates, though much less than is often realized, will give 
 a good idea of what may be raised on a small place, it being 
 kept in mind that by changing works for team-work, the 
 owner may do nearly all of the work himself, making his 
 expenses out scarcely any thing to speak of, and enabling 
 him to realize the full benefit of all he raises. 
 
 " Another great advantage in getting a piece of land as 
 soon as possible is, it forms a beginning a something to add 
 to. Young men when working out, or working land, and 
 having no particular present need or use for their money, 
 are apt to spend it, or allow it to slip away for something 
 that, in their circumstances, they might better do without. 
 But if they have land that they wish to finish paying for, 
 or to make improvements on, or, finding their little place 
 insufficient for their wants, and aided by the stimulating 
 effects of actual ownership, they are anxious for more land, 
 they will be sure to save all they can to buy more with. 
 When this course is once fairly entered on, they will be 
 pretty sure to follow it up until they are each one the owner 
 of a good farm. 
 
 " Before concluding, I wish to present one or two consid- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 65 
 
 erations that are very important for young men of limited 
 means that wish to get farms. The first is, that in taking 
 any course that will be open to them, they may not be able 
 to make money as fast at the beginning as may be deemed 
 desirable. It is very natural for young men to make large 
 calculations at the start They have a very laudable ambi 
 tion to go ahead and make something, and be somebody ; 
 hence they are apt to think that any course they may be able 
 to take is too slow to ever accomplish any thing. But this 
 is a mistaken idea. Let any one that doubts this sit down 
 and reckon up what a man that earns $100 over a living 
 every year from the time he is 21 until he is 50. and puts 
 it at interest at 7 per cent., adding the interest to the prin 
 cipal each year, will have when he is 50 years old or say 
 in 30 years. I say, let him do this and he will be surprised 
 to learn that he may be a comparatively rich man, by tak 
 ing this course, when he is 50 years of age. As a further 
 illustration of this fact, I will mention a few instances that 
 have come under my own observation, one of a man that 
 died worth over 810,000 in cash, that made it, all but a 
 small legacy, by working out and the interest on his money. 
 Another, that is now some 35 or 36 years old, that has be 
 tween 83,000 and $4,000, all made by working out, and the 
 accruing interest on his wages. And yet another that saved 
 $900 in six years. All this shows most conclusively that, 
 though either of the courses I have pointed out may seem 
 rather a slow way on the start, yet, if persevered in, and all 
 of the money, as fast as realized, invested in some manner 
 whereby the interest is sure to be realized, they are sure to 
 lead to the desired success, while hundreds, perhaps thou 
 sands, have done a great deal better than this by investing 
 their labor and money in farming in such a manner as to 
 realize much larger profits. 
 
 " The other consideration, with which I shall conclude, is 
 
66 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 that every young man that wishes to succeed should make 
 himself familiar with the agricultural literature of the day. 
 He should not only read and keep for future reference some of 
 the best agricultural journals of the day (of which I wish to 
 say that the Country Gentleman stands at the head), but he 
 should be familiar with some of the best practical works on 
 farming in the country. He will find this a great advantage, 
 if he works out, in enabling him not only to work to much 
 greater profit and advantage to his employer, and thus get 
 ting the extra wages that will be his due for highly intelli 
 gent labor, but in showing him how the knowledge gained 
 by his present experience may be turned to his future 
 benefit when farming for himself. Or, if taking or renting 
 a farm, in learning how to manage it to the best advantage, 
 both as regards present and future profits. Or, if farming 
 on a small place, not only in learning what may be and 
 has been done on a little farm like his own, in differ 
 ent sections of the country, but in learning how he may 
 manage his few acres to the best possible advantage. But 
 above all else, he will find it of the greatest advantage, 
 in enkindling in his mind an ardor for, and an enthusiasm 
 in the business of farming, that, enabling him to triumph 
 over every obstacle, will be sure, sooner or later, to bring 
 him to the desired haven of success." 
 
 These original suggestions drew forth a second 
 reply in the same paper, under the signature of 
 " E. S. F.," as follows : 
 
 " A correspondent inquires, How he can get a farm with 
 out money or capital to buy it with or to conduct the business 
 of farming ? I can answer his question in two words. Take 
 mine ; with this proviso, however, that he understands prac 
 tically and thoroughly the profitable management of a farm, 
 and has a character in all respects equal to his practice and 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 67 
 
 his knowledge. He is looking for a farm ; I am looking 
 for a farmer who can take hold of the soil in a way to im 
 prove it and his own condition at the same time. My farm 
 lies vacant and unimproved, because no one appears that 
 can satisfy me of his capacity to do this. I can find plenty 
 of men who would be glad to buy the fami upon a credit, but 
 who would never pay for it, and who would tease, depreci 
 ate, and worry it to no purpose. I can find others who are 
 ready to rent it for a stipulated sum, or upon shares ; but 
 no one has ever appeared that possessed sufficient qualifica 
 tions to manage the business, to keep the farm improving, 
 and to do this. -If he prospered, it would be tolerably cer 
 tain that his success was at the expense and not by aid of 
 the land. 
 
 " This farm is accessible to good markets, and contains 
 six hundred acres of land of every variety, clay and light ; 
 plenty of meadow, salt and fresh ; abundantly supplied with 
 wood ; with never-failing sources of water, and surrounded, 
 with schools, churches, etc. Now I am willing to sell this 
 farm upon a reasonable credit ; or, I am willing to let it to 
 a responsible, improving tenant, at a low price, whenever I 
 can find a man of the right sort to take it, with a condi 
 tion attached to the lease, that the -tenant shall have 
 the right to purchase it at an agreed price within a given 
 period. 
 
 " A tenant usually grows rich on a farm, for the reason 
 that he usually goes upon it with a view of laying up enough 
 money to pay for a farm of his own elsewhere. He carries 
 from the hired farm in his breeches pocket all the scrapedble 
 value he can ; it has been made poor to make him rich 
 in other words, he has transferred the fertility of the one to 
 the fields of the other by a sort of electrotyping process, 
 whose transmutation in soils, are in such hands as sure as 
 they are by the labors of chemistry in metals. 
 
68 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 " Now, Messrs. Editors, when you have followed me thus far, 
 should I stop, you would editorially ask, Why not advertise 
 your wants in the Country Gentleman ? I answer, because 
 if I did, I should have no end of applications from this very 
 class of people that I wish to save my land from. I am 
 diligently seeking for an experienced, money-making, land- 
 improving farmer ; but, in the mean time, my house, now 
 old and shabby, is rotting away, and my barns will soon fol 
 low in one general decaying, destructive sweep. Shall we 
 ever have schools of agriculture, from whose portals, as they 
 graduate, one can find a competent agent, tenant, or the 
 purchaser of a farm, who has learned the art of making it 
 pay for itself?" 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 69 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 
 
 More Opinions and Experiences Some Objections Additional 
 Light Encouraging the Young A personal History Getting 
 an Illinois Farm One Example Good Suggestions Buying 
 and going in Debt Value of the Discussion. 
 
 THE discussion thus opened drew out, as may be 
 supposed, the views of other practical men to eluci 
 date the important question as to the best way of 
 getting a farm. The following is the commentary 
 of another intelligent observer, Mr. J. W. Colburn, 
 of Springfield, Vermont. Referring to the sugges 
 tions made by " F.," as quoted in the preceding 
 chapter, he says : 
 
 " His advice cannot but be regarded, by those to whom it 
 was intended to benefit, as very sensible, and in the main 
 correct. He points out three ways to be pursued to accom 
 plish the object sought for, viz. : Working out for wages, 
 taking farms upon shares, and beginning with a few acres 
 at first, enlarging as means are saved to invest, seeming 
 rather to give the preference to this last method over the 
 two first. Circumstances, with regard to land and labor, 
 may be such in his locality as to make his views correct ; 
 but with all due deference to his opinion, to suit the locality 
 in which I reside, I should ask him to reverse his opinion, 
 and put the working out for wages to get a start in life at 
 the head of his three ways to get a farm, as decidedly pref 
 erable to either of the other two. 
 
 " If the first thing that a young man thinks of and must 
 
TO HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 do, after arriving to the years of his majority, and destitute 
 of means, is to get married, as is often the case, then he 
 must do the next best way that he can take a farm on 
 shares, or purchase a few acres; but it will be but a few 
 acres, in four cases out of five, that he will ever be likely to 
 pay for and own. I know it is a divine command to mul 
 tiply and replenish the earth, and that it is good for a man 
 to provide himself with a * help-meet, but we are told also 
 that there are times and seasons for all things, which may 
 be interpreted to mean a proper time and season, leaving 
 every man to be his own judge and monitor as to what is 
 best and proper to suit his own case and circumstances. 
 
 " But how few there are that can look back and review 
 the past events of their lives, the most prominent ones, such 
 as have influenced their career for good or evil, and say 
 they have acted wisely or judged correctly ! Man is the 
 creature of impulse, more or less improvident and reckless, 
 acting from influences that surround him, without stopping 
 to take the * sober second thought, and often makes ship 
 wreck of his future well-being in life, when by a more pru 
 dent, discreet, and judicious course, all might have been 
 smooth, bright, and prosperous. It is desirable and pleasant 
 for a young man to seek a home to make a home of his 
 own. The associations attached to that word, home, sink 
 deep in the human heart. But no young man should be in 
 such haste to realize this inestimable blessing, as to turn it 
 into a curse. A home that is surrounded with poverty and 
 want is no home ; and more particularly is it so when not 
 brought about by any unavoidable misfortune, but the result 
 of miscalculation, acting from other motives than those of 
 a prudent and discreet foresight. I never can advise any 
 young man to incumber himself with a young family to 
 support until he has the means, and can see his way clear 
 to do it creditably and comfortably. 
 
AND WHEKE TO FIND ONE. 71 
 
 " F. gives us an instance of a man that died worth 
 $10,000 in cash, that made it all but a small legacy by 
 working out and the interest on his money. Another that 
 is 36 years old, that has between $3,000 and $4,000, all 
 made by working and the accruing interest on his wages. 
 1 And yet another that saved 8900 in six years. These 
 cases show most conclusively that working out on a farm 
 by a young man starting without means, who is determined 
 to own a farm, is the shortest and surest way to accomplish 
 that praiseworthy and desirable object. Had either, or all 
 of these cases, detested working out, as many young men 
 do, and got married at the start, and relied upon taking 
 farms upon shares, or upon running in debt for a few acres, 
 think you at the same period in after-life they could have 
 shown these results ? I tell you they could not, but prob 
 ably would have seen an old age of destitution and want. 
 I know at the present day there is an antipathy among our 
 young men to working out on a farm. As F. says, it is useless 
 to talk to them about working out ten or fifteen years in 
 order to enable themselves to become owners of good farms. 
 The process is too slow ; some more rapid way must be 
 contrived ; but the effort rarely proves successful, and the 
 farm is very seldom owned. In olden times, farms, and 
 good ones too, were often obtained by this patient and per 
 sistent industry, coupled with strict and rigid economy. 
 True, they cost less then than now, but farm-wages com 
 paratively were as much lower then than now as the farms 
 were lower, while every article of clothing was 50 per cent, 
 higher than they were previous to our present war prices. 
 
 " I have known many independent farmers that com 
 menced life by working out for wages, but a precious few 
 that commenced by taking laud upon shares, or by pur 
 chasing a few acres, that ever were the owners of productive 
 farms. This working laud upon shares, or the product of a 
 
72 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 few acres, must necessarily be absorbed by the support of a 
 family, while the young farm-laborer should, and generally 
 does, remain without a family until he is able to purchase 
 a farm and see his way clear to pay for it. While working 
 out, it is not convenient to have a family, but almost indis 
 pensable when working a farm upon shares. F. says that 
 when a farm is to be let on shares in his section, six or eight 
 applicants appear, to improve the opportunity ; and why is 
 it so ? The reason is obvious. Having commenced in this 
 way, they do not rise above it. They can support their 
 families, and that is all they can do, while the single man, 
 at work for wages, is placing his hundreds at interest. 
 
 " It is not in good taste for a man to say much about 
 himself, but if your readers will pardon the egotism, I will 
 relate, briefly as possible, a sketch of personal experience. 
 The writer remembers well, when a young lad, of listening 
 to the stories of several farmers, most of whom he was in 
 the habit of drawing out by questioning and inquiries, as 
 to how they commenced life, and how they obtained so 
 much property, etc. A rebuff from no one of them for 
 being an impertinent boy was ever experienced, believing 
 now that they deemed his object to be something more and 
 better than an idle curiosity. The information obtained in 
 this way served as an exciting purpose with the young in 
 quirer to stimulate his ambition to do likewise, and become, 
 like them, a man among men of independent means. He 
 pursued the same course that he now recommends to others. 
 Working out upon the farm was the beginning ; the most 
 untiring application and persistent industry for thirty years, 
 has brought results beyond his most sanguine expectations, 
 and he has no cause to regret his early determined resolu 
 tion. 
 
 " Why is this farm-work for hire so much to be dreaded ? 
 It is frequently the case that the hired man, though in one 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 73 
 
 sense a farm-servant, works no harder than his employer ; 
 he does not have the care and perplexity on his mind that 
 the owner does ; fares equally with the family, and at the 
 "expiration of the year has more surplus cash to put at in 
 terest than the man who has employed him. "What has 
 been done by some men can be done over again by others. 
 If our fathers commenced in this small and patient way, 
 and became men of wealth, of character, and of influence 
 and standing in society, so can our young men of the present 
 day, and in many less years than it took them to gain their 
 position. 
 
 " The reader of modern history will recollect that when 
 the first Napoleon appeared at the head of the French army 
 in Italy, then but 27 years old, that he astonished the old 
 veteran generals of Europe by his new military tactics. 
 His rapid movements, his furious onsets, they were not pre 
 pared to expect, and much less to resist. AYhere did this 
 prodigy learn this new art of war ? When in captivity on 
 the desolate rock of St. Helena he let out the secret. He 
 had studied closely the history of Alexander the Great. It 
 is said that he always carrie^ about with him the life of 
 this great Grecian conqueror. He knew that the world as 
 it was in that ancient day, never could have been conquered 
 only by the rapid and determined means brought to bear on 
 the enemies of Greece ; and he reasoned with himself, and 
 correctly, too, that what man had done, man could do again ; 
 and firmly relying on this principle, he put the same means 
 in force, varying as the means of warfare had varied, but 
 keeping steadily in view the rapid blows and the determined 
 energy and zeal that gave the Grecian universal empire. To 
 a very great extent he did over again the work of Alexander, 
 and caused every throne in Europe to tremble, though all 
 combined, finally overthrew him. 
 
 " This is a far-fetched analogy, but it is none the less true. 
 4 
 
4 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 What man has done, man can do again. It only requires 
 the determined will, the energetic hand, the unremtted per 
 severance, and the patient, long-enduring application, and 
 almost any object, legitimate and honorable in its end, can* 
 be reached. I say then to young men, beginning life with 
 out means, having a taste for the business and desirous of 
 owning farms, you can do it if you will. You cannot be 
 any more destitute at the start than was he who now ad 
 dresses you. The times and circumstances now are vastly 
 in your favor, over those of forty years ago, and I bid you 
 God-speed." 
 
 This expression of opinion was followed by a re 
 joinder from "F.," to this effect: 
 
 " MESSRS. EDITORS In former volumes of the Country 
 Gentleman there have been several articles on buying farms, 
 which were mainly calculated to benefit those with plenty 
 of money to buy with ; while there has been very little, if 
 any thing, given, calculated to show those with limited 
 means how they can buy to he best advantage. So, too, 
 those writing on this subject have generally seemed to con 
 sider or take it for granted, that it will not do to run in debt 
 for land, although it is a very common practice in most, if 
 not all parts of the country, to do so. 
 
 " Now, without stopping to consider whether it will do to 
 run in debt for a farm or not, or the amount of capital a 
 man should have to commence with on a given number of 
 acres, I shall take it for granted that as a great many have 
 run in debt more or less for farms, which they have not 
 only succeeded in paying for from the produce of the land, 
 but have also, by the same means, attained to forehanded 
 and often independent circumstances ; and as. the example 
 set by such men is constantly before those anxious to attain 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 75 
 
 to the same station in life, a great many will still continue to 
 run in debt for land, any thing I might be able to say to the 
 contrary notwithstanding. 
 
 " True, many fail, and not a few farms are badly run down 
 and injured by men in debt ; yet this need not necessarily 
 be the case, but may rather be considered the result of bad 
 management in buying, cultivation, etc. But, however this 
 may be, it will not prevent others from running in debt. 
 So, that instead of a fruitless endeavor to persuade men to 
 not run in debt^ I believe it is better to try to assist those 
 that may find it best to do so. 
 
 ." Of course no specific rules, but only general directions, 
 can be given as to when a man s pecuniary means will ad 
 mit of his buying a farm. There is so much difference in 
 the price of 4and in different sections, as well as in its pro 
 ductiveness, that while in some new sections where land is 
 cheap and a long time given to pay in, a man with a few 
 hundred dollars may buy one hundred acres or more, in 
 many of the older sections he would need as many thousands 
 to buy the same amount of land. But leaving new lands 
 out of the question, when should a man buy in those sec 
 tions where land ranges from 820 to $100 or more an acre ? 
 As a general rule, I believe he may buy when he is able to 
 pay half down for a farm, and stock it with a moderate al 
 lowance of farm-stock suitable to the system of farming he 
 intends to pursue, together with suitable teams, tools, etc., 
 to begin with. And as a man that intends to pay a heavy 
 land debt should not allow small debts to accumulate on 
 his hands, so he should never begin by making a heavy 
 debt on his land, and another large one for teams, 
 stock, etc. 
 
 " Again, the amount it will do to run in debt must de 
 pend, in a great measure, on the time and chance to pay, 
 the buyer may be able to get. As when $2,000 or $3,000 
 
76 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 are wanted in three or four years on 100 acres, it would 
 be well to hesitate, while it might be safe to agree to pay 
 that amount in ten years ; so, too, it will be found more 
 difficult to pay a given amount in large payments of from 
 $500 to $1,000 each, than it will to pay the same amount 
 in $100 or $200 payments. The best way, where a large 
 debt has to be made, is to take a deed and give a mortgage, 
 payable annually in such sums as the buyer is sure he can 
 pay besides interest, with the privilege of making the pay 
 ments faster, should he wish to do so. Then, by managing 
 to keep one or two payments ahead, he will never be dis 
 tressed to make his payments in bad seasons, nor be obliged 
 to sell when produce is ruinously low. This is substantially 
 the course taken in buying my present farm, and I have 
 found the advantages named, as well as others that might 
 be given, a great help in making my payments. 
 
 " Another point that should be well considered, is what 
 kind of a farm is it best to buy ? It is generally said, that 
 it is best to buy a good farm, in a good state of cultivation, 
 with good buildings, etc. This is undoubtedly true as re 
 gards those with plenty of money to buy with ; and such 
 farms are sometimes the cheapest for those with limited 
 means. There are many farms where the land naturally 
 good is in a fair to good state of cultivation, with moder 
 ate but good comfortable buildings, that can be bought for 
 reasonable prices. Such farms, though they may not be 
 cried up as the best, it is always safe to buy. While those 
 farms that have the reputation of being the very best in the 
 country, and are cried up to the highest rate, it may be well 
 to pause before purchasing. It may be well to consider 
 how much of this credit of being an extra good farm may 
 be due to an extra good farmer, and also whether the high 
 price such a farm is sure to be held at, is wholly due to the 
 superior condition of the soil, buildings, etc., or whether a 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 77 
 
 part of it may not be ascribed to the high reputation in 
 which the farm is held. 
 
 "But there is another class of farms that I wish to more 
 particularly recommend to those wishing to make their 
 money go as far as possible in buying land which is those 
 farms that, though naturally good, have been run down 
 more or less. There are many of this class of farms in all 
 parts of the country. They have been and are usually occu 
 pied by poor farmers, that whether owners or tenants 
 generally do the work to halves, and only raise half crops, and 
 as they seed down but little, if any, their farms soon have a 
 very poor, barren appearance, causing their reputation to go 
 down very fast, and often causing them to be sold for much 
 less than their real value. That is, while the high reputa 
 tion of extra farms causes them to sell for all or perhaps 
 more than they are really worth, the bad name and poor 
 appearance of badly run farms, often leads to their being 
 sold for much less than their actual value. True, the farm 
 er that commences on a badly run farm, will have to adopt 
 some course of improvement by which the soil may be again 
 made productive, or it would not do to run in debt for the 
 farm. But it will not be very difficult to do this if the land 
 is naturally good, and has only been run down by poor cul 
 tivation and neglect. I hold it an undoubted fact, that nat 
 urally good land cannot be thoroughly run down and worn 
 out without a more thorough working and course of cultiva 
 tion than such farms usually receive ; and also, that much 
 of the credit that is often ascribed to this or that course of 
 improvement, is due to the latent goodness of the soil, de 
 veloped by more thorough cultivation. Of course, before 
 buying, we should be sure that the land is naturally good, 
 and that its present bad appearance is due to poor cultiva 
 tion and neglect, instead of a more thorough course of 
 cropping on the skinning system, by which the soil is actu- 
 
78 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 ally worn out. Yet such cases as the last are rare, as real 
 ly thorough cultivation is generally found in connection 
 with some system or course of management by which the 
 soil is improved instead of being run down. 
 
 " There are other reasons for buying this class of farms 
 by men of limited means. One is, that such farms not 
 being generally as salable as those in good condition, a 
 much longer and better chance to pay may usually be ob 
 tained. Another is, that by good management and culti 
 vation, such farm may soon be made to bear an altogether 
 different appearance, which, with the good crops that will 
 be raised, will be sure to greatly enhance the character 
 and reputation of the farm, and make it sell for a hand 
 some advance on the cost ; while its enhanced value and 
 productiveness would be no less real and satisfactory 
 should the owner not wish to sell. But some one will 
 say, if badly run farms can be improved and made to pro 
 duce good crops, by men more or less in debt, what 
 thousands will wish to know is, how it can be done ? This 
 I shall endeavor to show in another communication." 
 
 Tins communication drew the following from a 
 hitherto silent observer of the discussion, Mr. 
 Jonathan Talcott, of Rome, N. Y. After stating 
 that he has carefully read the articles of Mr. Col- 
 burn and of " F.," he says : 
 
 " I beg leave to dissent from their views as expressed in 
 their communications, and take the middle ground, as 
 spoken of in the articles referred to, and shall advocate it, 
 and advise such young men as Mr. Colburn speaks of to 
 adopt that plan in getting a farm. 
 
 " Let us briefly look at the qualifications mentioned. He 
 is to be ambitious and energetic. Now, we suppose Mr. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 7^ 
 
 Colburn means a laudable ambition, such as is becoming 
 any young man to possess, and energy also to persevere 
 under difficulty (if need be) ; and, in his closing sentence, 
 he adds, * What man has done, man may do again. Also, 
 * that it requires the determined will, the energetic hand, 
 the unreraitted perseverance, and the patient, long-enduring 
 application, and almost any object legitimate and honorable 
 in its end can be reached. 
 
 ^Such, then, are the qualifications, if I rightly under 
 stand Mr. Colburn, that the young man wishing a farm 
 must possess, and such Mr. Colburn advises in order to 
 become the owner of a farm in the shortest possible time 
 to work out by the month on the farm for a period of from 
 ten to fifteen years, as circumstances may require ; and to 
 substantiate his position, he quotes the following sentence 
 from F. s communication in the Country Gentleman: F. 
 gives us an instance of a man that died worth 810,000 in 
 cash, who made it all but a small legacy by working out, 
 and the interest on his money. Another that is 36 years 
 old, that has between 83,000 and $4,000, all made by 
 working, and the accruing interest on his wages. And yet 
 another that saved $900 in six years. Mr. Colburn then 
 says : These cases show most conclusively, that working 
 out on a farm by a young man starting without means, who 
 is determined to own a farm, is the shortest and surest way 
 to accomplish that praiseworthy and desirable object 
 Also, he adds : * Had either or all of these cases detested 
 working out as many young men do, and got married at 
 the start, and relied upon taking farms upon shares, or upon 
 running in debt for a few r acres, think you at the same 
 period in after life they could have shown these results? 
 Mr. Colburn then answers the question decidedly in the 
 negative, saying I tell you they could not, but probably 
 would have seen an old age of destitution and want. The 
 
80 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 language used by Mr. Colburn is very strong and decided, 
 and perhaps it may be considered presumption in me to > 
 gainsay it. Viewing it in the light of my own experience 
 and observation, I consider his views, as expressed in the 
 answer quoted, as containing errors, and calculated to mis 
 lead those whom he desires to benefit by the advice given 
 in his letter from which I have taken the extracts already 
 quoted ; and relying on Mr. Colburn s forbearance towards 
 one who may differ from him in opinion, will briefly give 
 my views on the subject. 
 
 " F. does not say that the men mentioned made the sums 
 credited to them by working out on a farm as farm hands, 
 although Mr. Colburn assumes as much, and the price 
 mentioned by F. in his first letter, when he quotes from 
 Mr. Colburn s previous writing, at $15 per month for the 
 year, is higher than the average in this county for the past 
 twenty years. I think $150 per year is full an average for 
 the best hands for the time mentioned ; some of the time 
 above, and some below that price, some not getting that 
 price ; but we are talking of the ambitious and energetic 
 young man who is determined to become the owner of a 
 farm in the shortest possible time, who has it to earn by his 
 own labor. 
 
 " We see, from what has been written by F., and also by 
 Mr. Colburn, that from $100 to $150 per year can be saved 
 by such men under the most favorable circumstances ; prob 
 ably $120 would be more than an average in the cases that 
 have fallen under their observation, and in this vicinity it 
 would be under that estimate. 
 
 " Now we will look at the other side of the picture, 
 keeping in view in the mean time the qualifications that the 
 young man must possess. We will suppose him to be 21 
 years of age, with good health and all the requisites men 
 tioned by Mr. Colburn, and that he has formed associations 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 81 
 
 with some young lady of his acquaintance, who also pos 
 sesses the same qualifications, but she also is without means 
 to purchase a farm, although that is the object of their 
 ambition, to attain which they are ready and willing to 
 unite their interests in the realities of wedded life, and 
 commence in earnest to acquire the desired object. In the 
 light that Mr. Colburn views it, they will probably fail ; 
 but viewing it in the position that I take, they will succeed, 
 and much sooner than they would if both worked for 
 wages, having the same end in view, viz., a good farm. 
 
 " Such a couple can easily secure a good farm on shares 
 from a good landlord in this State, and probably in most of 
 the States of the Union, and instead of saving $100 to 
 $150 per year, can, with the blessing of Providence, lay 
 by from $300 to $500 per year, with more advantage on 
 their side than to remain single. For instance, if they 
 remain single, and are sick, all income is stopped, while if 
 either is sick when married, and on a farm, crops and ani 
 mals are still growing, and there is one (if only one is sick) 
 to look to the interests of both. Besides, how much more 
 congenial to human nature to have a companion to share 
 with each other our joys and sorrows, either in prosperity 
 or adversity ! Also, what young lady of the qualifications 
 mentioned would not prefer to join her destiny with a 
 young man of like qualifications at once, and begin the 
 great battle of life in earnest, and having conquered, as 
 they surely will, all obstacles at the age of thirty or forty 
 years, look back with pleasure upon their commencement 
 and struggle for a farm, and feel that, with their united 
 efforts, with the blessing of a kind and heavenly Father 
 resting upon them, they have succeeded beyond their 
 most sanguine expectations. Perhaps, too, at that age sons 
 and daughters may have grown up around their fireside to 
 gladden their hearts, who will soon go forth in the wide 
 
 4* 
 
82 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 world to conquer the obstacles, either real or imaginary, 
 that may arise in their path. Think you there would have 
 been as much enjoyment and genuine home-feeling had 
 they remained single in the mean time ? I think not. I 
 have in my memory at this time numerous instances, such 
 as I have mentioned, when, at less than fifty years of age, 
 persons that were married in early life, and have worked 
 farms upon shares, have made their thousands, and pur 
 chased farms of their own, and are still in the prime ot 
 life ; also some that have told the writer of this that they 
 did not want to own a farm, as they could make more 
 money in working land belonging to others than to be 
 the owners themselves. 
 
 " Such have been my observations while engaged in work 
 ing out the problem for myself; for, at eighteen years of 
 age my prospects, in regard to property, were dark enough 
 (my father having died ten years previous without prop 
 erty ; consequently, myself and mother were left to rely upon 
 our own exertions for a livelihood). For three years I 
 worked out on a farm for wages ; that is, from the time I 
 was eighteen years old till I was twenty-one. I will not say 
 that I had the qualifications mentioned by Mr. Colburn ; 
 but I may say that I saved what I earned, and tried to do 
 my best for my employer. At the age of twenty-one years 
 I made arrangements to take a farm with a view of pur 
 chasing. Soon after, I married a young lady that knew my 
 circumstances, and that the farm had to be earned if we 
 ever wanted one. We commenced in earnest. Before we 
 were thirty years of age the desired object was attained, 
 and we were better off, in dollars and cents, than the cases 
 cited by F., which Mr. Colburn quotes ; besides, we had 
 been at home all the time while we were engaged in paying 
 for it. 
 
 " As for the expenses absorbing all the income in working 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 83 
 
 a farm upon shares, as mentioned by Mr. Col burn, that has 
 not been the case with those of my acquaintance. The ex 
 penses in such cases with such a couple will be light, and 
 they will save from $3 to -$5 in such a situation, where but 
 $1 would have been saved by the working-out system. 
 
 u Now, I do not deny that many young persons will fail 
 to accomplish the results I have stated ; but such would fail 
 if single, not having the required qualifications. I could 
 mention cases where, when single, not a dollar was saved, 
 when as soon .as the same young men were married their 
 earnings were saved, and a competence was the result in a 
 short time. 
 
 ; The expenses of a family are never so light as at the 
 commencement, and any young woman with the qualifica 
 tions to match the young man, as given by Mr. Colburn, 
 will, instead of adding to his burdens, lighten them in very 
 many ways, which I need not mention at this time ; besides, 
 he will doubtless have the blessings bestowed on him, de 
 signed by his Creator, when he said, it is not good for man 
 to be alone, who also created an help-meet for him. There 
 is no doubt but the same injunction is now resting on the 
 human family as in the earliest stages of the world, and we 
 shall do no wrong by heeding the injunction. 
 
 "In conclusion, I would advise all such young men as 
 mentioned by Mr. Colburn, and all others that think they 
 have the qualifications mentioned, that the sooner they get 
 married after they arrive at the age of twenty-one years, 
 and a suitable situation offers to take a desirable farm, the 
 sooner they will become the owners of such a farm for them 
 selves; and that, instead of a young woman being an incum- 
 brance, as Mr. Colburn intimates, she will be a real help, 
 and they will save from their united earnings in the ratio I 
 have mentioned ; besides, she will be a sharer in his joys, 
 and grief, if he has any, which he doubtless will, as trials 
 
84: HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 are the common lot of humanity. She will also cheer him 
 on in all his successes, looking at the object to be attained 
 on its brightest side, thus proving most conclusively her 
 ability to perform her part in the task they have allotted 
 themselves which, with God s blessing, they will surely ac 
 complish." 
 
 A writer, under the signature of "A Farmer s 
 Son," now threw into the common stock of informa 
 tion the following brief summary of a very interest 
 ing personal history : 
 
 "Having read in the Country Gentleman several ways 
 for a young man, desirous of obtaining a livelihood by farm 
 ing, to do, I thought perhaps a few ideas I might suggest 
 would not be out of the way. Although young and inex 
 perienced myself, in the ways of working and by the means 
 of which a farm is obtained, I have often heard my father 
 speak of his experience, some of which I will briefly relate. 
 At fifteen years his mind was fully made up to be a farmer. 
 To that he devoted his energies, and boy though he was, 
 was fully assured that he would have no other vocation. 
 At eighteen he bid adieu to father and mother, and started 
 with nothing but an axe, which was all the kind parent 
 could give, but his blessing, and a piece of bread and 
 cheese from the thoughtful mother. He left the parental 
 homestead, travelled thirty miles, there found employment, 
 and from that day to this never has known want. For the 
 next five years he labored partly by the month, and also by 
 working farms on shares. In those days, when working a 
 farm on shares, you boarded with the family, including 
 washing, and had one-third of the profit. In the next five 
 years he laid up $500 was then married, bought a small 
 farm for $750, paid $250 down, with five years to pay the 
 balance. He worked it eight years, then sold, and was 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 85 
 
 worth at that time 82, 100. Worked a farm on shares for 
 two years was then worth $3,100. Then bought a farm for 
 $4,500, having it so arranged that the payments would be 
 made from the grain and meat raised on the farm. When 
 that was paid for, he sold again and bought another for $8,200. 
 By improving in fencing and building, the farm is now 
 worth $13,000. Many young men, who commenced with 
 nothing, have now good homes, surrounded with all the 
 comforts of life. Working a farm on shares, he thinks is 
 quite as profitable for a young man as working by the month." 
 
 The importance of avoiding an unfavorable loca 
 tion, will be seen by attending to the description of 
 farm-lands in the neighborhood of Jamestown, ISTew 
 York, as given by Mr. W. H. Benson, in the fol 
 lowing article : 
 
 " Again, in regard to the best way for a poor young man 
 to get a farm : I think the discussion on this subject has 
 not yet touched bottom, and that much more might be 
 said that would be of advantage, at least to some lone one. 
 W T orking out by the month, and earning enough to buy a 
 farm, would, in my humble opinion, bring a young man so 
 far past that title, that, in nine cases out of ten, he would 
 go down to the grave gray and sorrowing, with the ob 
 ject of his lifetime still far in the distance. As to taking 
 farms or working land on shares, I think that would be the 
 best and only way : but even then it must be sought under 
 favorable circumstances. In this locality it would be up 
 hill business, and the reason why is this : In the first place, 
 the price of farming land is about double its real value for 
 farming purposes. Secondly, the landowner asks double 
 the rent that the tenant can afford to pay, and if the tenant 
 takes a farm on shares, the bargain will b something like 
 
86 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 tliis : The farm will be poor, for no good ones are to be 
 let. The young man must do all the work, pay all the 
 taxes, repair miles of old tumble-down fences, and make a 
 certain amount of new repair and fix up the old house 
 and barns, build his own sheds, hog-pens, &c. ; cut, in the 
 aggregate, about ten acres of brush around stumps, in fence 
 corners, &c., then put in all his spare time to picking up 
 stone and rubbish, and drawing them from the meadows. 
 
 " Then he must find his own team, tools, and stock (if 
 he has any), keep it on his own half of the hay and grain, 
 and pasture for the owner of the farm an equal amount of 
 stock. He must then give one-half of all the produce of 
 the farm, and will be allowed to stay but one year ; and 
 why ? because the farm is now in shape, and the owner can 
 afford to work it himself, or rent it to some one that will 
 agree to pay twice the rent he will ever be able to. Would 
 it not be a good way for a young man to rent a good farm, of 
 a good man, in a good locality (where he can make it an 
 object for himself and landlord also), with the privilege of 
 buying, and the rent, in case of purchase, to apply on the 
 purchase-money ? At least that is the opinion of one who 
 intends to try it when a favorable opportunity occurs." 
 
 So far the "West had taken no part in this discus 
 sion, though evidently watching its progress, but 
 now she claims a hearing, as will appear from the 
 following remarks of Mr. J. B. Porterfield, of Cham 
 paign, 111. His representations are in striking con 
 trast with the discouragements suggested by Mr. 
 Benson : 
 
 "We have been some amused at the correspondence 
 which has been published in your paper since the inquiry 
 was made as to the best way for a poor man to get a farm. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 87 
 
 Mr. Benson, of Jamestown, N. Y., gives a gloomy account 
 indeed of those who intend to try to buy a farm. The idea 
 of giviug one-half of all raised, besides hauling rocks, cutting 
 so many broad acres of brush, building pig-pens, making 
 sheds, <fec., all for the privilege of living on a poor farm 
 (Mr. B. assures us that none but poor ones are offered foi 
 rent) looks more like a joke than a reality to a Western 
 man. 
 
 " I am not accustomed to writing letters for publication, 
 nor am I in the habit of giving advice, but after reading 
 such gloomy accounts as those given since the inquiry was 
 first made, I determined to try my hand at it. And now 
 I would say to all those who have the pluck to try to get 
 a farm under such disadvantageous circumstances as Mr. 
 Benson speaks of, to pull up stakes and come to Illinois, 
 where we will bid him a hearty welcome, where there are 
 no stones to pick, nor brush to cut around stumps and in 
 fence corners, and where, if you persist in renting, your 
 landlord will ask one-third of the grain raised, pay all 
 taxes himself, and furnish you with house, fuel, <fec. But 
 still a better way would be to buy a farm for yourself, 
 should it be only 40 acres. Mind, our lands are not en 
 cumbered with rock, brush, &c. But your whole 40 acres 
 is a perfect garden spot, and all the stock you may have 
 can roam on the prairies at large, which are covered with 
 a luxuriant growth of grass of the best kind for either 
 pasture or hay. 
 
 " Now, you will probably be ready to inquire what such 
 land can be bought for? It will cost from 83 to $10 per 
 acre, unimproved, and from 85 to $20 improved, and this 
 on almost any time the purchaser may desire. The Illinois 
 Central Railroad Company have, as you are aware, obtained 
 from the general Government a large grant of land to aid 
 them in the construction of their road, which has been 
 
HOW TO GET A FAKM 
 
 built, and hence the title is perfect. The company are 
 selling their lands now, and thousands of just such men as 
 your correspondent seems to be are availing themselves of 
 the liberal terms to secure to themselves homes, and thus 
 avoid renting lands, or in other words, becoming landlords 
 instead of being tenants. Their terms are as follows : 
 
 " Say Mr. B. buys a farm of 40 acres, at $5 per acre 
 $200. If paid in cash down, a reduction of 20 per cent, 
 will be made $160, which will be the entire cost. If the 
 purchaser choose to avail himself of the time given, it 
 would be thus : $200 at 6 per cent, for four years, $12 per 
 year ; at the end of said time one quarter of the principal 
 comes due $50, which amount comes due annually until 
 the principal is paid ; thus enabling Mr. B. to make the 
 price of his new home from the land itself. According to 
 an act of our State Legislature, all their lands are exempt 
 from taxation until paid in full, which is of itself consider 
 able inducement at a time like the present, when high 
 taxes stare every man in the face. 
 
 " I have thus endeavored to give the outline, hoping it 
 may lead those who are laboring so hard to become lords 
 of the soil, to examine into the matter, at least. I would 
 say further : This is a healthy place ; good pure water is 
 abundant ; society is good. Now, gentlemen, let me ad 
 vise you to quit renting lands in New York, or any other 
 place where you have such hard taskmasters, and where 
 the lords of the soil ask double what the lands are worth. 
 Should you happen to ever be able to buy yourselves homes, 
 come West ; we invite you to no mean country, but to the 
 garden of the world. This is admitted on all hands. 
 Illinois is but an infant in years ; still she is the fourth 
 State in population, and in the amount of grain raised, and 
 the amount of cattle and hogs, the first in the family of 
 States. We will welcome you with open arms to our 
 
AND WHEKE TO FIND ONE. 89 
 
 broad prairies and fertile soil, and where the inhabitants 
 are loyal to the best form of government the sun ever 
 shone upon, where the people respond to their chief exec 
 utive whenever he calls ; and I will here say, and I must 
 confess with feelings of pride, which the past proves, our 
 people are ready and willing to leave friends and pleasant 
 homes, and rally at our country s call. It matters little 
 whether our quota be 30,000, 40,000, 50,000, or 100,000 
 men, we are ready, and will respond. Our cattle are all 
 fat, our hogs also ; our granaries are full of small grain, 
 which now command a good price. Our corn is all 
 worked, and nothing now remains but to take it off. Our 
 mothers, wives, sisters, and daughters say, let all the men 
 go if necessary ; we will gather the corn. Thus you see 
 we are ready." 
 
 A cheering example of success, with continued 
 comfort during an entire life, is contributed to the 
 
 O 
 
 discussion by Mr. N. Heed, of Amenia, ~New York : 
 
 " Those examples of successful farming where young men 
 have been able, in a few years, to pay for and improve their 
 farms, seem, to many, extreme cases of success, and excep 
 tions to the general rule. The more usual conditions of 
 attaining the possession of a good farm, are many years of 
 industry and careful management. The profits of farming 
 are moderate, and the acquisition of a good estate by this 
 calling requires more patience than by any other. And 
 this is the reason why many young men turn from this to 
 some more promising profession. They are in haste to pos 
 sess the means of setting up a comfortable establishment, 
 and cannot think of waiting for years for an independence, 
 and turn therefore to some business which promises a for 
 tune in what they are pleased to call a reasonable time. 
 They mean to have a farm and gratify their rural tastes, 
 
90 
 
 when they shall have made money enough by some profita 
 ble business to be able to do so. 
 
 " It is not my purpose now to show how often these 
 young men are disappointed, and how they are deceived in 
 their views of the enjoyment of rural life. My object is to 
 give a word of encouragement to those who may be tempted 
 to shun the slow way of getting an estate, and my lesson 
 shall be drawn from the experience and observation of more 
 than twenty-five years. The experience of a large number 
 within my observation, during this time, may be considered 
 embodied in one case, which is probably a fair sample of a 
 very large number all over the land. 
 
 " A young man began his career by working for his father 
 at stipulated wages, which he continued a few years, until 
 his ability was fully tested, when he took the manage 
 ment of a farm on shares. The time at length came when 
 he would have a farm of his own, which he purchased with 
 much solicitude and many fears of ultimate success in pay 
 ing for it. His former accumulations, together with a small 
 patrimony from his father s estate, was not sufficient to pay 
 for half the cost of the farm and stock, and he often wished 
 himself on a smaller place, and out of debt. The farm he 
 purchased, like many others of that day, had been pretty 
 hardly run with crops of grain, and was much out of repair. 
 There was an enterprise requiring good courage and perse 
 verance. Our farmer had three principal things to do : he 
 had his family to support, which was not small, his debt to 
 pay, and his farm to improve. It is sufficient to say that he 
 carried these on together every year. There was no year 
 but at the end of it he had, besides paying the interest and 
 improving his farm, paid something upon the principal, gen 
 erally however a little less than he had anticipated. He 
 had not only these things to do, but he must sustain the so 
 cial position which his family and his education entitled him 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 91 
 
 to. His civil, social, and religious relations must be main 
 tained. Not one of these was neglected ; he stood in his 
 place as an American citizen, and took upon himself all the 
 duties and responsibilities of his station. In this respect he 
 avoided an error which most young men in debt fall into, 
 who in their impatience are ready to forego almost the com 
 forts of life, ignore most important social relations, and leave 
 all improvements till they are out of debt. They are will 
 ing to deny themselves and their families all the elegancies 
 of life, and make themselves mere drudges to obtain first 
 a competence ; and, when this is accomplished, they find 
 themselves unfitted by their habits and associations for a 
 true enjoyment of what they possess, have become sordid, 
 and are only satisfied with increase of gain. But our farmer 
 improved his place with many tasteful though simple em 
 bellishments, and his mind by reading and good society, 
 and this without any great expense of time and money. He 
 rejected the principle that a man ought to make as much 
 money as he can. 
 
 " He accomplished what he undertook, in paying for his 
 farm. Not quite as soon as he expected (the gray hairs be 
 gin to crown his head), for he had his share of the reverses 
 of business, and it might seem a loug time ; but when he 
 had paid his debt, he had a complete farm, a good estate, a 
 competence. For, as I said, he improved his farm yearly, 
 so that the productive capacity of it is more than doubled, 
 and the net profits are in still greater proportion ; the 
 fences are good, and the buildings greatly enlarged and im 
 proved, and the stock of the -farm increased in number and 
 value. So that what cost him ten thousand dollars is now 
 worth more than twenty thousand dollars. 
 
 " Xow, the very thing which our fast young men picture 
 to themselves as the desired end of all their anxious toil 
 and hazardous speculation, a quiet enjoyment of rural life, 
 
92 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 he has possessed from the beginning of his career. He has 
 not denied himself one of the real blessings of life. All the 
 healthful and satisfying delights of labor he has enjoyed 
 without many of its anxieties. What a zest it gives to his 
 labor that he is improving and embellishing what is to him, 
 and what will be to his children, a beloved home." 
 
 As appropriate to the subject in hand, a writer, 
 under the signature of " B," contributed the follow 
 ing sensible remarks : 
 
 "A farm should be the home, and its management the 
 business of the owner. It is true, one may be hired or 
 worked on shares, but very seldom do we see land, cultivated 
 under such circumstances, managed in a way worthy of the 
 name of farming. Ownership seems necessary to a proper 
 appreciation of the characteristics and powers of the soil. 
 We again see a movement in the real estate market sales 
 and purchases of farms, and it suggests some thoughts on 
 what one should look to and seek for in buying a farm. 
 
 " Considered as the homestead and abiding place of the 
 owner, a farm should be pleasantly and conveniently situa 
 ted. The health, comfort, and happiness of those who oc 
 cupy it, are of the first importance ; so every social and 
 physical influence which bear upon them should have due 
 weight in determining a choice. A healthy locality should 
 be considered far above a fertile soil. The thousand things 
 which promote home-comfort will compensate for many pe 
 cuniary disadvantages. Happiness, the enjoyment of social 
 privileges and blessings, go far to make a sterile soil of 
 greater value than the most productive, where a moral 
 miasma prevails. A situation of easy access to the great 
 routes of business and mails, with educational and religious 
 privileges of a high class, would be considered of the high 
 est importance by the intelligent and cultivated man, who 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 93 
 
 would enjoy the best privileges of American life and so 
 ciety. 
 
 " Another thought. The new location should be suited 
 to the tastes and character of the purchaser. Men of ma 
 ture age are usually of fixed habits and dispositions, such as 
 do not change with a removal to another home. They 
 should find then, in the new, the best pleasures and con 
 veniences of the old, and as many improvements as may be. 
 But if circumstances require any considerable change, it 
 should be remembered that to make it will require some 
 exertion and energy they must expect this, or meet disap 
 pointment. Their children may find a happier and better 
 life in the new locality the sacrifice of old habits can be 
 made for their sakes. 
 
 " As a business, the requisites of successful farming de 
 pend to a considerable extent on the choice of the farm. 
 It should be one which the owner has the means and the 
 understanding to manage. One cannot put all his capital 
 in land, and expect to farm profitably on credit and make 
 shifts often so cramped that all improvements are out of 
 his reach. As well might the merchant put his whole cap 
 ital into a fine store, reserving nothing to purchase the goods 
 wherewith to fill the shelves and attract customers. It re 
 quires as much capital to stock and carry on a farm gener 
 ally, as to pay for the land itself. The farmer needs capital 
 to keep his credit good to take advantage of the markets 
 in buying and selling, and in making seasonable improve 
 ments. A farmer loses money who is compelled by want 
 of money to sell his crop at the lowest stage of the market, 
 or who cannot command extra labor in any emergency of 
 the season, or who is obliged to wait for years to get a few 
 hundred dollars to drain a swamp that would pay him the 
 interest on a thousand dollars as soon as the work was 
 done. 
 
94 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 " The farm should be suited to the products which it is 
 desired to devote it to. The taste and experience of the 
 owner will incite him to undertake certain branches of farm 
 ing, but some soils are best calculated for grain-growing, 
 others will produce extra fruit, others have grass and water 
 for the dairy, or stock generally, while occasional locations 
 are to be found where all these may be combined to a greater 
 or less extent. These things should be taken into account 
 in buying a farm. 
 
 "Then market facilities are to be considered. In the 
 management of a farm much depends on this, and it is a 
 matter of moment whether it will cost five cents or fifty to 
 bring a dollar s worth of produce to the consumer. In the 
 vicinity of large towns the production of garden crops is 
 often very profitable, while at a distance from market no 
 dependence can be put on such products. The one can 
 grow a large variety to dispose of something every week 
 bringing in the cash while the other must necessarily 
 devote himself to a few leading articles, his harvest oc 
 curring but two or three times a year. But the recent 
 great increase in the means of transportation has done much 
 to equalize the value of farming lands throughout the coun 
 try, especially when devoted to the more valuable and least 
 bulky articles of produce. 
 
 " Again, a farm should possess in itself good capacity of 
 production, so that it may be readily and profitably man 
 aged, in such a way as to retain and increase the fertility 
 of the soil. A farm easily worn out a course of manage 
 ment rapidly exhausting the fertility of the soil, would soon 
 bankrupt the farmer 5 his business would no longer be re 
 munerative ; his home and his comforts would soon pass 
 away. Hence it is not all to buy a farm ; one must also have 
 the skill to manage it rightly. To do business profitably, 
 one must understand business principles and carry them 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 95 
 
 out, and nowhere is this more important than upon the 
 farm. The question is often debated whether farming is 
 really profitable or not ; but, could we only see the fortunes 
 lost by the careless habits of those who pursue it, the de 
 cision would soon be arrived at." 
 
 These remarks drew " F." once more into the 
 arena, in the following communication : 
 
 "B. has some very good remarks on buying a farm, 
 with the most of which I fully agree. But the general tenor 
 of the fourth paragraph is not of that general practical 
 character that is best calculated to benefit the great mass 
 of American farmers. True, it looks and sounds well on 
 paper, and could we have farmers made or got up to order, 
 giving to each one the amount of land or capital he is or 
 may be capable of farming or using to the best advantage, 
 it would be all correct. But this is not the -case. Instead 
 of having sufficient capital to buy stock and carry on their 
 farms to the best advantage, the great mass of farmers have 
 had to make and get together the principal part of this very 
 capital by farming. Consequently it is of little use to tell 
 them what sized farm can be carried on to the best advan 
 tage, or the amount of capital it is necessary to have to 
 commence farming with, or to carry on the farm after it is 
 purchased ; for, as a general thing they have to buy, calcu 
 late, and manage, according to the circumstances in which 
 they are placed. 
 
 " Inseparably connected with this question, is the one of 
 going in debt -for land, or of paying part down, and the 
 balance in a term of years, the money to be made out of 
 the use of the farm. Although there is much in the ac 
 counts of individual experience published in agricultural 
 papers, that goes to show that men have done well, and 
 have been very successful, when in debt, yet it is the general 
 
96 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 custom of editors, and more or less of other writers, when 
 treating these questions in a general way to strongly oppose 
 as is done in the paragraph above mentioned any run 
 ning in debt for land. The idea appears to be and in the 
 abstract it is well enough that a debt on a farm is a clog, 
 a hindrance, a something that stands in the way of or pre 
 vents the practice of the most successful course of farming 
 an idea that seems to view the farm, and the capital ne 
 cessary to carry it on, as an end already attained, and only 
 as a means to make a living, and accumulate more capital. 
 Yet, with the great majority of American farmers, farming 
 has been the principal or only means to get the farm, as 
 well as the stock and capital to carry it on. Hence, 
 on commencing, they are not called to decide on how 
 large a farm, or how much capital they have to farm to the 
 best advantage ; or whether they can do as well when in 
 debt for their farms as they could if out of debt, with plenty 
 of money to use ; but, on the contrary, the great practical 
 question is how to get the farm. Comparatively few have 
 the farm, or the money to buy it furnished, to begin with ; 
 and, though there are some that, having sold a farm, have 
 money to buy another with, though, as a general thing, 
 such men have sold with a view of improving their circum 
 stances, aiming or intending to buy a larger or better farm, 
 which will cost more than the one sold, and in most instan 
 ces put them in debt ; still, as a general thing, it was the 
 same with them as with others at the first commencement. 
 " Hence, I repeat, the question is how to get the farm. 
 And involved in this question are many others, such as, is 
 it best to try to get a farm by buying and running in debt 
 for the whole of it ? or is it best to wait until money enough 
 is made in some other way to pay all down ? or is it best to 
 pay part down, and run in debt for the rest ? Or, to put 
 the question in a different and more practical shape, if a 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 9 
 
 man has only money enough to buy and pay down for twenty- 
 five acres, had he better buy fifty acres, running in debt for 
 twenty-five acres ; or, if he had only money enough to buy 
 and stock fifty acres, had he better buy that amouut, or buy 
 one hundred acres, running in debt for fifty, and arranging 
 and managing his stock so as to raise enough in a few years 
 to fully stock his farm ? Or had he better take the advice 
 often given in the papers, that is, only buy when he is able 
 to pay for land enough to farm to the best advantage, and 
 to have an amount of capital equal to the cost of the farm, 
 as advised by B. ? 
 
 Nuw, it would be useless to give any farmer such ad 
 vice here in this section of the State. Good farms sell here 
 at from sixty to eighty dollars an acre, and the best size for 
 a farm, to work to the best advantage, is probably from one 
 hundred and fifty to three hundred acre-. Such farms as well 
 situated for, and as well adapted to farming to the best ad 
 vantage, as seems to be demanded by the general tenor 
 of B. s remarks, would cost from $10,000 to $20,000, to 
 say nothing of adding as much more to stock and carry on 
 the farm. So that in almost all cases to advise a man not 
 to commence farming until he has such a farm, with such 
 an amount of capital to w r ork it with, would be equivalent 
 to advising him to not buy at all. It will do little good to 
 show him that farming can be made the most productive 
 and profitable where the farms are large enough to use all 
 the most approved tools, implements, and machines to the 
 best advantage, and where there is all of the capital that 
 can be made available or used profitably; or to tell him 
 that the greatest prosperity of the community and country 
 requires, and the character and standing of the farming 
 class may be promoted by this kind of farming. He will, 
 perhaps, a-sent to all you say, but tell you that this is not 
 the main question with him. That the main object being 
 
 5 
 
98 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 to get a farm, and having money enough to pay from one- 
 fourth to one-half down for such a farm as he wants or 
 would be glad to get, with sufficient means to get the ne 
 cessary teams, tools, etc., to work it to good advantage, and 
 to provide for supplying or raising all necessary stock, 
 the question is, is it best to buy ? Can he pay for the farm, 
 and is there any better course for him to take than to buy 
 and go to work and pay for a farm ? 
 
 " Then again : You may tell him that some of those that 
 run in debt for farms fail, and lose all they have ; while 
 others have a long, hard, up-hill business in paying for their 
 farms. But he may answer that it need not necessarily be 
 so ; that more or less fail in all kinds of business, situations, 
 and circumstances ; but that, as a general rule, those that 
 run in debt more or less for their farms succeed in paying for 
 them, and often attain to very comfortable and independent 
 circumstances, without suffering any very great hardships 
 or privations. And did he live in this section he might 
 say, that as a general thing all of the best and ablest farm 
 ers are men that, having begun with but little, if any, capi 
 tal, have made the principal part of their property while in 
 debt ; that there are very few farmers that are considered 
 forehanded, or well off, but that have at some time been 
 in debt for farms ; that some of the ablest men, worth from 
 $20,000 to $25,000, have not only commenced farming with 
 very little if any capital, but doing business on the general 
 principle of buying and running in debt in most part for 
 land, and then going to work and paying for it ; when one 
 piece is paid for, soon buying another, and so keeping on, 
 seldom out of debt long at a time, but generally making 
 money, and satisfied and contented, they have eventually 
 attained to circumstances that would be considered very 
 satisfactory to most men. 
 
 " True, their course or system of farming, though gener- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 99 
 
 ally not bad, is not up to the highest standard of modern 
 agriculture. But this is owing more to following old prac 
 tices and prejudices, and the kind of, or want of education, 
 than the want of means. And I may also say that their 
 general course of farming is being gradually but surely and 
 largely advanced and improved by the younger class of 
 farmers that are coming on ; some of them having, in pro 
 portion to their chances and opportunities, been more suc 
 cessful than any of the older class. 
 
 " A few words in regard to running into debt for land. A 
 land debt, when entered into with proper precautions, and 
 well guarded, the farm being worth considerable more 
 than the debt, and in a fertile condition, giving reasonable 
 assurance of producing more than enough to pay the inter 
 est and a portion of the principal each year, and payments 
 arranged so as to give ample time to meet them, is not a 
 thing to be so much dreaded. In fact, it often seems to 
 be an advantage. It seems to furnish an object, an end to 
 strive for, to be attained to. It gives the farmer a home, a 
 something that he wants and means to keep, that he would 
 be sorry and ashamed to lose, and altogether something 
 that will induce him to work harder and manage better 
 than he has ever done before, rather than fail in. This 
 seems to be so well understood among farmers that the 
 remark is often heard, * that the best way to make money 
 by farming is to buy and run in debt for land, and then go 
 to work and pay for it. 
 
 "Perhaps I cannot better close this part of the subject 
 and this article, than by giving a little of the experience of 
 a farmer in the north part of this county, as related by him 
 self to a friend of the writer. He said, that having got his 
 farm paid for, and a little money ahead, his family thought 
 they must have something a little better than common, so 
 they persuaded him to buy a $300 carriage. When they 
 
100 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 got this home they discovered that they had no harness to 
 match, so he had to buy a costly harness. Then they said 
 the old farm-horses were not fit to go before the new car 
 riage, so he had to pay $300 for a better pair. And then 
 it was fine clothes and costly furniture, etc., etc., until, as 
 he said, he could stand it no longer. And he continued : I 
 have now drawn to market my last load of wheat, and have 
 a thousand dollars in money. I can buy a neighbor s farm 
 that is handy and convenient to mine, for $5,000. I think 
 it is worth it, and I am going to buy it to-day. I find that, 
 as things are going, about all we can earn will go to sup 
 port extravagance ; while I know if I go in debt for a de 
 sirable piece of property, like this farm, my family will go 
 to work and help me pay for it. We will then have some 
 thing really valuable to show for our labor, and that some 
 day will do my children some good. " 
 
 With the following brief rejoinder by "B." the 
 discussion was closed : 
 
 " The question of running in debt for a farm, under cer 
 tain circumstances, is argued very fairly by F., of Orleans 
 county, N. Y., in the Country Gentleman of March 26 ; but 
 we see very little in the paragraph of B. s article to which 
 he refers, to call out his remarks. The advice is given not 
 to put all one s capital in land, retaining nothing to stock and 
 carry it on ; and something must always be reserved for 
 this purpose. No business can be carried on without capi 
 tal of some kind because something can never result from 
 nothing valuable crops always require seed and culture. 
 
 " In buying a farm the mistake generally made is in not 
 providing sufficient means to carry it on. There is no diffi 
 culty in getting extended credit for a part of the purchase- 
 money on a good farm, and we believe the most direct 
 means of becoming in fact the owner of one, is to go in debt, 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 101 
 
 if necessary, to a sufficient amount to provide ample means 
 for its stocking, cultivation, and improvement. To make 
 money rapidly, by farming, requires ample capital ; those 
 who cannot command it, lose, to say the least, one-half the 
 profit they would otherwise secure. It may be true that 
 those farmers who can see no better investment for their 
 gains than the purchase of finery, need the pressure of debt 
 to forward their advancement in property. In many cases, 
 however, it would be more profitable than any other course, 
 to spend their surplus capital in improvements on the old 
 farm for several years, before adding a single acre to its ex 
 tent in surface. 
 
 " We have seen and known of so many losses in farming, 
 for the want of capital, that it makes us the more particu 
 lar to urge this matter on the attention of farmers. We 
 hope F., with his wide extent of practical experience, may 
 have seen something corroborative of this view of the mat 
 ter, and that he will present it and illustrate it with his usual 
 force and ability, in your columns." 
 
 The remarkable discussion thus quoted will not 
 fail to give the reader many new and practical ideas 
 on the subject of getting a farm. It ranges over 
 many branches of the question, and contains a mass 
 of robust good sense which an ambitious young man 
 cannot too closely study. The suggestions made are 
 not those of enthusiastic theorists, but the fruits of 
 long and grave experience, such as, having been in 
 most cases successful, are entitled to the highest re 
 spect. It is to be noted, moreover, that the question 
 of how to get a farm being once started by one who 
 saw the difficulty of obtaining it without capital, 
 the subject was immediately recognized to be one of 
 
102 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 great and general importance, and that a large 
 number of intelligent and experienced men hastened 
 to engage in publicly discussing it. As in a multi 
 tude of counsellors there is sometimes wisdom, so in 
 this friendly collision of opinion the seeker after 
 knowledge on the subject will obtain new light, 
 strong encouragement, and every reasonable incent 
 ive to induce a beginning. This country must con 
 tain thousands of men who, in the various ways 
 thus indicated, are now living on homesteads which 
 their fathers or themselves have thus acquired. 
 
 It was the reading of this discussion in the col 
 umns of the Country Gentleman that led me to pre 
 pare this volume. It struck me that all that ought 
 to be said on the subject had not been discussed. 
 Indeed, the columns of a weekly journal do riot 
 afford space for a consideration of the numerous 
 aspects in which it might be presented. It was evi 
 dent, from the number of writers who volunteered 
 to throw light on the question, that it was one in 
 which a general interest must be felt. Hence my 
 effort to increase the usefulness of the discussion by 
 grouping together all that has been already said, 
 with more that has been omitted. 
 
AND WHERE TO FI1JD ONE. 103 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 Exhausted Farms always to be had Thriving Tenants Owners 
 anxious to sell Bartering Farms A lucky Beginner City 
 Owners Taking Advice Where to Search Saving a poor 
 Farm Struggling with limited Means A Cry from a Working 
 Man. 
 
 THE discussions quoted in the preceding chapters, 
 though very clear and full, are far from exhausting 
 the subject. There are multitudes of farms in all 
 the Atlantic States whose owners have never con 
 templated working them. Some purchased as an 
 investment, thinking farm land the safest property 
 to hold. They rented them for a succession of years 
 to tenants who skinned them with merciless assidu 
 ity, making them a heavier burthen to their owners 
 the longer they held them. Year by year they thus 
 became poorer and less productive. If rented on 
 shares, as is generally the case, the tenants appro 
 priated most of the product, the owners getting 
 little or nothing. The latter lived away off in some 
 distant city ; they rarely visited their country prop 
 erty ; they had neither taste nor opportunity for 
 seeing whether it was handled wisely or honestly ; 
 the tenants were thus left to exhaust the land as 
 rapidly as they could, and were depended on to 
 make report, at the year s end, of what was 
 
104: HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 generally a bad season, of poor crops, poorer 
 prices, and a still poorer return to the expectant 
 owners. 
 
 If the plundering tenant were discharged, he was 
 generally succeeded by another whose genius for 
 stealing was superior to that of his predecessor, as 
 upon an exhausted farm he must skin more severely 
 and steal more largely, to obtain a living. If the 
 iirst thief took nearly all, the second was sure to 
 take what was left. The owner being thus annually 
 robbed, becomes tired of what he once considered 
 the safest investment, and is anxious to sell. 
 
 But a farm thus long the victim of spoliation, 
 finds few cash buyers. It will require time, labor, 
 and money, to restore it. Depreciation is a rapid 
 process, but restoration a slow one. Cash buyers 
 prefer land in good condition, considering it cheaper 
 to enter on a farm in prime order, at a high price, 
 than on a poor one at a- low figure. It is fortunate 
 for the country that all who are looking for farms 
 do not entertain the same opinion. If they did, the 
 numerous tracts which have been thus skinned to 
 death would be reoccupied by the forest, as none 
 would be found courageous enough to undertake 
 the slow and costly process of resuscitating them. 
 
 The disheartened owner thus finds neither a buyer 
 nor an acceptable tenant, nor is he so situated as to 
 give his farm the least attention himself. He does 
 not need the purchase-money all he desires is to 
 find some reliable man to relieve him of the care 
 of an intolerable burden, by taking the farm on 
 some terms. It must be occupied by somebody, as 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 105 
 
 absolute desertion of house and grounds is as 
 ruinous to a farm as idleness to the machinery of a 
 cotton-mill. Should a young and competent man 
 now offer himself as purchaser, fortified by good 
 character and a knowledge of his calling, the 
 chances are that he can secure the farm on such 
 terms as to price and payment, as will make it the 
 great and successful operation of his life. Such a 
 man, having constantly looked forward to beginning 
 for himself, will have saved a few hundred dollars ; 
 and these will be found sufficient for a start. Others 
 have begun in like circumstances, with no capital 
 but their hands, and have succeeded. 
 
 I have seen more than one farm thus owned, thus 
 plundered and exhausted, thus an encumbrance on 
 the owner s hands, and thus passing into the pos 
 session of men with little or no capital, who in a 
 few years had paid, from its own products, every 
 dollar of the purchase money. From the day they 
 entered into possession they enjoyed the comforts of 
 a home. It might at first be scanty, rough, and in 
 convenient, but still it was home. Every tree they 
 planted became an investment for their own exclus 
 ive benefit. In every furrow they turned, some 
 golden particles were discoverable at the bottom. 
 Every spoonful of manure they bought or manufac 
 tured, was equivalent to a fund invested at more 
 than compound interest. 
 
 There are hundreds of poor farms now held by 
 their owners because no buyers can be found. Men 
 in search of land should seek them out, bargain for 
 them at low prices and at long terms of payment, 
 
106 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 and enter into possession. Let no want of capital 
 operate as a discouragement, but go resolutely to 
 work. Such beginners should avoid great farms. 
 Far better to begin with thirty or fifty acres, pay 
 for that, and then, if more land be indispensable to 
 comfort, enlarge the boundary. 
 
 There are two other classes of owners on whose 
 hands farm property hangs either lightly or with 
 oppressive weight. In all the large cities there is 
 maintained an active trading business, in which 
 houses, lots, land, merchandise, and patent-rights, 
 are passed rapidly from hand to hand. Money is 
 sometimes mentioned, but rarely paid the whole 
 transaction is one of barter. One who will take the 
 pains to look over the registers kept by these city 
 dealers, in which are entered the properties they 
 have for sale or barter, will be astonished at the ex 
 tent and variety of the collection. There is almost 
 every thing that anybody can desire houses, lots, 
 farms, mills, factories, water powers, wild land, some 
 of which is within an hour s ride of a great cash 
 market, and others two thousand miles away. Many 
 of the farms have been taken in barter by city 
 owners, whose sole business it is to get rid of them 
 as quickly as they bought them. In some cases 
 money is wanted, in others it is not, the barter being 
 repeated by exchanging the farm for something con 
 sidered more salable. Thus the barter is kept mov 
 ing until some commodity turns up which can be 
 converted into money. 
 
 I saw at one of these agencies, in Philadelphia, a 
 tolerably good farm sold in exchange for a half in- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 107 
 
 terest in a patent pump, which was subsequently 
 found to be a failure. On another occasion, a young 
 man of six-and-twenty, dressed in a farmer s every 
 day suit, came in to look after a place of seventy 
 acres which he had seen advertised. The advertise 
 ment did not state exactly where it lay, but the low 
 price of 700 attracted his attention. The seller 
 opened his thick book and read out a minute de 
 scription, on hearing which the inquirer immediately 
 recognized the farm as one of which he had long had 
 some knowledge. After a very short parley he 
 bought it. This farm was improved with buildings 
 which had cost 1,200, though now old and out of 
 repair. The fencing could not have been placed 
 there for less than 300, while there were other ap 
 pliances about the house sufficient to make a mod 
 erate family comfortable. There was wood enough 
 on it for fuel, and it was within two hours ride of 
 Philadelphia by railroad. 
 
 But why should it have been sold so low ? The 
 former owner was a lazy, thriftless fellow, and, like 
 the weeds on his land, had fairly gone to seed. 
 Poor, of course, the longer he remained there the 
 poorer he became, and thinking he could better 
 himself in the West, where land was cheap, bar 
 tered off his farm for a half section, 320 acres, of 
 Missouri land. This half section had cost the buyer 
 500 at least he had taken it at that figure in a 
 previous trade. He had never seen it, neither had 
 he ever been to examine the farm for which he ex 
 changed it. His business was to buy and sell, not 
 to examine property or to keep it. Thus 700 was 
 
108 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 to him a capital price, the more so if it should be 
 paid in cash. 
 
 The lucky young man who bought it had been 
 for six years a careful saver of his earnings, and 
 had $800 in hand. He had concluded to marry and 
 get a farm. His intended wife, also brought up in 
 the country, had saved $200. The union of these 
 two little capitals thus gave him the very start in 
 life he was seeking. But his excellent character 
 was good for another thousand, whenever he chose 
 to borrow. Buying such a property at such a price, 
 and occupying and working it himself, must have 
 laid for him the foundation of a certain independ 
 ence. This incident forcibly illustrates the value of 
 even small savings how they sometimes enable a 
 deserving man to seize upon the golden opportunity 
 the moment it presents itself. 
 
 There is another class of city owners, not profes 
 sional traders in property, who, having something 
 which they were anxious to part with, have ex 
 changed it for a farm, thinking thus to better them 
 selves. But these soon discover that a farm so far 
 off that one can rarely see it, is a great plague, arid 
 speedily become anxious to sell, even at a loss. If 
 a sale for money be found impossible, then one on 
 credit is gladly made. The main object is not so 
 much to get money as to shake off a perpetual care. 
 They discover that an idle farm goes to ruin as rap 
 idly as an idle steamboat. 
 
 Here are different classes of persons, all owners 
 of farms, and all governed by the same feeling, that 
 of anxiety to get rid of them. These reside in cities. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 109 
 
 It is apparent, then, that one likely way to get a 
 farm is, in the first place to seek out such properties 
 as are known to belong to distant owners, and which 
 are at the same time being skinned by worthless or 
 dishonest tenants ; to obtain all the information pos 
 sible in reference to the property ; and then to find 
 the owner and negotiate with him on the basis of a 
 purchase, with ample time for payment. He will 
 listen more respectfully to the man who proposes to 
 buy than to one who merely proposes to rent. An 
 offer to buy implies ability to pay at least some 
 time and holds out a prospect of the owner being 
 relieved of a great annoyance. Renting is synony 
 mous with continuance of an old and hateful griev 
 ance. Small means will be no hindrance against 
 the application of a worthy man in these circum 
 stances. Character will be the preponderating in 
 gredient towards success, and, as in most others, will 
 determine the question in his favor. 
 
 I could recite three instances where this advice 
 was given, and/ being acted on, success attended 
 each application. In two of them, the good conduct 
 of the applicants was so conspicuous as to secure the 
 confidence and friendship of the men from whom 
 they had purchased, to such an extent, that, what 
 ever facilities were subsequently needed, were vol 
 untarily supplied. Character and conduct secured 
 them friends, and were absolute equivalents to cap 
 ital. Kind words, moreover, were constantly spoken. 
 Though cheap, yet they were valuable because in 
 spiriting. Some men are naturally given to them ; 
 feeling that such utterance is like lighting another 
 
110 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 man s candle with your own, which loses none of its 
 brilliancy by what the other gains. 
 
 So, too, the shrewd man with few or no dollars in 
 his pocket, should watch the advertising columns of 
 every newspaper he can lay hands on. Wise men 
 resort to them to let the world know what they have 
 to sell, and other wise ones the buyers drink daily 
 at the same fountains of intelligence. It is notori 
 ous that vast fortunes have been made by those who 
 have freely advertised their wares. Is it not reas 
 onable to presume that those who read and pur 
 chased have had their share of profit? There are 
 more bargains to be found in the newspapers than 
 at the auctions. 
 
 He should also consult the thick registry books, 
 kept by the numerous dealers in real estate, in all 
 the large cities. These books contain descriptions 
 of thousands of properties on sale. Many of the 
 latter will be found to be desirable bargains. He 
 must be hard indeed to please, if unable to find 
 among them some one to exactly suit his wants. 
 Having thus pleased himself, the chances are that 
 he will find little difficulty in being able to please 
 the owner. It may be urged that farmers, es 
 pecially young and inexperienced ones, are not 
 business men enough to undertake a pilgrimage of 
 this kind to strange places, among strange men. 
 But bargains do not come to you ready made. The 
 gold of California did not come to those who re 
 mained at home, but to those who went after it. 
 They must break away from the old routine of their 
 lives, remembering that our customs and habits are 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. Ill 
 
 like ruts in the roads. The wheels of life settle into 
 them, and we jog along through the mire, because 
 it is too much trouble to get out of them. 
 
 I could point to one farm thus taken from an 
 owner so disheartened that at one time it was seri 
 ously contemplated to abandon it. The soil seemed 
 hopelessly sterile, was chiefly yellow dirt with gravel, 
 and had apparently as little capacity for retaining 
 manure as a sieve for holding water. But deep 
 ploughing and heavy manuring with fertilizers, man 
 ufactured on the premises by hogs and cattle, have 
 brought it up to yielding thirty bushels of wheat per 
 acre. Patience and perseverance, with very mod 
 erate capital to begin with, overcame every thing. 
 As may be supposed, it was purchased for a small 
 sum, but in ten years could have been sold for a 
 large one. Instances of recuperation are too numer 
 ous to be recited. 
 
 The design and object of this volume cannot be 
 better promoted than by quoting from the Country 
 Gentleman the following inquiry, made by one of 
 the large class of persons who are constantly looking 
 for a country home, with the editor s answer. His 
 ripe experience of agricultural subjects gives the 
 highest value to his remarks. The inquirer de 
 scribes himself as a young lawyer 
 
 " Making about $400 per year by my profession, and with 
 almost no hope of increase, as the market is overstocked ; 
 and I am sensible that I am neither a Kent, an Emmet, nor 
 a Story. Having a \vife and child to support, I am anxious 
 to try some other business, that will better enable me to do 
 so than at present. Would farming be better ? 
 
112 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 " I possess a thorough theoretical knowledge of agricul 
 ture, having at college made chemistry and botany my par 
 ticular studie^, and have, for years, been a constant reader 
 of the best agricultural books and periodicals, the Cultiva 
 tor included. I have had considerable experience in 
 gardening, and have been very successful. There my quali 
 fications end. I have never worked a whole day in the 
 field, and am too feeble in body to do much labor of any 
 kind. 
 
 " About five minutes walk from my house and from the 
 
 town of B , there is a piece of land containing sixteen 
 
 acres of good clayey loam, sloping toward the south about 
 one hundred feet down to the seashore, where marine weeds 
 are abundant for manure. It is well fenced, but the build 
 ings are worth nothing. It has been badly cultivated, with 
 out any kind of manuring. It rents for $50 a year, and 
 may be bought for $1,000, on easy terms, say $100 cash, 
 and the rest in eight years. My whole available funds are 
 about $200. Would it be prudent, then, to buy it ? I can 
 hire a good man for $80 a year and board. Produce brings 
 fair prices, and is readily bought up : barley, at $1 per 
 bushel ; oats, 60 cents ; potatoes, 60 cents ; Swede turnips, 
 about 40 cents; and hay $15 a ton, this year, and about 
 $9, in other years. Indian corn we rarely grow, being lia 
 ble to early frosts. Will you give me your advice ? It 
 would not be necessary to relinquish the law altogether ; I 
 could probably make $200 by it, and still work the land." 
 
 The case is stated with lawyer-like precision, 
 whereupon the editor replies in the following lan 
 guage : 
 
 " In giving advice, in such a case as this, it should be 
 borne in mind that more depends on THE MAN than on the 
 nature of the business, provided the latter is such as to 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 113 
 
 give an opportunity for the exercise of the energies. We 
 have known of more than one instance where two men, 
 with similar opportunities and means, have succeeded very 
 differently at the same business one failing, and the other 
 accumulating wealth. Hence we cannot advise, in a general 
 way, the purchase of a farm, by running almost wholly in 
 debt for it. A few would easily work out ; but to most, 
 the debt would be likely to prove a long-continued and op 
 pressive load. It must depend upon the management, tact, 
 and economy in every sense of the word, possessed by the 
 purchaser in question. 
 
 " If we were to give one rule in business for beginners, 
 which we should place at the head of all others, it would 
 be FEEL YOUR WAY. Do not undertake any thing untried, 
 on a large scale, no matter how promising the results may 
 appear. The most uniformly successful men in business 
 have nearly always pursued this course ; and we could, on 
 the other hand, name many instances where large and bad 
 failures have resulted from a different practice. 
 
 " Our correspondent should not give up his practice of 
 law immediately. He must depend on that mainly for two 
 or three years at least, until he gets under way in farming. 
 If he could rent the land for two years, with the privilege 
 of purchasing, it would undoubtedly be best. But this, 
 probably, cannot be accomplished. He must therefore 
 take into consideration the probable cost, in addition to the 
 land, of animals to stock it (for even the smallest farm 
 should have some animals), the expense of a horse or of a 
 yoke of oxen, of the various necessary implements to work 
 it to the best advantage, and of proper buildings. A man 
 must be also hired to do most of the labor in the present 
 instance. All these will be found to consume more than 
 the proceeds of the land for the first year or two. If, after 
 all these calculations, he can be sure of meeting his inter- 
 
114 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 est and other payments, allowing for disasters and contin 
 gencies, a purchase may be made. 
 
 "Great judgment and skill should be exercised in select 
 ing first, those improvements which promise the greatest 
 returns with the least outlay. On this branch of the sub 
 ject a large book might be written. We can only say 
 here, make a list of proposed improvements examine from 
 all the practical knowledge that can be collected, and to 
 some extent from limited experiment on the spot, the prob 
 able cost on the one hand, and the probable advantages on 
 the other, and then select first, those showing the largest 
 percentage of profits. These may be some kinds of ma 
 nuring, or some cheap and efficient underdraining, or deep 
 plowing of the tillage land, or heavy seeding of the grass 
 land, or the cultivation of certain crops, or the introduc 
 tion of certain animals, remembering the rule in all cases, 
 
 FEEL YOUR WAY. 
 
 " Sixteen acres constitute but a small farm, but such a 
 farm, skilfully managed, may after a while be made to pro 
 duce a considerable amount. Ordinary field crops alone 
 will not be likely to produce even one-half of the $400 now 
 made by law practice ; but these, with fruit raising, rearing 
 fine animals, producing marketable garden crops, and per 
 haps the more salable fruit trees, may, with skilful hands, 
 be made to increase the product to an almost indefinite 
 extent. 
 
 " We have heard wealthy farmers assert, that not over 
 two per cent, on the cost of their farms and the capital to 
 stock them, could be fairly relied on as an average for all 
 seasons. But this estimate is made for ordinary superficial 
 farming. We have found, by experience, that a better 
 mode of practice, economically pursued, would, without 
 any special trouble, double the products, and triple or 
 quadruple the net profits. For instance, where a ton and 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 115 
 
 a half of grass are commonly cut, four tons have been 
 produced simply by heavy seeding and plastering; where 
 thirty bushels of corn have been the common crop, seventy 
 bushels have resulted from well applied manure, selected 
 seed, and good cultivation ; and where only two hundred 
 bushels of carrots or rutabagas were ordinarily yielded, 
 six to eight hundred have been obtained by performing 
 every part of the operation promptly, in the best manner, 
 and on a deep and rich soil. We have known a gain of 
 more than one hundred dollars a year on a single farm from 
 a selection of the most efficient tools, and proper labor- 
 saving machines. We could also name some farmers, who, 
 instead of reaping an average net profit of only two per 
 cent., make at least twenty per cent.; and some of the 
 best farmers of Western New York (and doubtless else 
 where) clear from $700 to $900 from every hundred acres 
 and in one case about S6000 have been made in a single sea 
 son from a five-hundred-acre farm. The owners and managers 
 of these farms were active, intelligent, and energetic men, 
 of long experience, always in the midst of every important 
 operation, and we need scarcely add, constant readers of 
 the best agricultural publications of the day." 
 
 Such are the opinions of one who has long been 
 regarded as an agricultural authority. They are 
 cautiously expressed, but are not discouraging. 
 They strengthen the position taken throughout these 
 pages, that it is not the mere land which makes the 
 cultivator independent, but the skill and industry 
 with which he handles it. They may be said to lie 
 at the foundation of all intelligent, well-directed 
 labor. An animal will grow if generously fed; if 
 not, he must remain nearly stationary. If not fed 
 at all, he will assuredly die of starvation. It is pre- 
 
116 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 cisely so with agriculture. Crops must be fed, or 
 they cannot be produced. In this case, the feeding 
 consists of thorough tillage and manure. Both are 
 costly items, but they are indispensable to success. 
 The great question is how to command them in the 
 largest abundance at the smallest cost. 
 
 It is granted, on all hands, that the soil should be 
 saturated with manure. Mere hard work will not 
 procure it in the necessary quantity. Brains must 
 be made to come in as the leading helper. Hence 
 intelligence is necessary the mere land will be 
 found powerless to do all that too many expect it to 
 accomplish. Women, sick men, even absolute 
 cripples, unable to perform an hour s work, have 
 been highly successful farmers. But if deprived of 
 hands to work, they had heads to superintend. 
 
 Just before the crash of 1857 came with such 
 desolating severity upon the country, a working 
 man, a resident of the city of New York, who had 
 somehow scraped together $4000, found himself 
 precluded from increasing it by high rents, dear 
 food, and the inevitable increase of expenses on 
 every side. In this dilemma, he addressed himself to 
 the Tribune, in these words : 
 
 " I want to know what chance a man would stand in the 
 country to take up farming not out in Kansas but say in 
 Jersey, or the western part of this State, or out West near 
 s ome improving location, so as to get away from high rents 
 and dirt, and breathe a mouthful of fresh air say a little 
 place of fifty or sixty acres, with house and barn, one horse, 
 three or four cows, a few sheep, some poultry, all paid for 
 and clear of debt, so as to have $1,000 or $1,500 at interest, 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 117 
 
 just to have a little loose change coming in. Could a man 
 Jive better, feel better, and be less a drudge, than to stay 
 here in New York, and drudge, drudge, from day to day, 
 and month to month !" 
 
 What a revelation is here given of the workings 
 of one mind among the large class for whose infor 
 mation this volume has been written ! To this 
 string of questions the editor made the following 
 pointed reply : 
 
 " Farming is a vocation, requiring knowledge, experience, 
 and skill, like any other. No man born and reared in the 
 city can remove to a farm, at thirty or forty years of age, 
 and become immediately an efficient, thrifty, successful 
 farmer. He will have much to learn and something to un 
 learn ; and if he should get through his first year of farm 
 ing without using up $500 of his capital, he many consider 
 that he has done well. Yet if he will keep his eyes open, 
 take counsel from his neighbors, take two or three good 
 agricultural papers, and read them carefully, we believe he 
 can render himself a fair average farmer the second year, 
 and something better than this thereafter. But, Is such a 
 change as this desirable ? 
 
 "We answer, Yes. If, with average capacities, and a 
 capital of 84,000, you can, by steady industry, make noth 
 ing beyond a bare living in the city, we hold that you can 
 do better in the country. If you buy your land for its fair 
 valuation (and a great deal in this quarter is held twenty to 
 fifty per cent, above that mark), and use it well, it must be 
 steadily increasing in value. Your buildings also will ne 
 cessarily be enlarged and improved this year a corn-crib 
 will be added, next year an ice-house, and so on and 
 though your surplus funds will rather diminish than increase, 
 and you will hardly see a dollar where you now see ten, 
 
118 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 you will be insensibly crawling toward a competence. Your 
 children will every year become more and more helpful to 
 you ; your young fruit-trees will come into bearing ; and 
 you will have at least twice the produce to turn off six or 
 seven years hence, that you can spare the first year. 
 
 " As to drudgery, a man who aspires to earn a good 
 living and rear and educate a family by honest, straightfor 
 ward work, must be diligent as well as frugal, there is no 
 help for it. Still, a farmer with $4,000 capital well invested, 
 or even half that sum, need not labor excessively. From 
 April to November, he must work steadily and energetically 
 at least ten hours per day ; but in winter he may moderate 
 his exertions and give himself a week or more to visit rela 
 tives or friends, when he sees fit. Farmers do not work so 
 many hours, on the average, as do the mechanics of this 
 city. 
 
 " As to location ; we think a man with $4,000 may buy 
 a fair farm, in New Jersey, or one of our river counties, 
 stock it fairly, and have $500 over for lee- way ; but he can, 
 of course, buy a much larger farm and stock it much better 
 frcmi such a capital in a newer region, or even in western 
 New York. Every section has its advantages and disad 
 vantages ; we should more strenuously insist on a healthy 
 locality, than on fertile soil. With a cash capital of $4,000, 
 you will be a rich man in almost any new settlement ; but 
 frontier life has its inconveniences, even for men ; still more 
 for women and children. Investigate and decide for your 
 self."- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 119 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 Wanting the Best The Poorer Lands first Cultivated, then the 
 Richer Ones Value of Swamps History of three of them 
 Cranberry Swamps of New Jersey Power of Example The 
 Mississippi Swamp Interest Wealth following Reclamation 
 Public Loans to aid Drainage John Johnston, the Great Amer 
 ican Tile Drainer. 
 
 IT is a feature of American thought and habit to 
 be rigid and exacting. We are too apt to reject the 
 moderately valuable, and to insist on having only 
 the best. The habit has infected even the children, 
 beggars though some of them may be. A ragged 
 little urchin came one morning to a gentleman s 
 door, asking for old clothes. He brought him a 
 vest and a pair of pants, which promised to make a 
 comfortable fit. Young America took the garments 
 in his hand, and examining them as closely as if he 
 had been buying them, then, with a disconsolate 
 look, exclaimed, "There ain t no watch-pocket!" 
 Now, the truly great are humble; just as those ears 
 of corn, and those boughs of trees which are the 
 most heavily laden, are seen to bend the lowest. 
 The urchin s impudence represents the national pro 
 pensity we must have the best. . 
 
 But what we may conceive to be the best for us, 
 frequently turns out otherwise. It is thus in seek- 
 
120 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 ing to obtain a farm. He who is looking exclu 
 sively for upland and meadow, all ready for the 
 plough or scythe, will be startled should he be told 
 that he can do better by buying a swamp. The 
 reader himself will probably be staggered by the 
 proposition. It is a new one, truly, but will justify 
 examination and analysis. 
 
 More than fifty years ago, Mr. Ricardo communi 
 cated to the world his discovery of how men came 
 to pay rent, and others to exact it. His work was 
 accepted by political economists as a text-book ; 
 his views were assented to without dispute ; and 
 for forty years no one ventured to doubt their 
 correctness. His theory was a very simple one. 
 He laid it down as law, that in the commencement 
 of cultivation, when population is small and land 
 abundant, the best soils, such as yield the largest 
 returns, are the on!} 7 " ones cultivated ; that as 
 population increases, land becomes less abundant, 
 creating a necessity for cultivating a less pro 
 ductive quality, when, as population again in 
 creases, resort is had to still more inferior land, 
 then to a third, and afterward to a fourth class of 
 soils. 
 
 These propositions, with the theories established 
 on them, were for many years accepted throughout 
 Europe, as well as in this country, as undeniable. 
 But our distinguished political economist, Mr. Henry 
 C. Carey, in his " Past, Present, and Future," pub 
 lished in 1848, has demonstrated their entire falsity. 
 The foundation thus knocked away, the fabric of 
 theory which Ricardo had reared upon it fell to the 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 121 
 
 ground. Mr. Carey proved that the facts were ex 
 actly the reverse that the land which man culti 
 vates in the beginning is of the poorer qualities, and 
 that that which he last brings under tillage is inva 
 riably the best. 
 
 Take our own country as an illustration, because 
 all can judge from facts that are occurring every 
 where around them. Here, the settler invariably 
 begins by occupying the high and thin lands, which 
 require little clearing and no drainage. uch yield 
 him but moderate returns for his labor. But in 
 time, as population and wealth increase, he travels 
 down the hills, clearing up as he goes, until the 
 bottom has been reached. There the hill terminates, 
 and there the meadow or the swamp begins. It 
 contains the rich deposits which for centuries have 
 been washing from the hilltop and the hillside, the 
 loss of which had thinned the poorer soil into which 
 he first struck his spade. 
 
 Every reader knows that no settler begins his 
 clearing either in swamp or meadow, yet every one 
 is aware that in such spots the richest land is to be 
 found. He knows, moreover, that lowlands are the 
 last to be reclaimed. To bring them into tillage re 
 quires money, skill, and time, courage, also, may 
 be mentioned as an indispensable auxiliary, the 
 courage to undertake a task which a succession of 
 owners had carefully avoided. Ditching is familiar 
 to most of us, and can be cheaply done ; but thor 
 ough underdraining was comparatively unknown 
 among us until within a few years ; and it is only 
 by resorting to it that the lowland can be effectu- 
 
122 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 ally reclaimed. In a primitive condition of society, 
 therefore, with money scarce and land abundant, the 
 richer soils are neglected for the poorer. 
 
 The early settlers, throughout New England, es 
 tablished themselves on the higher lands along the 
 river courses, leaving to their more wealthy succes 
 sors the task of clearing up and draining the swamps. 
 New York and New Jersey were settled on the 
 same plan ; the higher grounds were first occupied, 
 while vaat meadows of extreme richness were neg 
 lected, because they required drainage. New Jer 
 sey contains multitudes of abandoned clearings, 
 made by the first settlers on the poorer soils, but 
 long since deserted for the richer ones. Maryland 
 abounds with evidences of the poverty of the soils 
 first occupied, and of the richness of the meadow- 
 farms subsequently brought under tillage. In Penn 
 sylvania, the oldest habitations were always the 
 most distant from the rivers. The rule prevails 
 throughout the South and West. The higher and 
 drier lands, in Mississippi, were peopled first ; the 
 rich bottom lands of her great river were subse 
 quently reclaimed by ditches, and the vast embank 
 ment which now keeps out the annual overflow. 
 Throughout South America the same extraordinary 
 uniformity of practice has prevailed. In England, 
 over the European continent, and wherever man 
 has found a foothold, no departure from it can be dis 
 covered. The law laid down by Mr. Carey may thus 
 be regarded as incontrovertible the poorer lands of 
 a country are settled first, the richer ones are settled 
 last. 
 
AND WHEKE TO FEND ONE. 123 
 
 It remains for me to apply it to the subject in 
 hand. I have intimated that a man desirous of ob 
 taining upland and meadow, ready for the plough 
 and the scythe, would be incredulous if told that he 
 could do better by purchasing a swamp. Unless he 
 comprehended the foregoing law, or had seen it 
 illustrated, or had had it clearly explained to him, 
 it is natural that he should be confounded at the 
 proposition. It would seem to him like asking for 
 bread and receiving a stone. But his object is not 
 only to get a farm, but to get the best one, and at 
 the lowest price. 
 
 Now, we know that the best land is always to be 
 found in the swamp. There grows the heaviest 
 timber, there vegetation shoots up with the rankest 
 luxuriance, there the dark mould, which we call soil, 
 is uniformly the deepest. It has been accumulating 
 there for ages. Rains have washed down upon it 
 the rich soil of the surrounding hills, for centuries 
 before the white man had trodden them. The for 
 ests that covered them have showered upon it their 
 annual wealth of leaves ; and winds have blown to 
 it, from other woods, additional stores of foliage. 
 Decay of the living and the dead has been going on 
 without interruption. The original depression has 
 become filled, many feet in depth, with a deposit so 
 rich that the owner sometimes spreads it over his 
 grounds, half suspecting it to be manure. It is, in 
 fact, a mass of fertilizing matter of uncounted value. 
 No intelligent man can doubt it. 
 
 But the owner is ignorant or neglectful. He con 
 siders it only as a swamp. In his family it has had 
 
124: HOW TO GET A FARM. 
 
 no other name. His boys hunt in it for skunks or 
 rabbits, or for birds or honeycombs. It is known 
 through the neighborhood as the swamp. It is good 
 only for an occasional load of rails, perhaps a load 
 of wood. Though assessed as waste land, yet it does 
 not yield the annual,, taxes. Such it is considered 
 by all who know it ; and such, while in this condi 
 tion, it really is. In vain has the owner endeavored 
 to dispose of it at a low price ; it is too well known, 
 and too little valued by those who do not under 
 stand the capabilities of ground thus situated, to 
 tempt them to buy. 
 
 Yet this swamp may contain ten acres or a hun 
 dred, and be so located that a single ditch cut 
 through the centre will render it comparatively dry. 
 Cross drains on both sides of and emptying into the 
 central ditch, composed of wood or tile, if sunk at 
 intervals of thirty feet apart, will render it firm 
 enough for the plough. By covering them they be 
 come underdrains. The main ditch itself may in 
 some cases be covered also, leaving the ground, 
 when cleared, without break or obstruction. It 
 needs no manure, for nature has there concentrated 
 an untold wealth of her choicest fertilizers. Who 
 can doubt that fifty acres of a swamp like this, 
 bought at a nominal price, and thus treated, will 
 yield to the beginner a speedier and richer return 
 than thrice the quantity of upland whose salable 
 value consists in the single fact of its being upland 
 instead of swamp ? 
 
 From my own personal experience, I can speak 
 of the value of these swamp lands which are so 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 125 
 
 thickly scattered over our country, unimproved and 
 unappreciated, as much to the shame of their own 
 ers as to the discredit of that shrewdness which 
 ought to be manifested by the many who are seek 
 ing ways and means to get a farm. Five years ago, 
 I was applied to by a young man who was anxious 
 to begin his effort to secure a home of his own. He 
 was a capital farm-hand, possessed great energy, and 
 had saved $200 of his earnings. After learning his 
 views, I suggested to him the propriety of purchas 
 ing a piece of swamp land, containing twenty-six 
 acres, which was very nearly the counterpart of that 
 above described. It produced nothing whatever 
 was too wet for a cow pasture, and was in fact a 
 neighborhood nuisance. I had long noticed it, and 
 had studied its capabilities. I had even pointed 
 them out to the owner, but he was one of those 
 farmers who have little faith in any one s knowledge 
 but their own, and he refused to believe his only 
 desire was to sell. 
 
 I took the young aspirant for a home all round 
 the swamp, and into it as far as we could penetrate 
 in a very wet season. It was grown up with alders, 
 young dogwood bushes, and maples, with here and 
 there a clump of tolerably large trees of other va 
 rieties. In some places where there was a slight 
 rise in the land, it was firm and solid. I drew his 
 attention to this circumstance, as proving that if the 
 water could be as effectually drained away from the 
 whole swamp as it was from these elevated spots, it 
 must become equally dry. He recognized the rea 
 sonableness of the inference ; and, after a thorough 
 
126 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 examination of the matter, assented to the feasibility 
 of completely reclaiming the land. 
 
 But the whole condition and aspect of the swamp 
 was so forbidding, that, although his judgment was 
 convinced, yet he hesitated about undertaking the 
 task. He had never drained a swamp, nor seen a 
 similar job done by others. He spoke of the nu 
 merous waste places in the neighborhood resembling 
 this, and of the fact that not one owner had ever 
 undertaken the business of reclaiming a single acre, 
 though so much wealthier than himself. He was 
 satisfied that the redeemed land would be of the 
 highest value, but he doubted if his means would 
 hold out. The difficulty was to get him to begin 
 he had a commendable degree of courage, but not 
 quite enough. 
 
 Finally, his hesitation was overcome by a third 
 party offering to furnish the money with which to 
 pay for the swamp, to wait any time for him to re 
 fund it, and, in case of his little capital and his own 
 labor proving insufficient, to assist him with what 
 ever more might be needed. 
 
 "With this agreement to rely on the swamp was 
 purchased at twenty dollars an acre. Taking it as 
 it stood, this was a high price; but looking at it 
 with reference to what could be made of it, the 
 price was low enough. It lay within twelve miles, 
 by rail, of a city of many thousand inhabitants, 
 and there was a station within gunshot, from which 
 vast quantities of milk, vegetables* and other farm 
 products, were daily carried to the city. The rail 
 road company was one of the few that assiduously 
 
AND WHERE TO FIXD ONE. 127 
 
 cultivate the way traffic of the country through 
 which they pass. The directors were as studious of 
 the interest of the man whose whole freight was 
 
 O 
 
 contained in a single milk-can, as of his who brought 
 a load of wheat. Thus, let the farmer grow what 
 ever crop he considered best, he could rely upon 
 the railroad to convey it punctually and cheaply to 
 the adjacent market. It is the combination of such 
 facilities that gives value to land. Without such 
 combination in the present case, the swamp referred 
 to would have been dear at any price. 
 
 Hence, in the purchase and reclamation of a 
 swamp, reference must not only be had to how 
 cheaply it may be brought into tillage, but how near 
 may be the market for its products, because the 
 nearer it may be to market, the higher will be the 
 prices to be obtained for them. The first charge 
 on agricultural productions is that of freight the 
 cost of moving them to market from, the spot where 
 on they were grown. 
 
 The swamp was a parallelogram, with a water 
 course running professedly from end to end, but by 
 courses surprisingly tortuous. There was a good 
 natural fall, but the stream had become dull and 
 lazy from a thousand obstructions, such as fallen 
 trees, clumps of alders, old roots, and sandbars. At 
 its lower end an ample outlet could be created, 
 through which any volume of water from above 
 would flow off rapidly whenever the outlet should 
 be opened. These important facts had been noted 
 before the purchase was made. When the fences 
 had been shifted by the lines of the tract, an acre 
 
128 HOW TO GET A FAEM, 
 
 of upland was found to be included, on which build 
 ings could be placed. 
 
 My protege began by opening an outlet at the 
 lower end of the swamp, from which he cut a wide 
 ditch through the whole, from one end to the other, 
 felling trees, taking out roots, and grubbing up the 
 dogwood and alders. Thirty days labor of him 
 self and one hired man, accustomed to such work, 
 completed the ditch. The effect was immediate and 
 very decided. Instead of the old sluggish stream, 
 a lively current now flowed rapidly down the new 
 water-course, into which trickled a hundred little 
 streams from both sides of the swamp. Heretofore 
 they had stagnated for want of an outlet now they 
 put on a wholesome activity. Numerous ponds 
 and puddles quickly disappeared, while sundry 
 powerful springs became so well defined that their 
 sources at the foot of the upland could be distinctly 
 identified. 
 
 While the changed condition of the land was 
 thus enabling it to throw off a large portion of the 
 surplus water which had made it worthless, the 
 young owner went to work on the trees and under 
 brush. So great had been the change effected by 
 the single ditch already made, that he felt greatly 
 encouraged to persevere. As often happens, in such 
 cases, the trees produced more cords of wood than 
 either of us had anticipated. The brush was 
 trimmed and bundled into faggots, which sold 
 readily for kindling. The dogwood bushes were 
 grubbed up bodily, so as to preserve the crook or 
 curve at the root, and were then sold to a manufac- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 129 
 
 turer in the neighboring city, who converted them 
 into canes and umbrella handles, paying such a price 
 as more than refunded the cost of grubbing. The 
 wood was of course salable enough. 
 
 Five months, from April to September, were oc 
 cupied in these various labors ; but though a hot 
 sun had been playing on the now exposed surface of 
 the swamp, causing an uninterrupted evaporation of 
 its moisture, yet in some places it was still too wet 
 to admit of hauling off all the wood, and that por 
 tion was left until a hard freeze the following winter. 
 Meantime the grubbing went on wherever a root 
 was found small enough to be extracted. Many 
 larger ones were of course left, the operation of 
 taking them out being too expensive for a beginner. 
 But vast piles of the smaller ones were collected 
 and used in filling up the old tortuous water-course, 
 while the dirt from the new ditch was wheeled over 
 planks to cover them, leaving the roots so far under 
 ground as to be below the reach of ordinary plough 
 ing. This operation secured two important advan 
 tages it cleared the new ditch of the embankments 
 thrown up on its margin in digging it, and it brought 
 up the old one to the surrounding level. By the 
 first, all the surface water was allowed to flow off, 
 as there could be no ponding or backing where no 
 bank existed. By the last, a huge, crooked gully 
 was converted into fast land. 
 
 But the work was not yet done. Cross drains 
 were to be dug from the main ditch, on both its 
 sides, extending to the adjoining upland. So far 
 there had been no proper time to do this, as all such 
 
130 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 drains would have been choked or destroyed by the 
 falling trees, or the operation of grubbing. But in 
 September this work was begun on one side of the 
 main ditch, and was pushed rapidly to completion. 
 Narrow drains or ditches were sunk wherever they 
 were supposed to be necessary, in the bottom of which 
 small bushes were deposited and then covered. Care 
 was taken to lay the bushes all one way lengthwise. 
 Each one of these underdrains began immediately 
 to perform its office of relieving the ground of a 
 portion of its surplus water, as might be seen by 
 examining the outlet in the main ditch. Some of 
 them, such as had tapped a spring, discharged 
 copious streams. 
 
 All who have had any experience in underdrain- 
 ing are aware how quickly it transforms wet land 
 into dry land ; and those who have not, can form 
 no idea of it until they witness the result for them 
 selves. It was so with my protege. He was aston 
 ished at the work of his own hands. The drained 
 side of the swamp now dried up very rapidly. The 
 land in some places settled away from the large 
 stumps which yet remained, and was evidently be 
 coming hard and firm. These indications kept him 
 in excellent spirits, to which the manure-like ap 
 pearance of the rich black soil that had everywhere 
 been turned up as the drains were dug, made a 
 further contribution. No one could walk over the 
 ground on the two sides of the main ditch without 
 instantly discovering the difference between the 
 drained and the undrained. That winter he em 
 ployed in clearing up the swamp more thoroughly, 
 
AND WHEKE TO FIND ONE. 131 
 
 being now of opinion that he might be able to plough 
 it in the spring. 
 
 When spring came, he did succeed in ploughing 
 nearly all the underdrained half, then limed it, 
 planted corn, and raised the first crop that that 
 swamp had ever produced. The corn was so large as 
 to be an amazement to the neighborhood. It exceeded 
 the yield of the upland on both sides of his line, 
 and settled the question as to the profitableness of 
 reclaiming swamp lands. 
 
 The young owner was so much encouraged by his 
 success that, after getting in his corn, he immediately 
 proceeded to underdrain the remaining half. The fol 
 lowing spring it was dry enough to be all ploughed. 
 He then limed it, and at the proper season sowed 
 buckwheat, securing a crop quite as heavy as any 
 of his neighbors. These first crops were regularly 
 succeeded by others, and they were invariably good 
 ones. In time, as the vegetable mould decayed, the 
 soil became loose and of remarkably easy cultiva 
 tion, while in richness it far exceeded that of the 
 best upland in the neighborhood. It needed no 
 manure. The more it was turned up to the sun, the 
 drier and more friable it became. Fruit trees were 
 planted and flourished, and strawberries were grown 
 in the rich new soil with astonishing success. It 
 seemed to be the very home for cabbages, turnips, 
 and celery ; and there is now as little prospect of its 
 relapsing into swamp land as there was. ten years 
 ago, of its graduating into arable land. It could be 
 sold any day for 120 an acre. 
 
 So much for its marketable value, but now for the 
 
132 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 cost of reclaiming it. This, all told, amounted to 
 $21 an acre, but not including the young owner s- 
 time. I make no account of that, because he has 
 liis pay in the increased value of the land. The 
 actual money-cost was more than $21 an acre, but 
 the total stands at that figure by deducting sales of 
 wood and faggots. 
 
 There are tracts of swamp land which contain 
 three times the quantity of timber that this did, 
 which can be purchased quite as cheaply, and which, 
 from the greater quantity of wood they might yield, 
 could be reclaimed to better profit. There are 
 others, wholly clear of wood and underbrush, which 
 could be reclaimed for even less. It should be the 
 business of the shrewd and enterprising to seek out 
 and appropriate them. 
 
 The first cost of this swamp was $20 per acre, the 
 reclaiming of it $21, making a total of $41, or 
 $1066 for the whole. Its value rose in two years to 
 $3120, or very nearly treble the first outlay. Here 
 was a large capital suddenly created out of a small 
 one, not by mere investment of the original sum, 
 but by bringing to its aid the experience of one 
 man and the courageous industry of another. It 
 was the judicious combination of the three upon a 
 specific object, thaf worked the change. Thus, the 
 man who improves his own land, works with a long 
 lever, and will find that, in reality, but little power 
 is required. The lesson should be as instructive to 
 those who read this, as was the reclaiming of the 
 swamp referred to to the neighborhood wherein it 
 lay. The owner s success was so decided, that it 
 
WHERE TO FIND ONE. 133 
 
 sent up the price of numerous waste places of sim 
 ilar character, and caused others to be as effectually 
 drained. Exhortation had been lost upon the 
 owners; but when the example was placed before 
 them, imitation came of itself. 
 
 The young man whose personal energy converted 
 twenty-six acres of utterly waste land into a pro 
 ductive farm, created for himself, at a single stroke, 
 a capital that set him up for life. He proved con 
 clusively that it is the best lands which come last 
 into cultivation. The single acre of upland in his 
 purchase now contains his house and barns, and 
 from the remaining acres he produces all that his 
 family needs. In ten years from the day that he 
 first struck his spade into the main ditch of an ap 
 parently worthless swamp, he will be out of debt, 
 and worth his thousands. 
 
 In the estimation of some, an undertaking of this 
 character will smack of speculation. It is out of 
 the old routine it is a new way to get a farm 
 and being new, is therefore speculative, and being 
 speculative, is not only foolish, but hazardous. But 
 here the prevailing ingredients are good sense and 
 resolute industry. The speculators hate work the 
 industrious hate speculation. Timid minds will re 
 ject the example just given, not only because con 
 stitutionally fearful of a new thing, but because of 
 an equally constitutional incredulity. But the ex 
 perience of many in this country could be adduced 
 in confirmation of the idea that one of the surest 
 ways to get a farm cheaply, is to purchase and re 
 claim a swamp. It involves hard work as well as 
 
134: HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 dirty work, wet feet and muddy clothes, but few 
 undertakings will pay better. 
 
 It is known that several counties in "New Jersey 
 contain thousands of acres of cranberry lands, which 
 annually produce abundant crops of fruit. In 
 numerous locations the owners of the land receive 
 no part of the crop. The whole region is but thinly 
 settled, and there are but few clearings among the 
 dense pine forests which cover a large portion of 
 the ground. Most of these have been made by pine- 
 hawkers and charcoal-burners, who support life 
 under great privations, and who rear families in 
 total ignorance of schools or churches. All round 
 them lay immense cranberry grounds, without a 
 panel of fencing on thousands of acres. From time 
 immemorial these squalid families have gathered 
 the fruit for their own benefit, and disposed of it at 
 the nearest stores. They swarm among the swamps 
 during the picking season, so that the owner gets 
 little or none of the crop. If residing at a distance, 
 as is generally the case, he has no chance whatever. 
 Even when within a few miles of his own swamp, 
 he receives no portion except by sufferance. The 
 cranberry grounds of the region have been so long 
 abandoned to these indiscriminate inroads, that the 
 annual plunder of the crop has grown to be con 
 sidered a public right. In some places, the owner 
 may receive a barrel or two as a gift, in others he 
 is permitted to send in a few pickers for his own use. 
 But it would be a dangerous experiment for him to 
 undertake suddenly and forcibly to suppress these 
 depredations a general mutiny would be the result. 
 
WHEEE TO FIND ONE. 135 
 
 All these wild lands are consequently unsalable, 
 and are worth from two to five dollars per acre. 
 They have been in market at these prices for many 
 years. Some of them are covered with small pines 
 and scrub oak, the latter growing up wherever the 
 former have been cut off for the use of iron furnaces 
 or glass works. Large districts of them are within 
 a few miles of a railroad, on which two hours travel 
 will convey you to Philadelphia, and three more to 
 New York. But they lie on no public thoroughfare, 
 and hence they have remained unnoticed and neg 
 lected. No good roads penetrate them, hence there 
 are no travellers, and hence the distant public knows 
 but little of their capabilities. 
 
 Seven years ago an enterprising farmer of Bur 
 lington county purchased a hundred acres of this 
 swamp land, for which he paid 5 per acre. All 
 the adjoining land was in market at the same price, 
 a third or a half to be paid down. Much of his 
 purchase was grown up with cranberries. His de 
 sign was to give them some general attention that 
 would cost but little money, and if found to pay, 
 then to bestow more care upon them, and eventually 
 to convert the whole tract into a carefully cultivated 
 cranberry plantation. He conciliated, to some ex 
 tent, the jealousies of the neighboring sand-hillers 
 by employing them to cut brush sufficient to con 
 struct a fence around the portion to be protected, 
 so as to keep off the hogs and cattle which roamed 
 the woods, rooting up or trampling down the plants. 
 
 This slight protection of a brush fence, costing 
 but little, produced the best results. The plants 
 
136 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 bore freely, and ripened their fruit well. He Lad 
 purchased the land in April, and that fall he sold 
 $600 worth of fruit, netting $440. The following 
 year was less productive, in consequence of a heavy 
 frost when the plants were in bloom. But the third 
 year paid better than the first. In the mean time 
 he had enlarged his plantation by extending his 
 brush fence around other portions of the tract, and 
 at this writing is clearing an average of $1100 an 
 nually from about thirty acres. 
 
 In the sections of New Jersey referred to, there 
 are numberless places whereon similar operations 
 may be carried out. Some of them have been al 
 ready redeemed from their native wildness by a 
 very moderate expenditure, and converted into the 
 most lucrative investments. Once established, these 
 cranberry swamps rarely fail. Now and then a frost 
 may injure the crop, or the worm may wholly de 
 stroy it ; but on the average of five years, there is 
 probably no investment that can be made to pay 
 better. A cranberry swamp, well set with vines, 
 and conveniently located, is a cheaper purchase at 
 $50 per acre than a quarter section of government 
 land as a gift. If so located as to be easily flooded, 
 the crop may be considered sure. 
 
 For a beginner it possesses rare advantages. Gen 
 erally it will take care of itself, requiring little labor 
 or attention, except when the crop comes in. For 
 at least ten months of the year he may employ most 
 of his time in working out for others, or in cultivat 
 ing other land for the production of food for his 
 family. The crop is among the most marketable of 
 
AND WHERE TO FIXD ONE. 
 
 137 
 
 all the fruits. Its sale is distributed over the whole 
 year, instead of being, like other berries, crowded 
 into a few weeks. It is largely exported, and there 
 has rarely been a glut. 
 
 At a meeting of the E~ew York Farmers Club, 
 in 1858, a letter from Mr. Edwin Salter, of Barne- 
 gat, Ocean County, New Jersey, was read, from 
 which the following extract is taken : 
 
 " I notice, at a late meeting of the Farmers Club, that 
 the subject of transplanting cranberries was brought up. 
 Could you put me in a way to find out what the New 
 England cranberry-growers consider a good crop, natural 
 growth and transplanted ? There are scores of acres in 
 this vicinity that yield often over 100 bushels per acre from 
 natural growth ; transplanting is here a new thing, and has 
 not been carried on long enough to know how successful 
 it will prove. The heaviest yielding cranberry -bog in this 
 section is one in the woods some twenty miles from any 
 habitation (except cabins), which is said to have yielded 
 300 bushels to the acre one season. In the vicinity of this 
 bog are hundreds of acres of land which appears to be 
 naturally such as at your meeting was described as the 
 best adapted for transplanting. As this land is held at 
 only a nominal price (from $1 to $3 per acre), it would 
 doubtless pay to try transplanting there. At any rate it 
 will be tried. It ought to pay better than New England 
 land, for which, in addition to the higher price of land, 
 heavy expenses sometimes have to be incurred to make it 
 precisely what this is naturally. Our shore people here are 
 nearly all seafaring men, but of late some few of them are 
 turning their attention to the soil ; their experiments thus 
 far prove that, though our land may not be as good as in 
 
138 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 other sections, yet it will prove as profitable to till, espe 
 cially as we are but a day s journey from both New York 
 and Philadelphia markets." 
 
 If it be granted that it is a good thing to get a 
 farm, it would seem to be a better one to find it al 
 ready planted with a permanent crop. Such is the 
 condition of a natural cranberry swamp. But if 
 the plants there flourish with profitable luxuriance, 
 it does not follow that they can be cultivated with 
 advantage on no other description of land. There 
 are varieties which have been proved to be success 
 ful even on dry upland. But as such land is costly, 
 its use for this culture does not properly belong to 
 the subject in hand. Yet on the pine barrens of 
 Long Island, these berries have been raised at the 
 rate of seventy-five bushels per acre, after being set 
 three years, the sod from the native swamp, full of 
 plants, being transferred directly to the upland. In 
 various parts of New England, the upland culture 
 is reported to be profitable. But for light on this 
 question the inquirer is referred to such books as 
 treat fully of the cranberry culture. 
 
 The reader of any of the numerous agricultural 
 periodicals issued among us, cannot fail to have 
 noticed repeated narratives of success in the recla 
 mation of swamp lands. There are many instances 
 in which the work has been accomplished at a sur 
 prisingly low cost, while in others it has been the 
 reverse. It should be the study of the beginner to so 
 select the spot on which he is to operate, as to take 
 that only which can be reclaimed at the minimum 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 139 
 
 expense. Our country abounds with desirable fields 
 for such operations. Every reader can call to mind 
 some worthless swamp or cripple, admirably situ 
 ated as to neighborhood and market, large enough 
 to make a respectable farm, and obtainable at a low 
 price on such terms of payment as a small capitalist 
 could comply with. In some locations the neigh 
 bors would be disposed to aid the man who had en 
 terprise enough to undertake the abatement of a 
 nuisance which was not only offensive to the eye, 
 but dangerous to public health. 
 
 The surpassing richness of such lands, when re 
 deemed from the dominion of the water, has long 
 been proverbial. They need no manure, yet they 
 produce double crops. Strangely enough, though 
 the best soil on the continent, yet it comes last into 
 cultivation. Hence I am free to urge this process 
 as one of the best, the quickest, and the surest, by 
 which to get a farm. Like the cranberry swamp, 
 it possesses peculiar advantages for a small beginner, 
 as it yields immediate returns, and as there are long 
 intervals between the different stages of work, during 
 which he can employ himself at other labor. When 
 his drains have once been laid, the land will be dry 
 ing while he sleeps; and if, when seeking for a 
 farm, he had been recommended to plunge into a 
 swamp, he will find, in the end, that it was not ask 
 ing for bread and receiving only a stone. , 
 
 Such an example operates powerfully on others. 
 Mr. Beecher says, that " if men are to become in 
 telligent, we must give them specimens of intelli 
 gence. Let a man go into a village where the 
 
140 HOW TO GET A FABM, 
 
 houses are all going to decay, where the fences are 
 all tumbling down, and where no pains are taken 
 with trees and flowers, and build a neat house, in 
 closing his grounds with a neat fence, and tastefully 
 decorating his yard with comely trees and beautiful 
 flowers, and his example will be a blessing to the 
 place. In three years there will be twenty neat 
 houses, with good fences, and yards blooming with 
 shrubbery and flowers, as the result of his judicious 
 outlay of means. The taste of the whole village 
 will be educated and improved by the influence he 
 will exert through the instrumentality of whatever 
 advantages he may possess over its inhabitants." 
 
 But if moderate capitals may be advantageously 
 invested in the reclaiming of either swamp or cran 
 berry lands, it does not follow that large ones, so 
 used, will fail to produce equally satisfactory returns. 
 One instance may be cited where a large sum was 
 devoted to reclaiming a cranberry swamp in Mas 
 sachusetts. The leading particulars were given in 
 the Boston Cultivator, from which the following ac 
 count is taken. The grounds were visited by the 
 editor in November, 1863. Their owner is Dr. E. D. 
 Miller, whose residence is Dorchester, some twenty- 
 five miles from Boston. The swamp is described as 
 having been almost worthless. 
 
 " Something like ten years since, this swamp was covered 
 over with a growth of alders, dogwood, white maples, and 
 other swamp-shrubs, which covered the ground ; they were 
 cleared off, and a ditch cut through the swamp for the 
 brook, which before ran through a very crooked channel. 
 Ditches were then opened from the uplands on each side, 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 
 
 which are gravelly and sandy, leading into the main ditch. 
 A dam was constructed across the swamp, which serves the 
 purpose of flowing it, and also that of a road to pass across 
 it. In the winter, the swamp was usually flowed, and 
 gravel, this being better than sand, was drawn on the ice 
 and spread. Afterwards it was planted to cranberry cut 
 tings, in drills about eighteen inches apart, this, from ex 
 perience, proving to be a suitable distance apart. How 
 many coverings of gravel have been put on was not learned; 
 but several, judging from the excavations when removed. 
 
 "About twelve or fourteen acres of this swamp have 
 been planted ; and so favorably is it situated, that it can be 
 covered with water in little more than an hour s time. The 
 brook is of such capacity, with the aid of a reservoir above 
 the cultivated ground, that the plants can be protected 
 from frosts at any season when there is any danger. 
 
 "The crop of the past season was about 1100 barrels 
 of very nice fruit, and of remarkable size. I brought away 
 a couple of berries, that measured nearly three inches in 
 circumference. The crop was all picked by hand, at a cost 
 of nearly 2000. At one time, said Dr. Miller s farmer, 
 200 persons might have been seen in that swamp picking 
 cranberries. It was a lively scene. After they were 
 gathered, they were taken to the house, where they were 
 sorted, the soft berries, after winnowing them, were culled 
 out by women and girls, preparatory to barrelling. 
 
 " When Dr. Miller first contemplated the cranberry cul 
 ture of this swamp, he visited Mr. Joseph Breck, the well- 
 known seedsman of North Market-street. Boston, and 
 asked him how to go to work. Mr. Breck said he could 
 not tell him: then he asked for the best work on cranberry 
 culture. Mr. B. told him he did not know of any he 
 could recommend ; then, said Dr. Miller, * Can you tell me 
 of a man I can employ that knows something about it ? 
 
14:2 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 and Mr. Breck said he could not. Well, replied Dr. M., 
 then I will try and see what I can do. The result and 
 the mode of doing it is briefly stated as above, as learned 
 from Dr. Miller and Mr. Desmond, his farmer. 
 
 " Dr. M. has informed the writer, since visiting the cran 
 berry swamp, that the fruit has generally been sold so far 
 as it is marketed, at the current price, though some of it 
 was sold at $15 a barrel. Call the average price $10 a 
 barrel, and 1100 barrels will bring the snug little sum of 
 $11,000. This beats tobacco-raising out of sight, as the 
 saying is. 
 
 "One of the peculiar advantages possessed by Dr. 
 Miller over most of the owners of swamp lands, is the 
 facility with which he can flow it at all seasons of the 
 year, thus guarding the growing crop from both late spring 
 frosts and early autumn frosts ; and, besides, gives him the 
 power to destroy insects that sometimes infest the vines. 
 Swamp lands that can be as quickly flowed and as quickly 
 drained as Dr. Miller s cannot be used more profitably than 
 by growing cranberries, as it would seem by the Doctor s 
 experience. It is also easily gravelled in the winter by 
 flowing it." 
 
 The foregoing account was considered so remark 
 able, that I applied to Dr. Miller for some additional 
 items of information. From these, in connection 
 with the narrative quoted, the reader will be able to 
 form a just conception of the magnitude of the en 
 terprise, of the amount of capital invested, as well 
 as of the character of the result. 
 
 Dr. Miller has about twenty-five acres, divided 
 into five meadows, varying in size from 3 to 12 or 
 14 acres, all on the same stream of water. The 
 whole can be overflowed at will in about two hours. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 14:3 
 
 About 18 to 20 acres are drained by side ditches 
 discharging into a main ditch, all being open no 
 underdrains. The top soil of the meadow was re 
 moved to the depth of eight to eighteen inches, and 
 about six inches of coarse gravel was put in its 
 place. The cranberry plants which were growing 
 wild upon the spot, were necessarily removed by 
 this operation, but they were replanted on the gravel. 
 The principal meadow of 12 to 14 acres was pur 
 chased at $12 per acre, and the cost of reclaiming 
 and planting was about $500 per acre. 
 
 The work was begun in 1852, and the next year 
 a small quantity of fruit was gathered. The suc 
 ceeding crops, for eight years, varied from 200 down 
 to 7 barrels. The crop of 1862 was the smallest ol 
 all, and was lost by the neglect of a workman ; that 
 of 1863 was the highest, and amounted to 1030 
 .barrels. Dr. Miller says, " I have no doubt that 
 when my meadows are brought to a proper con 
 dition, they will yield, some seasons, from 2000 to 
 2500 barrels." 
 
 He says, moreover, that his example is followed 
 by others to a limited extent, owing to the want of 
 suitable meadows as to flowing, gravel, &c. He 
 thinks he could now do the same amount of work 
 (with labor at the same price) for 150 less per acre. 
 It was to get rid of the multitude of roots in the 
 ground that he removed so great a depth of soil. 
 All this was taken away by wheelbarrows, the 
 ground being too soft to sustain the tread of cattle. 
 It was finally burned, and the ashes used on other 
 land. The larger meadow had run to waste so long, 
 
144 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 that for some time the owner could not decide to 
 whom it belonged. 
 
 It will doubtless occur to the intelligent reader 
 that Dr. Miller committed an oversight in destroy 
 ing by fire the immense amount of sods, grass-roots, 
 muck, and peat, which he thus removed with the 
 alder and other roots. From so large a surface, and 
 going to so great a depth, the accumulation must 
 have been enormous. Though when dry it would 
 readily burn, yet it was in reality a highly concen 
 trated manure. There was a certain value in every 
 load, as would have been manifested had it been 
 applied to other land. But the Doctor admits that 
 he kept a loose account of the profits he gained by 
 removing this mass of vegetable matter, and says, 
 " I was more anxious to get rid of it than to make 
 anything out of it." As he managed the affair, he 
 thinks he realized about 1200 bushels of ashes. But 
 it may be safely assumed that the real value of the 
 manure thus passed through the destructive ordeal 
 of fire, was fully equal to a third, if not the half, 
 of the whole cost of removing and replacing it. 
 
 This estimate is warranted by my own experience. 
 Some four years since I began the operation of re 
 claiming a jungle of three acres, which, since the 
 foundation of the world, had produced no crop but 
 alders, briars, hassocks, ferns, and bumble-bees. It 
 was too soft for cattle to graze through it, and in 
 many places would almost mire a goose. The alders 
 had been cut off thirty years previous, but the roots 
 had been left in the ground. For all agricultural 
 purposes this meadow was absolutely worthless. 
 
AND WHERE TO FEND ONE. 145 
 
 I began by opening a ditch through its whole 
 length, some 800 feet, then dug narrow cross-ditches 
 at right angles, 30 feet asunder, in which were de 
 posited trunks formed by nailing two boards together, 
 and discharging into the main ditch. They were 
 then covered, and became underdrains. This was 
 all done in the autumn. In July following, the 
 ground was dry and hard enough for a team of four 
 mules to plow up the tough and almost impenetrable 
 sod that covered it. In October this sod was taken 
 off and collected in a huge pile, so high and so long 
 as to resemble a railroad embankment. Two hun 
 dred bushels of lime were mixed in as the pile was 
 made. That winter the denuded meadow was filled 
 in with dirt from an adjoining highland, in many 
 places to the depth of a foot, the wheelbarrow and 
 horse-shovel being used. The next season it was 
 all ploughed and planted with corn, cabbages, and 
 pumpkins. 
 
 But the sod taken from the surface was worth 
 more than the whole improvement cost. It amounted 
 to several thousand loads. It burned readily when 
 only half dried, and could have been as quickly 
 converted into ashes as that which fell to the lot of 
 Dr. Miller. But in place of being burned, a section 
 of the heap w r ent four times a year to the barn-yard, 
 where it speedily graduated into the richest kind of 
 manure. 
 
 It was interesting to notice how every plant grew 
 and flourished to which it had been freely applied. 
 Corn, grapes, strawberries, celery, potatoes, and 
 garden vegetables especially, were stimulated into 
 
 7 
 
14:6 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 a most luxuriant growth. It could hardly be other 
 wise, as it was pure vegetable fibre in a state of 
 decay. Some professional florists who visited my 
 premises, and examined this great muck-heap, ex 
 pressed their admiration of its richness. It was the 
 very material to obtain which they were compelled 
 to send many miles, and without which it would be 
 scarcely possible for them to prosecute their busi 
 ness. I could have readily sold it for more money 
 than the whole improvement of the three acres of 
 meadow cost me. This experience is cited as one 
 of the forms in which the reclaiming of a swamp 
 will return immediate compensation. 
 
 The abundance of swamp lands in this country 
 having been referred to, it may be of some interest 
 to give such figures in relation to the subject as may 
 be relied on. There are no statistics showing how 
 many acres the whole Union contains ; but some 
 idea may be gathered from the legislation which 
 has been had in Congress when coming to dispose 
 of them. The first statute which dealt with this 
 interest was the law of 1849, in relation to Louisi 
 ana, a large extent of whose territory was annually 
 overflowed. Along the Mississippi the alluvial 
 margin- is from one to two miles wide; and to pre 
 vent the inundation from that river, an artificial 
 embankment or levee system had been adopted, 
 extending, on the east side of the river, from forty 
 miles below New Orleans to a distance up the 
 river of a hundred and eighty miles, and on the 
 west side generally to the boundary of Arkansas. 
 
 To aid Louisiana in constructing the necessary 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 147 
 
 levees and drains to reclaim these swamps and over 
 flowed lands, Congress, by act of March 3, 1849, 
 granted to that State " the whole of those swamps 
 and overflowed lands which may be, or are found 
 unfit for cultivation." The Government, in the 
 spirit of enlarged public policy, conceded this class 
 of inundated lands to aid in the construction of per 
 manent levees, with a view to secure private prop 
 erty, and also as a sanitary measure. To this suc 
 ceeded the law of 1850, extending a similar grant 
 to Arkansas ; but the last section of the act en 
 larged the .grant, so as to embrace " each of the 
 other States of the Union in which such swamp and 
 overflowed lands may be situated." When this 
 measure had its origin, and before it became general, 
 the grant was estimated as embracing 5,000,000 
 acres. But in September, 1863, it was ascertained 
 that the enormous quantity of 57,923,737 acres had 
 been selected. 
 
 How such extraordinary flexibility was imparted 
 to a law having a definite object, is shown by the 
 subjoined explanation from the Washington Union: 
 
 " It is currently reported that extensive frauds have been 
 attempted in regard to the selection of swamp lands under 
 the act of September 28, 1850. That act granted to the 
 States the swamp and overflowed lands, unfit thereby for 
 cultivation, which were at that time unsold. Some of the 
 States selected swamp lands in accordance with the 
 field notes of the Surveyor-General ; other States appointed 
 agents to select these lands, the agents furnishing lists to 
 the General Land-office, which lists, having been examined 
 by the Surveyor-General, were reported for approval or 
 
148 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 disapproval. In some of the States these lands were 
 granted to the counties in which they were found, by the 
 State Legislatures. The counties, in some instances, en 
 tered into contracts with the agents for the purp9se of se 
 lecting those lands for them. It is said that, in some in 
 stances, these agents went into the fields and selected all 
 the good vacant land which they could find, irrespective of 
 its character, whether swamp or otherwise. These agents, 
 by contract, were allowed, say ten or fifteen cents an acre 
 in some instances, and in others one-fourth and one-third 
 of the lands found. Under these tempting inducements, 
 some swamp lands have been found on the tops of high 
 hills and mountains. If these lists of selections by these 
 agents should have been sanctioned by the Department, 
 this class of speculators would have made from $250 to 
 $50,000 a day. On the 3d of March, 1857, an act was 
 passed in relation to these selections, which the Depart 
 ment of the Interior holds does not relate to selections of 
 lands made after the date of the act itself. It seemed to 
 be the design of this act of 3d of March, 1857, to confirm 
 to the several States such lands as may have been selected 
 under the act of 28th September, 1850, which had hereto 
 fore been reported to the Commissioner of the General 
 Land-office, so far as then vacant and unappropriated, and 
 not interfered with by actual settlement. Selections which" 
 have been made since the date of this act, it will be per 
 ceived, have not been confirmed thereby. Some of these 
 parties, who have expected to be benefited by this act of 
 1850, will find themselves sadly disappointed." 
 
 In the overflowed region along the Mississippi 
 river, for the reclamation of which the law was 
 originally intended, and where it went earliest into 
 operation, the effect was speedy and very remark- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 
 
 able. During the three years ending with 1857, 
 there was an increase of over 50,000,000 in the 
 assessed value of the lands in Mississippi, and of 
 over $25,000,000 in the value of the taxable slaves. 
 
 A very large portion of this enormous increase 
 of value occurred in the regions subject to overflow 
 from the river, but which, under the operation of 
 the law just referred to, had been drained and 
 brought under tillage. But this system of drainage 
 had scarcely been begun. All thus far accomplished 
 had been hastily, and therefore imperfectly done. 
 Yet the amazing fertility of the half-reclaimed 
 bottoms is shown in the rapid increase of values. 
 Their superior productiveness attracted capital and 
 population from all the slave States. Within the 
 three years mentioned, the slave population of Mis 
 sissippi increased from 326,861 in 1854, to 368,861 
 in 1857. The progress developed in Arkansas and 
 Texas was even more remarkable. This increase 
 would have gone on enlarging as the drainage ex 
 tended and became more complete. But rebellion 
 not only interrupted its progress, but made the 
 whole region a hissing and an astonishment to the 
 world. As an organized institution, slavery became 
 utterly demoralized, and in many places ceased to 
 exist. The slaves became fugitives or soldiers. 
 Thousands perished of disease or starvation. Plan 
 tations were abandoned, their buildings and ma 
 chinery destroyed, leaving what is probably the 
 finest region on the continent to be repeopled and 
 resuscitated by a new race of owners. 
 
 This appropriation of public land may be re- 
 
150 HOW TO GET A FAEM, 
 
 garded as the only instance in which our Govern 
 ment has extended aid to promote the drainage of 
 any description of lands. While with us the neglect 
 of this important interest has been the rule, in Eng 
 land the practice has been directly the reverse. For 
 a long series of years, the efforts of English land 
 lords have been directed to the reclamation of waste 
 lands, moors, heaths, and lowlands. In 1797, a 
 committee of the House of Commons estimated the 
 area of such lands as had been brought under in- 
 closure from 1700 to that date, at about 4,000,000 
 acres. The subsequent increase was relatively much 
 greater, as there are statistics to show that from 
 1800 to 1820, as many as 3,000,000 acres more were 
 brought under tillage. It is held that this rapid 
 addition was caused by the stimulant of high prices 
 for all agricultural products growing out of the 
 wars of that period. 
 
 Since 1820, it is said that the reclamation of waste 
 lands in England has not been pushed so vigorously, 
 but that the effort has been to increase the acreable 
 product of land, rather than to enlarge the area. 
 Hence the enthusiasm touching artificial fertilizers 
 and underdraining, both looking to a larger expend 
 iture of capital and labor on an acre. Government 
 has shared in this enthusiasm by loaning to English 
 farmers some $60,000,000 to enable them to under- 
 drain their lands. It is among the remarkable facts 
 of this munificent loan, that the lender has sustained 
 no loss from the borrowers, and that no land has 
 been underdrained without being signally benefited. 
 In numberless instances its productive capacity has 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 151 
 
 been doubled. Indeed, some authorities have held, 
 that but for the increased supply of food thus pro 
 duced in England, as the result of a vast system of 
 underdraining, the people of that country would be 
 almost as helplessly dependent on other nations for 
 food, as their manufacturing industry has been de 
 pendent upon us for cotton. 
 
 Thus, if underdraining has been recognized in 
 England as a subject deserving of national encour 
 agement, the fact is a significant endorsement of the 
 prominent position which it has been made to oc 
 cupy in this volume. But though no similar aid 
 has been given to American farmers, yet there are 
 thousands of them who, aware of its importance, 
 have made drainage a fundamental element of their 
 whole system of farming. From among these a 
 single instance may be cited, as showing not only 
 how thoroughly the art has been transplanted to 
 this country, but how fully its results here corrob 
 orate those which havB been realized by English 
 farmers. The facts are taken from the Xew York 
 Tribune, for October 29, 1859 : 
 
 " Mr. John Johnston, near Geneva, N. Y., at one time 
 esteemed a fanatic by his neighbors, has come, of late 
 years, to be generally known as * the father of tile-drainage 
 in America, After thirty years of precept, and twenty-two 
 of example, he has the satisfaction of seeing his favorite 
 theojy fully accepted, and to some extent practically ap 
 plied throughout the country. Not without labor, however, 
 nor without much skepticism, ridicule, and controversy, has 
 this end been attained ; and if, now that his head is 
 whitened, and his course all but run, he finds himself re- 
 
152 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 spected and appealed to by persons in every State of the 
 Union, he does not forget that it has been through much 
 tribulation that he has worked out this exceeding great 
 weight of glory. Mr. Johnston is a Scotchman, who came 
 to this country thirty-nine years ago, and purchased the 
 farm he now occupies on the easterly shore of Seneca Lake, 
 a short distance from Geneva. With the pertinacity of his 
 nation, he stayed where he first settled, through ill fortune 
 and prosperity, wisely concluding that by always bettering 
 his farm he would better himself, and make more money in 
 the long run than he could by shifting uneasily from place 
 to place in search of sudden wealth. He was poor enough 
 at the commencement ; but what did that matter to a fru 
 gal, industrious man, willing to live within his means, and 
 work hard to increase them ? And so with unflagging zeal 
 he has gone on from that day to this. 
 
 "His first purchase was 112 acres of land, well situated, 
 but said to be the poorest in the county. He knew better 
 than that, however, for although the previous tenant had all 
 but starved upon it, and the neighbors told him such would 
 be his own fate, he had seen poorer land forced to yield 
 large crops in the old country, and so he concluded to try 
 the chances for life or death. The soil was a heavy gravelly 
 clay, with a tenacious clay subsoil, a perfectly tight reser 
 voir for water, cold, hard-baked, and cropped down to about 
 the last gasp. The magician commenced his work. He 
 found in the barn-yard a great pile of manure, the accumu 
 lations of years, well rotted, black as ink, and as mellow 
 as an ash-heap. This he put on as much land as possible, 
 at the rate of seventy-jive loads to the acre, ploughed it in 
 deeply, sowed his grain, cleaned out the weeds as well as 
 he could, and the land on which he was to starve gave him 
 about twenty-five bushels of wheat per acre. The result 
 was, as usual, attributed to luck, and any thing but the real 
 
AXD WHERE TO FIND ONE. 153 
 
 cause. To turn over such deep furrows was sheer folly, and 
 such heavy dressings of manure would not fail to destroy the 
 seed. But it didn t ; and let our farmers remember that it 
 never will ; and if they wish to get rich, let them cut out 
 this article, read it often, and follow the example of our 
 fanatical Scotch friend. 
 
 " This system of deep ploughing and heavy manuring 
 wrought its results in due time. Paying off his debt, put 
 ting up buildings, and purchasing stock each year to fatten 
 and sell, Mr. Johnston, after seventeen years of hard work, 
 at last found himself ready to incur a new debt, and to 
 commence laying tile drains. Of the benefits to be derived 
 from drainage he had long been aware ; for he recollected 
 that when he was only ten years of age, his grandfather, 
 a thrifty farmer in the Lothians, seeing the good effects of 
 some stone drains laid down upon his place, had said, 
 4 Varily, I believe the whole airth should be drained. This 
 quaint saying, which needs but little qualification, made a 
 lasting impression on the mind of the boy, that was to be 
 tested by the man, to the permanent benefit of this country. 
 
 " Without sufficient means himself, he applied for a loan 
 to the bank in Geneva, and the President, knowing his in 
 tegrity and industry, granted his request. In 1835, tiles 
 were not made in this country, so Mr. Johnston imported 
 some as samples, and a quantity of the 4 horse-shoe pattern 
 were made in 1838, at Waterloo. There was no machine 
 for producing them, so they were made by hand, and 
 molded over a stick. This slow and laborious process 
 brought their cost to $24 per thousand, but even at this 
 enormous price Mr. Johnston determined to use them. 
 His ditches were opened and his tile laid, and then what 
 sport for the neighbors ! They poked fun at the deluded 
 man ; they came and counseled with him, all the while 
 watching his bright eye and intelligent face for signs of 
 
154: HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 lunacy ; they went by wagging their heads, and saying 
 * Aha! and one and all said he was a most consummate ass 
 to put crockery under ground and bury his money so fruit 
 lessly. Poor Mr. Johnston ! he says he really felt ashamed 
 of himself for trying the new plan, and when people riding 
 past the house would shout at him, and make contemptuous 
 signs, he was sore-hearted, and almost ready to conceal his 
 crime. BUT WHAT WAS THE RESULT ? Why this : that 
 land which previously was sodden with water and utterly 
 unfruitful, in one season was covered with luxuriant crops, 
 and the jeering skeptics were utterly confounded ; that in 
 two crops all his outlay for tiles and labor was repaid, and 
 he could start afresh and drain more land ; that the profit 
 was so manifest as to induce him to extend his operations 
 each succeeding year, and so go on until 1856, when his 
 labor was finished, after having laid 210,000 tiles, or more 
 than fifty miles in length ! And the fame of this individual 
 success going forth, one and another duplicated his experi 
 ment, and were rewarded according to their deserts. 
 
 " It was not long after the manufacture of the first lot of 
 tiles that a machine was contrived which would make them 
 quite as well and faster ; and by its aid they were afforded 
 at quite as low a price as after an English machine was im 
 ported. The horse-shoe tile has been used by Mr. Johnston 
 almost exclusively, for the reason that they were the only 
 kind to be procured at first, and on his hard subsoil, finding 
 them to do as well as he could wish, he has not cared to 
 make new experiments. He has drains that have been in 
 function for more than twenty years without needing re 
 pair, and are apparently as efficient now as they were when 
 first laid. In soft land, pipe or sole tiles would be prefer 
 able, or if horse-shoe were used, they should be placed on 
 strips of rough board, to prevent them sinking into the 
 trench bottom, or being thrown out of the regular fall by 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 155 
 
 being undermined by the running water. He has not used 
 the plough for opening his trenches, for the reason that all 
 his work has been let out by contract, and the men have 
 opened them by the spade ; charging from twelve and a- 
 half to fifteen cents per rod for opening and making the 
 bottom ready for the tile. The laying and filling was done 
 by the owner. 
 
 " His ditches are dug only two and a-half feet deep, and 
 thirteen inches wide at the top, sloping inward to the bot 
 tom, where they are just wide enough to take the tile. 
 One main drain, in which are placed two four-inch tiles set 
 eight inches apart, with an arch-piece of tile having a nine- 
 inch span set on top of them, was dug three and a-half and 
 four feet deep, and this serves as a conduit for the water 
 from a large system of laterals. Drains should never be 
 left open in winter, for the dirt dislodged by frequent frosts 
 so fills the bottom that it will cost five or six cents per rod 
 to clear them ; and, moreover, the banks often become so 
 crumbled away that the ditch cannot be straddled by a 
 team of horses, and thus most of the filling must be done 
 by hand. Mr. Johnston, in draining a field, commences at 
 the foot of each ditch, and works up to the head. He 
 opens his mains first, and then the lateral or small drains, 
 but he lays the tiles in the laterals, and fills them com 
 pletely, before laying the pipe in the mains. The object of 
 this is to prevent the accumulation of sediment in the 
 mains which would naturally be washed from the laterals 
 on their first being laid. By commencing at the foot of 
 each ditch, and working upward, he can always get and 
 preserve the regular fall, which may be dictated by the 
 features of his field, more easily than by working toward 
 the outlet. A little practice teaches the ditchers how to 
 preserve the grade almost as well as if gauges were em 
 ployed ; but before laying the tiles, the instrument is ap- 
 
156 HOW TO GET A FABM, 
 
 plied to test the bottoms thoroughly. The necessity of this 
 precaution will be apparent to any one who reflects that if 
 a tile or two in the course of a ditch be set much too high 
 or too low at either end, the water quickly forms a basin 
 beneath and around, sediment is washed into the adjoining 
 pipe, and ultimately even the whole bore is filled and the 
 drain stopped. When this happens, it will be indicated 
 after a time by the water appearing at the surface of the 
 ground above the spot drawn upward by capillary attrac 
 tion. In such a case the ditch must be reopened and the 
 tile relaid. 
 
 " Mr. Johnston says tile-draining pays for itself in two 
 seasons, sometimes in one. Thus, in 1847, he bought a 
 piece of ten acres to get an outlet for his drains. It was a 
 perfect quagmire, covered with coarse aquatic grasses, and 
 so unfruitful that it would not give back the seed sown 
 upon it. In 1848, a crop of corn was taken from it, which 
 was measured, and found to be eighty bushels per acre, and 
 as, because of the Irish famine, corn was worth $1 per 
 bushel that year, this crop paid not only all the expense of 
 drainage, but the first cost of the land as well. 
 
 " Another piece of twenty acres, adjoining the farm of 
 the late John Delafield, was wet, and would never bring 
 more than ten bushels of corn per acre. This was drained 
 at a great cost, nearly $30 per acre. The first crop after 
 this was 83 bushels and some odd pounds per acre. It was 
 weighed and measured by Mr. Delafield, and the County 
 Society awarded a premium to Mr. Johnston. Eight acres 
 and some rods of this land, at one side, averaged 94 
 bushels, or the trifling increase of 84 bushels per acre over 
 what it would bear before those insignificant clay tiles were 
 buried in the ground. But this increase of crop is not the 
 only profit of drainage ; for Mr. Johnston says that on 
 drained land one-half the usual quantity of manure suffices 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 157 
 
 to give maximum crops. It is not difficult to find a reason 
 for this. When the soil is sodden with water, air cannot 
 enter to any extent, and hence oxygen cannot eat off the 
 surfaces of soil-particles and prepare food for plants ; thus 
 the plant must in great measure depend on the manure for 
 sustenance, and of course the more this is the case, the 
 more manure must be applied to get good crops. This is 
 one reason, but there are others which" we might adduce if 
 one good one were not sufficient. 
 
 " Mr. Johnston says he never made money until he 
 drained, and so convinced is he of the benefits accruing 
 from the practice, that he would not hesitate as he did 
 not when the result was much more uncertain than at 
 present to borrow money to drain. Drains well laid 
 endure, but unless a farmer intends doing the job well, he 
 had best leave it alone, and grow poor, and move out West, 
 and all that sort of thing. Occupiers of apparently dry 
 land are not safe in concluding that they need not go to 
 the expense of draining, for if they will but dig a three- 
 foot ditch in even the dryest soil, water will be found in 
 the bottom at the end of eight hours, and if it does come, 
 then draining will pay for itself speedily. For instance, 
 Mr. Johnson had a lot of thirteen acres on the shore of the 
 lake, where the bank at the foot of the lot was perpendic 
 ular to the depth of thirty or forty feet. He supposed 
 from this fact, and because the surface seemed very dry, that 
 he had no need to drain it. But somehow he lost his crops 
 continually, and as he had put them in as well as he knew 
 how, he naturally concluded that he must lay some tile. 
 So he engaged an Irishman to open a ditch, with a proviso, 
 that if water should come into it in eight hours, he would 
 drain the entire piece. The top soil was so hard and dry 
 as to need an application of the pick, but at the depth of a 
 foot it was found to be so wet and soft that a spade could 
 
158 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 easily be sunk to the entire depth of the handle. The 
 ditches were made, and in less than the specified time, a 
 brave lot of water flowed in. The piece was thoroughly 
 drained, and the result was an immense crop of corn. The 
 field has regularly borne 60 to 70 bushels since. Corn was 
 planted for a first crop in this and the preceding instances, 
 because a paying crop is obtained in one year, whereas, if 
 wheat were sown, it would be necessary to wait two seasons. 
 He always drains when the field is in grass, if possible, for 
 the ditches can be made more easily ; and spring is chosen 
 that the labor may not be interfered with by frosts. 
 
 " To show how necessary it is to avoid planting trees 
 over drains, we quote a case in point. In a lot adjoining 
 his house are four large elms, which are marked to be 
 felled, and for the reason that the lot was formerly so wet 
 that a pond of water stood upon it in winter, and through 
 out the season the children skated and slid upon it. It was 
 drained, and all went well for a time ; but after three years 
 Mr. Johnston found that his drains did not discharge prop 
 erly, and that in certain places the water came to the sur* 
 face, so as to destroy or greatly lessen the crop above them. 
 He could not account for the circumstance until he dug 
 down to the drain at each of these spots, when, to his sur 
 prise, he found the tile completely choked with fibrous 
 roots of the elms, which, naturally seeking the subterranean 
 supply of water, had so accumulated in mass as to stop a 
 two-inch bore of tile. 
 
 "Mr. Johnston does not think there are a hundred 
 acres in any neighborhood that do not need draining, and 
 would not pay well for it. Perhaps this may be thought 
 an extreme assertion, but it is nearer the fact than most of 
 us have been aware. Mr. Johnston is no rich man who 
 has carried a favorite hobby without regard to cost or profit. 
 He is a hard-working Scotch farmer who commenced a 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 159 
 
 poor man, borrowed money to drain his land, has gradually 
 extended his operations, and is now reaping the benefits, in 
 having crops of forty bushels of wheat to the acre. He is 
 a gray-haired Nestor, who, after accumulating the experience 
 of a long life, is now, at seventy-five years of age, written 
 to by strangers in every State of the Union for information, 
 not only in drainage matters, but all cognate branches of 
 farming. He sits in his homestead a veritable Humboldt 
 in his way, dispensing information cheerfully through our 
 agricultural papers, and to private correspondents, of whom 
 he has recorded 164 who applied to him last year. His 
 opinions are, therefore, worth more than those of a host of 
 theoretical men, who write without practice. He says that 
 the retrogression of our agriculture in the older States is 
 to be accounted for in our lack of drainage, poor feeding of 
 stock, which results in giving a small quantity of poor 
 manure, and in not keeping enough to make manure. He 
 applies 100 loads of manure to the acre at the beginning 
 of a rotation, and this lasts throughout the course. He 
 learned from his grandfather that no farmer could afford to 
 keep any animal that did not improve on his hands, and 
 that as soon as it was in good marketable condition it 
 should be sold, and replaced by another. This theory he 
 has always carried out, and, as a natural consequence, has 
 always got higher prices for his beef stock, and a ready 
 market even in the dullest times. 
 
 " Although his farm is mainly devoted to wheat, yet a 
 considerable area of meadow and some pasture has been 
 retained. He now owns about 300 acres of land. The 
 yield of wheat has been 40 bushels this year, and in 
 former seasons, when his neighbors were reaping 8, 10, or 
 15 bushels, he has had 30 and 40. We are informed by 
 him that there has been no such crop as the present since 
 1845, either in yield or quality; and the absence of weevil 
 
160 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 is remarkable. A variety of white wheat from Missouri, 
 sown more thinly than usual, has yielded 31 bushels to 
 something less than one bushel of seed sown. It headed 
 out a fortnight earlier than the Soule s, but ripened later 
 probably because thinly sown. Mr. Johnston thinks we 
 have been sowing too thickly for fifteen years past upon 
 rich land, and there can be no question but that he is right. 
 Still, it is better to take a medium course between thick 
 and thin sowing, and thus avoid, on the one hand, rust, 
 overcrowding, and waste of seed, and on the other, placing 
 an entire crop at the mercy of insects which may attack it. 
 " A too common error with improving farmers is that of 
 using too small tile for main drains, and too large for 
 laterals. Those accustomed to the roomy conduits of ordi 
 nary stone drains, suppose that nothing less than a three- 
 inch bore will conduct the drainage from the surface into 
 the mains, and curiously enough the same persons, unmind 
 ful of the large area drained by each system of laterals, 
 err in using mains but little larger in the bore than the 
 latter. If any are willing to look into the results of the 
 drainage on our Central Park, the most stupendous work of 
 the kind in this country, and one of the best conducted, 
 they will find that the one and a-half-inch and two-inch 
 tiles there used for laterals do not run full even after the 
 most violent and protracted rains, and yet from a single 
 system of twelve acres, the discharge, after a recent rain, 
 ^vas at the rate of 3,000 gallons per hour. This error of 
 using too large tile Mr. Johnston fell into, and now that he 
 has learned better, after a twenty years experience, he 
 cautions his brother farmers against using larger than two- 
 inch tile for laterals. For mains, each farmer must provide 
 as the quantity of water to be conducted is greater or less. 
 In many cases Mr. Johnston has used two rows of four-inch, 
 in others six-inch, and in one, semi-circles of eleven inches, 
 
AND WHEKE TO FIND ONE. 161 
 
 one at top and one at bottom, making a pipe nine inches 
 bore to discharge water. At first, he had many to take up 
 and replace with large pipe to secure a complete discharge. 
 Main drains he makes six to eight inches deeper than those 
 emptying into them not with an abrupt shoulder, but 
 leveled up, so that the descent may take place gradually in 
 the length of two tiles 29 inches and always giving the 
 laterals a slight sidewise direction at the end, so that their 
 water will be discharged down stream into the mains. 
 
 " Another error he at first fell into was, in having too 
 many drains on lowlands, and not enough on the upland ; 
 thus seeking to carry off the effect, while the cause the 
 out-cropping springs on the hill-side remained untouched. 
 Where the source of the water is most abundant, the means 
 for removing it should most abundantly be furnished. Rain 
 water falls on hills, sinks to an impervious stratum, along 
 which it runs until it either finds a porous section through 
 which it can fall to a lower level, or not finding such, con 
 tinues on the hard bottom to the side of the hill, where it 
 crops out in the form of a spring. If this spring-water is 
 suffered to run down hill, it washes the hill-side more or 
 less, and coming to the lowland, sinks as far as it may into 
 the soil, makes it sodden, and produces bad effects. To 
 drain effectually, then, we must cut off the supply above, 
 and fewer drains will be necessary below. Here is the 
 whole secret of the thing, and here we see why so much 
 money is spent to so little purpose by those who think that 
 they should only drain the wet lowland. Appearances are 
 deceitful, and we should not suppose that a seemingly dry 
 upland is really dry." 
 
 Comment on such a character and such a history as 
 this is superfluous. Mr. Johnston s example as a tile- 
 drainer has been of inestimable value to American 
 
162 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 farmers. As how such a man feeds his cattle and 
 manufactures manure, must be interesting to many, 
 the following additional extract on that subject is 
 given : 
 
 " A word as to this most important subject. On poor 
 lands good crops are got by the use of much manure. 
 This all know. But do they know as well that all ma 
 nure is not equally good ; that a cord of it that has been 
 leached by drenching rains throughout fall and winter, and 
 that has been shone upon by the sun through a hundred 
 hot days, has lost the greater part of its efficacy ? That 
 the rivulets of brown liquor that run from the b.arn-yard 
 into the public road will make more wheat than the brown- 
 washed straw which remains ? And that, be manure never 
 so well cared for, its value may be increased at will by the 
 food given to the animals that make it ? If they don t, Mr. 
 Johnston does ; and so, instead of freezing his stock until 
 they are almost in articulo mortis, and starving them on 
 dry stocks and refuse hay until the bones well nigh pierce 
 the skin, he has comfortable sheds and deeply-littered yards 
 for his cattle, and feeds them well at regular intervals with 
 sweet hay, oil-cake, bean-meal, and grain. The result 
 but what other could you expect ? is, that in spring they 
 are in store condition ; he loses none, has no disease among 
 them, saves a large quantity of such manure that one cord 
 of it will bring more wheat or corn than four of ordinary 
 dung, and he grows rich. Reader, if you desire to be a 
 good farmer, go and do likewise !" 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 163 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 Getting the first thousand dollars How to save Man wants but 
 little here below Actual cost of food Great successes A dime 
 a day. 
 
 ECONOMY is the sheet-anchor of every beginner, 
 no matter what calling he may adopt. "Without it, 
 industry and hard work go for almost nothing. As 
 a general rule, men more frequently grow rich from 
 what they save than from what they make. In 
 farming, especially, it may be assumed that this rule 
 has no exceptions. Our actual bodily wants are 
 few, and may be cheaply supplied without convert 
 ing us into a race of misers. In illustration of these 
 positions I have gathered from various sources some 
 facts sufficiently striking to command general atten 
 tion, even if they* should be found too hard to 
 imitate. 
 
 The greatest fortunes have originated in the 
 smallest beginnings. Stephen Girard, the million 
 aire of Philadelphia, began the world by selling 
 oranges from the head of a barrel in the streets of 
 an obscure country town. His remark in after life 
 was, that when a man had acquired his first thou 
 sand dollars, there was no difficulty in becoming 
 rich. John Jacob Astor began his wonderful career 
 
164: 
 
 of prosperity by buying the skins of skunks and 
 musk-rats. He is reported to have said that it cost 
 him more severe effort to get the first thousand dol 
 lars, than all the others. 
 
 Mr. Edwin T. Freedley has written much and well 
 on all these subjects. He says, referring to Astor, 
 that, 
 
 " If he had bequeathed to mankind an easy and certain 
 method of overcoming the difficulty, the bequest would have 
 been a far more valuable one than all his fortune ; entitling 
 him to the most conspicuous niche in the gallery of the 
 world s benefactors. The task, however, was beyond his 
 powers, as it has proved too vast for abler men. Franklin at 
 tempted to teach the true secret of money-catching the 
 certain way to fill empty pockets with what success we have 
 seen. Millionaires have favored the world with their dicta 
 and opinions ; but the world has not attached any great im 
 portance to their sayings, and certainly not been much 
 benefited by their observations. Mankind generally have 
 probably abandoned the idea of discovering a royal road to 
 wealth, and concluded that an individual, or nation, in order 
 to accumulate capital, must earn something by labor, and 
 then save a portion of the product. Something, however, 
 may be done and a good deal more than has been done 
 to .facilitate this accumulation; to show labor how, with 
 out extra exertion, it can increase its rewards ; and show 
 economy how, without injury to the physical system, less 
 may be consumed." 
 
 Mr. Freedley has gone largely and thoroughly 
 into all the details of the question as to how to get 
 the first thousand dollars. He tells us 
 
 "First, How TO SAVE. The human mind receives its 
 first practical lessons in the realities of life at a very early 
 
AXD WHERE TO FIND ONE. 165 
 
 period. The child is initiated and instructed in one of the 
 fundamental principles of social science when he discovers 
 that he cannot purchase a cake and also keep his penny 
 that he must forego the one or part with the other. As a 
 corollary from the proposition, he then comprehends that, 
 to keep his pennies, he must deny himself cakes ; and thus, 
 by involuntary deduction, he arrives at a fundamental prin 
 ciple of economy, viz. : self-denial in expenditures for per 
 sonal gratification. The limit to which it is possible to 
 carry this self-denial without injury to health, or diminution 
 of power for production, is somewhat remarkable. The 
 cost of what are absolute and actual necessaries of life is, in 
 most countries, comparatively little as is evidenced in cases 
 where stern necessity affixes the bounds of possible expen 
 diture. In France, for instance, there are tens of thousands 
 of peasants and of operatives whose daily earnings do not 
 exceed ten cents, and yet they contrive to live gayly on that 
 sum. As a consequence, in no other country has the art of 
 cookery made equal progress. In Paris, an enterprising 
 woman, Madame Robert, furnishes a dinner daily to six 
 thousand workmen for two pence each, her bill of fare be 
 ing cabbage soup, a slice of boiled beef, a piece of bread, 
 and a glass of wine. In our Southern States, the food of 
 the chief laborers the men who at one time produced an 
 export value of over two hundred millions of dollars per 
 annum in cotton, sugar, tobacco, and rice did not probably 
 cost their providers ten cents per day. 
 
 " The full allowance for a laboring man and woman one 
 that toils all the hours of daylight in the field is a peck 
 and a half of corn meal, and three pounds of fat bacon. In 
 the Cotton States, the average price of the corn is about 
 seventy-five cents a bushel, and the price of bacon eight 
 cents a pound. This w r ould make the week s rations cost 
 fifty-six cents. At still higher rates it would not be a 
 
166 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 dime a day in many places, not half that. In many pla 
 ces, though, the negroes do not get half the above rations. 
 We might still further illustrate the principle that the cost 
 of the substances actually necessary for the support of life is 
 small, by reference to the self-imposed abstinence of misers, 
 and the compulsory abstinence of prisoners. 
 
 ** An item has been circulating in the newspapers, pur 
 porting to be the result of some experiments made in a 
 prison, where it was found that ten persons gained four 
 pounds of flesh each in two months, eating, for breakfast, 
 eight ounces of oatmeal made into porridge, with a pint of 
 buttermilk for dinner, three pounds of boiled potatoes, with 
 salt; for supper, five ounces of oatmeal porridge, with one 
 pint of buttermilk, which cost two pence three farthings 
 per day. Ten others gained three and a half pounds of 
 flesh, eating six pounds of boiled potatoes daily, taking noth 
 ing with them but salt. Ten others ate the same amount 
 of porridge and buttermilk, with the potatoes, as the first 
 ten, but for dinner had soup ; they lost one and a quarter 
 pounds of flesh each ; and twenty others who had less, 
 diminished in size likewise. From this it would seem that 
 potatoes are better diet than smaller quanties of animal 
 food, at least for persons in confinement. The meat-eaters, 
 if they had been allowed ordinary exercise, might have ex 
 hibited a very different result. 
 
 " A few years ago, a Yankee philosopher of the school of 
 Diogenes, endeavored to ascertain, by actual experiment, 
 how cheaply a man could live ; and his experience he has 
 recorded in a volume entitled Walden; or life in the 
 Woods. Mr. Thoreau, the gentleman referred to, being 
 possessed of a capital of $25, took possession of a few acres 
 of land esteemed worthless, and proceeded to erect a cabin 
 by his own labor. The result of his building operations he 
 gives, as follows : 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND OXE. 167 
 
 " * I have thus a tight-shingled and plastered house, ten feet 
 wide by fifteen feet long, and eight-feet posts, with a garret 
 and closet, a large window on each side, two trap-doors, one 
 door at the end, and a brick fire-place opposite. The exact 
 cost of my house, paying the usual price for such materials 
 as I used, but not counting the work, all of which was by 
 myself, was as follows ; and I give the details, because very 
 few are able to tell exactly what their houses cost, and 
 fewer still, if any, the separate cost of the various materials 
 which compose them : 
 
 Boards, mostly shanty boards, $8 03* 
 
 Eefuse shingles for roof and sides, 4 00 
 
 Laths, 1 25 
 
 Two second-hand windows, with glass, 2 43 
 
 One thousand old brick, 4 00 
 
 Two casks of lime, 2 40 
 
 Hair, 31 
 
 Mantle-tree iron, 15 
 
 Nails, 3 90 
 
 Hinges and screws, 14 
 
 Latch, 10 
 
 Chalk, 01 
 
 Transportation, 1 40 
 
 In all, $28 12* 
 
 " These are all the materials, excepting the timber, stones, 
 and sand, which I claimed by squatter s right. I have also 
 a small wood-shed adjoining, made chiefly of the stuff which 
 was left after building the house. 
 
 "Obtaining his fuel in an adjacent wood, at the cost 
 merely of gathering it, he details his house-keeping ex 
 penses as follows : 
 
 " The expense of food for eight months, from July 4th 
 to March 1st, the time when these estimates were made 
 though I lived there more than two years not counting 
 
168 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 potatoes, a little green corn, and some peas, which I had 
 raised, nor considering the value of what was on hand at 
 last date, was 
 
 Rice $1 73i 
 
 Molasses 1 73 
 
 Rye meal 1 04| 
 
 Indian meal 99| 
 
 Pork 22 
 
 Flour 88 
 
 Sugar " 80 
 
 Lard 65 
 
 Apples 25 
 
 Dried apples 22 
 
 Sweet potatoes 10 
 
 One pumpkin 06 
 
 One watermelon 02 
 
 Salt.. . 03 
 
 Amount $8 74 
 
 "It will thus be perceived that his food cost him in 
 money about twenty-seven cents per week. For nearly two 
 years after this, he states, that it consisted of rye and In 
 dian meal (without yeast), potatoes, rice, a very little salt 
 pork and molasses ; and his drink was water. The cost of 
 his. clothing for eight months he estimates at $8.40}, ex 
 clusive of washing and mending ; and his other household 
 expenses, oil, &c., at $2 making his whole expenses for 
 eight months less than $25. I learned, from my two 
 years experience, he says, * that it would cost incredibly 
 little trouble to obtain one s necessary food even in this 
 latitude ; that a man may use as simple diet as the animals, 
 and yet retain health and strength. 
 
 " Another consoling fact is presented in the fruitfulness 
 of the earth, or in the amount of food that can be pro 
 duced upon an acre. Nearly every one in our country can 
 command the use of an acre of soil, and let us see how 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 169 
 
 much it is within the bounds of physical possibility to make 
 it produce. Siiumonds, in his * Vegetable Kingdom, re 
 marks, with regard to the comparative productiveness of 
 crops of human food, that one hundred bushels of Indian 
 corn per acre is not an uncommon crop. One peck per 
 week will not only sustain life, but give a man strength to 
 labor, if the stomach is properly toned to the amount of 
 food. This, then, would feed one man four hundred weeks, 
 or almost eight years. * Four hundred bushels of potatoes 
 can also be raised upon an acre; this would be a bushel a 
 week for the same length of time, and the actual weight of 
 an acre of sweet potatoes is 21,344 pounds, which is not 
 considered an extraordinary crop. This would feed a man 
 (six pounds a day) for 3,557 days, or nine years and two- 
 thirds. To vary the diet, we will occasionally give rice, 
 which has been grown at the rate of ninety-three bushels 
 to the acre over an entire field. This, at forty-five pounds 
 to Uie bushel, would be 1,185 pounds; or, at twenty-eight 
 pounds to the bushel, when husked, 2,604 pounds ; which, 
 at two pounds a day, would feed a man 1,302 days, or more 
 than three and a-half years. " 
 
 " Such considerations as these are full of consolation to 
 the aspiring, and of encouragement to the very poor. 
 None need despair, and moreover, none need be dishonest. 
 It is possible to accumulate capital, aye, to get the first 
 thousand dollars, from an income not exceeding the most 
 moderate earnings or wages. And let it be inscribed on the 
 lintel of every dwelling on the desks in every counting- 
 house on the pericardium of every heart It is better to 
 live on ten cents a day than to do a. wrong for the sake of 
 money. 
 
 " Again, the economy that leads to wealth implies a ju 
 dicious use and profitable investment of savings. A saving 
 of even a small sum will amount, it is true, within the 
 
 8 
 
170 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 limits of an ordinary life, to a handsome aggregate ; but 
 rapid accumulation in this way can only be attained when 
 money reproduces itself through the agency of compound 
 interest. The wonderful ratio of increase effected by this 
 means, can only be understood by those who have ex 
 perienced it though a glimmering of the reality may be 
 obtained by a glance at the following familiar table, interest 
 being calculated at six per cent. : 
 
 Savings 
 
 In 10 
 
 In 20 
 
 In 30 
 
 In 40 
 
 In 50 
 
 Savings 
 
 in 1 Year. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Years. 
 
 Years. 
 
 in 1 Day. 
 
 $10 
 
 $130 
 
 $360 
 
 $790 
 
 $1,540 
 
 $2,900 
 
 2 1 cts. 
 
 20 
 
 260 
 
 720 
 
 1,580 
 
 3,080 
 
 5,800 
 
 5i 
 
 30 
 
 390 
 
 1,080 
 
 2,370 
 
 4,620 
 
 8,700 
 
 8i 
 
 40 
 
 520 
 
 1,440 
 
 3,160 
 
 5,160 
 
 11,600 
 
 11 
 
 50 
 
 650 
 
 1,860 
 
 3,950 
 
 7,700 
 
 14,600 
 
 13| 
 
 "The most notable instance that now occurs to me of 
 remarkable success attained through attention to the prompt 
 investment of small sums, is afforded in the annals of 
 Abraham Shriver, of Frederick County, Maryland. With 
 no other resources than a salary of $1,400 a year as judge 
 of a court of inferior jurisdiction, and a small farm of four 
 teen acres, he succeeded in keeping his personal expenses 
 within the receipts from his farm, which he cultivated like a 
 garden ; and by promptly investing his salary every quarter- 
 day sometimes borrowing for the purpose of anticipating 
 or securing an investment promptly at the time he ac 
 cumulated an estate of $150,000. Among the records of 
 Savings Banks, which perform a most useful purpose in col 
 lecting and rendering available the dribblets of wealth, no 
 doubt there are many other remarkable instances. In Mas 
 sachusetts, the deposits in Savings Banks amount to over 
 $23,000,000. 
 
 " 3. Another element of economy, essential to the ac 
 cumulation of capital, is protection against great losses by 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 171 
 
 carefully providing against small ones. The importance of 
 this principle is thus illustrated by M. Say, a political 
 economist : 
 
 " * Being in the country, I had an example of one of 
 those small losses which a family is exposed to through 
 negligence. From the want of a latch of small value, the 
 wicket of a barn yard, looking to the field, was left open. 
 Every one who went through, drew the door to; but having 
 no means to fasten it, it re-opened. One day a fine pig got 
 out, and ran into the woods, and immediately all the world 
 was after it. The gardener, the cook, dairy-maid, all ran 
 to recover the swine. The gardener got sight of him first, 
 and jumped over a ditch to stop him, he sprained his ankle, 
 and was confined a fortnight to the house. The cook, on 
 her return, found all the linen she had left to dry by the 
 fire, burned ; and the dairy-maid, having ran off before she 
 tied the cows, one of them broke the leg of a colt in the 
 stable. The gardener s lost time was worth twenty crowns, 
 valuing his pains at nothing. The linen burned and the 
 colt spoiled were worth as much more. Here is a loss of 
 forty crowns, and much pain and trouble, vexation and in 
 convenience, for the want of a latch, which would have 
 cost three pence ; and the loss, through careless neglect, 
 falls on a family little able to support it. 
 
 " Proceeding now to inquire how to labor with profit, 
 we remark first, that capital is a general term for the ac 
 cumulated stock of former labor. Its father is labor, and 
 its mother economy. Ties of consanguinity, however, it 
 was long ago discovered, are no preventive against unseemly 
 contention. It is an old proverb, * When two men ride on 
 one horse, one must ride behind, but it is not always easy 
 to decide the question of precedence between them. In 
 primitive and unsettled states of society, labor is more 
 powerful than capital. In pruning the luxuriance of na- 
 
172 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 ture, and subjugating it to man s uses, the capitalist shrinks 
 into insignificance beside the man of the strong arm and 
 the sharp axe. But as soon as population approaches 
 density, capital vaults into the saddle, and labor must ride 
 on the crupper. In society, as at present developed, espe 
 cially in the old world, a man who has nothing but ordi 
 nary unskilled labor to offer in the market, finds that, 
 
 " To beg, or to borrow, or to get one s own 
 Tis the very worst world that ever was known. 
 
 " Wages would seem to be regulated by the cost of the 
 things supposed to be necessary to support life ; and he who 
 would save a portion of his earnings, must reduce his ex 
 penditures for living to a very low standard. Nevertheless, 
 there are many well authenticated instances of men who, 
 even in the old world, accumulated some capital from the 
 proceeds of day labor, and eventually became wealthy. 
 How much may be accomplished by an indomitable will 
 a resolute determination to overcome all obstacles Foster 
 has illustrated in his " Essay on Decision of Character." 
 He refers to a young man who, having expended a large 
 fortune in prodigality, sat down on the brow of an eminence 
 overlooking what were lately his estates, and there resolved 
 that all these estates should be his again. 
 
 " He had formed his plan, too, which he instantly began 
 to execute. He walked hastily forward, determined to 
 seize the very first opportunity, of however humble a kind, 
 to gain any money, though it were never so despicable a 
 trifle, and resolved absolutely not to spend, if he could help 
 it, a farthing of whatever he might obtain. The first thing 
 that drew his attention was a heap of coals, shot out of a 
 cart on a pavement before a house. He offered himself to 
 shovel or wheel them into the place where they were to 
 be laid, and was employed. He received a few pence for 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 173 
 
 the labor ; and then, in pursuance of the saving part of his 
 plan, requested some small gratuity of meat and drink, 
 which was given him. He then looked out for the next 
 thing that might chance to offer, and went with indefatigable 
 industry through a succession of servile employments, in 
 different places, of longer and shorter duration, still scru 
 pulously avoiding, as far as possible, the expense of a penny. 
 He promptly seized every opportunity which could advance 
 his design, without regarding the meanness of occupation 
 or appearance. By this method he had gained, after a 
 considerable time, money enough to purchase, in order to 
 sell again, a few cattle, of which he had taken pains to un 
 derstand the value. He speedily but cautiously turned his 
 first gains into second advantages; retained, without a 
 single deviation, his extreme parsimony, and thus advanced, 
 by degrees, into larger transactions and incipient wealth. I 
 did not hear, or have forgotten, the continued course of his 
 life ; but the final result was, that he more than recovered 
 his lost possessions, and died an old miser, worth 60,000. 
 "In the United* States, similar instances of moderate 
 fortunes acquired through persevering industry, and acquired, 
 too, without the sin of covetousness, are so numerous, that 
 a volume would hardly contain them. A leading builder, 
 in New York city, now entitled to a place in the book of 
 the Rich Men, was, some years ago, a bricklayer s laborer, 
 at one dollar per day. He states that out of this sum he 
 always contrived to save fifty cents per day, and laid by 
 $1 80 the first year. The senior members of many a staunch 
 firm commenced their connection with mercantile life by 
 sweeping out the store in which their fortunes were after 
 wards acquired. But, notwithstanding the many cheering 
 exceptions to the rule, it is nevertheless true, that ordinary 
 unskilled labor can, at best, make but slow progress toward 
 the accumulation of capital. 
 
174 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 " Secondly. The rewards of labor and the facility for the 
 acquisition of capital are increased by the possession of 
 some peculiar knowledge or skill. A man s pecuniary value 
 may be said to augment in exact proportion to the amount 
 of his effective intelligence, superadded to ordinary phys 
 ical power. The demand for educated labor in progressive 
 countries so far exceeds the supply, that it may, to a cer 
 tain extent, dictate its rewards. Men, animals, and ma 
 chines, are everywhere working fruitlessly, or unprofitably, 
 for want of suitable persons to direct their movements ; 
 enterprises of the first magnitude languish for want of 
 competent managers ; and regions, where nature has been 
 most bounteous in her gifts, are yet comparatively a wilder 
 ness, because the arts and mechanism of civilization have 
 not been introduced. The soil of Uruguay, for instance, 
 would produce wheat and Indian corn abundantly and lux 
 uriantly ; but its adaptation for the growth of these cereals 
 is rendered comparatively worthless by the absence of suit 
 able mills to grind the products. The sugar-cane of the 
 Southern States, and especially in the Tropics, is wasted 
 immensely, for want of the proper machines and th e requi 
 site skill to extract all the sugar from the juice. There are 
 dies in the Indies rarer than the cochineal ; fibrous plants 
 more valuable than any flax or hemp; substances more 
 oleaginous than linseed ; but they are unappreciated, be 
 cause the educated mechanism has not as yet prepared them 
 for the world s markets. A quick brain and a ready hand 
 constitute a man Fortune s master. Even women, limited 
 as their opportunities are for gaining a livelihood, inde 
 pendently of being a helpmate to man, wonderfully enlarge 
 the scope of their powers when they combine administra 
 tive and manipulative skill. As managers of work-rooms, 
 superintendents, etc., women are especially in demand ; and, 
 if qualified, can readily earn from $6 to $12 per week 
 
AND WHERE TO FIXD ONE. 175 
 
 " Thirdly. Again, the accumulation of capital may be 
 accelerated by associating with personal labor some respons 
 ibility. Capitalists, in general, are timid, and desire to pro 
 tect themselves against extraordinary expenses. It is in the 
 nature of capital to surround itself with safeguards, and it 
 willingly pays a premium for guarantees. Thus, though 
 an employer may be able to calculate the cost of an under 
 taking as measured by the labor involved, he would yet 
 prefer to pay something additional to insure its execution 
 for a definite sum. There are many instances, however, 
 where the skilled laborer alone, can form an estimate of the 
 cost ; and in such cases he may, by shrewd bargaining, ob 
 tain liberal compensation for the work. Many of those who 
 have been remarkably successful in accumulating capital, 
 have done so by advancing, as soon as possible, from the 
 position of simple laborer to that of contractor. 
 
 " Fourthly. But the lever of greatest efficiency in pro 
 moting accumulation is association of several for a common 
 2)urpose. Man, however skillful, is, if unaided by others, a 
 very helpless being. There are tribes, we are told, whose 
 cardinal principle it is for each individual to act independ 
 ently of his fellows, never helping each other; but their 
 condition, as may be supposed, is but little better than that 
 of the wild animals with which they are surrounded. All 
 of man s most wonderful achievements, those which, if con 
 sidered disconnectedlv from their performance, seem prac 
 tically and physically impossible, are explained by the 
 mystical power embodied in a combination of numbers for 
 a common purpose. 
 
 " And lastly, the accumulated stock of the products of 
 labor may be vastly increased by the judicious use of credit. 
 Credit is the offspring of good laws and good character. 
 It is one of the advantages of legal protection for person 
 and property that the owners of capital are willing to lend 
 
176 
 
 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 it, trusting to the honesty of the borrower that he will re 
 turn it, or its equivalent, with rent or interest for its use. 
 It is one of the advantages of good character, and known 
 or presumed punctuality in dealing, that a man may, on 
 his own security, obtain the possession and use of a reason 
 able amount of capital. Credit, being the representative of 
 capital, performs many of its functions, and confers upon 
 the borrower the same benefits, less the charge for its use. 
 The advantages of credit are nowhere more strikingly ex 
 emplified than in the rapid material progress of the United 
 States ; and in no other country are the profits from its use so 
 large, when combined with industry and mechanical skill. 
 
 u An instance is recorded of a farmer, in Peoria County, 
 Illinois, who lived on a rented farm of eighty acres, for 
 which he paid two hundred dollars rent for the land, and 
 twenty-six dollars for the house ; he did all his work him 
 self, except some help in planting corn ; had one team of 
 horses; and, after paying his rent and supporting his 
 family, cleared one thousand dollars a year. The Rev. 
 John S. Barger, a Methodist clergyman, in Illinois, fur 
 nishes the following interesting account of two Mr. Funks, 
 Jesse and Isaac no relation of Peter, whose address, as 
 heretofore, is New York city : 
 
 " I will now give you a concise history of the operations 
 of Mr. Funk. Both before and after his marriage, he had 
 made rails for his neighbors at twenty-five cents per hun 
 dred. But when the lands where he lived came into 
 market, twenty-five years ago, he had saved of his five 
 years earnings $1,400, and says if he had invested it all 
 in lands, he would now have been rich. With two hundred 
 dollars he bought his first quarter section, and loaned to his 
 neighbors eight hundred dollars to buy their homes ; and 
 with the remaining four hundred he purchased a lot of 
 cattle. With this beginning, Mr. Funk now owns seven 
 
AND WHEKE TO FIND ONE. 177 
 
 thousand acres of land, has near twenty-seven hundred in 
 cultivation, and his sales of cattle and hogs, at the Chicago 
 market, amounted to a little over forty-four thousand dol 
 lars in a single year. 
 
 " Mr. Isaac Funk, of Funk s Grove, nine miles distant 
 from his brother Jesse, and ten miles northwest from 
 Bloomington, on the Mississippi and Chicago Railroad, 
 began the world in Illinois at the same time, having a 
 little the advantage of Jesse, so far as having a little bor 
 rowed capital. He now owns about twenty-seven thousand 
 acres of land ; has about four thousand acres in cultivation ; 
 and his last sales of cattle at Chicago amounted to $60,000. 
 
 " In California, farming has yielded equally good returns. 
 A gentleman writes : 
 
 " The following facts have come under our knowledge. 
 A German farmer squatted on one hundred and sixty acres 
 of ground, some four years ago. Although he began with 
 out a halfpenny, he made in the first year, by wheat grow 
 ing, the handsome sum of nine hundred dollars, besides 
 paying for his land at one dollar per acre, and for his im 
 plements, and buying horses, cows, and oxen, building his 
 house, and completing his fence. For tl^e last two years, 
 his field of forty acres has yielded him 1,100 bushels of 
 wheat per annum, selling for net $1,400 ; his eggs, poultry, 
 vegetables, fruits, &c., brought in four hundred dollars. 
 He estimates his increase in cattle at eight hundred dollars, 
 and the increase in value of the land at three hundred and 
 twenty dollars. Besides this, according to his own account, 
 he had $2,500 cash in the bank ; and, in fact, considered 
 he was worth $10,000, and all this the result of four years 
 judicious labor, single-handed, and commencing totally 
 without capital. A field of 500 acres of wheat has pro 
 duced, within the last four years, a total of 63,220 bushels, 
 of the value of $108,000. 
 
 8* 
 
178 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 "An Irish farmer began farming in 1853 with the small 
 sum of $300, made in the mines in company with his 
 nephew, a young lad. He first bought two hundred acres 
 of land, paying a deposit on the same ; and the rest of the 
 money was invested in a horse, a cow, and the necessary 
 implements. The first year, his fenced-in fields yielded 
 wheat to the value of $800, which enabled him to pay the 
 remainder of his money for his land, besides repaying him 
 for that expended on his stock. He owns six hundred 
 acres of land, and twenty-eight head of cattle, including 
 seven horses ; together with lots of pigs, sheep, and poultry. 
 His arable land is now forty-five acres, besides which he 
 has a large orchard and kitchen garden. In a word, he 
 has made himself a very snug, comfortable home, and 
 something like $4,000 to boot. 
 
 "In 1852, an Englishman and two Germans came from 
 the mines, with a, united capital of thirteen hundred dollars. 
 They bought six hundred and forty acres of land, and 
 farmed it. Last year one of the Germans sold his share in 
 the increased concern for nine thousand dollars. Some 
 years ago, an intimate acquaintance of ours, a German, in 
 company with another as partner, bought a farm, and took 
 to cultivating it and raising cattle. He now owns upwards 
 of fifteen thousand acres of land, and is worth pretty nearly 
 one hundred thousand dollars. This person, too, began 
 without a halfpenny. 
 
 " The Germans are proverbially a frugal, money-making 
 people. One of the Teutons, in reply to a question pro 
 pounded at the Philadelphia Board of Trade, in relation to 
 discounts, is reported to have revealed the secret of his 
 success as follows : I open von grocery, mit cot-fish, and 
 molasses, and one barrel of viskey. Veil, I goes on und by 
 and by I gets a box of sugar and one box of tea ; und by 
 and by I gets a big grocery store mit a box china man in 
 
AND WHERE TO FIXD OXE. 179 
 
 der winder and a horse and wagon to go to market But 
 I know notin about der book-keeping nor dish-kounts, nor 
 der per cents, but den I tells you vat I knows : / knows 
 ven I buys sugar for a Jive cent and sells it for a ten cent^ 
 den I makes money? 
 
 " The cultivation of fruits and vegetables, especially in 
 the vicinity of large cities, is, if skillfully managed, almost 
 uniformly a profitable business. An acre of superior pear 
 trees has produced to their owner $2,650 in one season. 
 A gentleman who is engaged in cultivating strawberries on 
 ten acres, eight miles from Cincinnati, states that the gross 
 receipts of his patch, in a single season, were 62,210. The 
 expense of picking, including the boarding of the hands, 
 was two hundred and twenty-five dollars, and the expenses 
 of marketing twenty-five dollars. The probable cost of 
 cultivation per annum is fifteen dollars per acre. This 
 gentleman cultivates all his strawberries on new but very 
 hilly ground. 
 
 " Xurseries generally yield excellent returns for the skill 
 and well-directed labor expended upon them, though, to 
 conduct them successfully, considerable capital is also re 
 quired. A nursery in the western part of the State of 
 New York, is reported to have made a profit of $80,000 in 
 one year, and another of $20,000. A writer describes a 
 half acre of seedling pears that he saw, as worth, at market 
 prices, ten thousand dollars." 
 
 The foregoing appropriate extracts from an article 
 of Mr. Freedley afford the reader a favorable in 
 sight to the practical character of his labors. His 
 works on kindred subjects are crowded with facts so 
 pertinent to the design of this volume, that every 
 interested reader may study them with advantage. 
 But instances of individual success, equally striking 
 
180 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 with any which he has recited, may be found in all 
 sections of our country. 
 
 To return to the consideration of the actual cost of 
 living, I give the lively and instructive narrative of 
 Mr. Solon Robinson, of New York, showing how a 
 widow supported herself and four children on a 
 dime a day : 
 
 " I had," said she, " one day last week, only one dime in 
 the world, and that was to feed me and my four children 
 all day ; for I Avould not ask for credit, and I would not 
 borrow, and I never did beg. I did live through the day, 
 and I did not go hungry. I fed myself and family with 
 one dime." 
 
 " How ?" 
 
 " Oh, that was not all. I bought fuel, too." 
 
 " What ! with one dime ?" 
 
 " Yes, with one dime ! I bought two cents worth of 
 coke, because that is cheaper than coal, and because I could 
 kindle it with a piece of paper in my little furnace with two 
 or three little bits of charcoal that some careless boy had 
 dropped in the street just in my path. With three cents I 
 bought a scraggy piece of salt pork, half fat and half lean. 
 Thcte might have been half a pound of it the man did 
 not weigh it. Now, half iny money was gone, and the 
 show for breakfast, dinner, and supper, was certainly a very 
 poor one. With the rest of my clime I bought four cents 
 worth of white beans. By-the-by, I got these at night, and 
 soaked them in tepid water on a neighbor s stove till morn 
 ing. I had one cent left. I bought one cent s worth of corn- 
 meal, and the grocery man gave me a red-pepper pod." 
 
 " What was that for ?" 
 
 " Wait a little you shall know. Of all things, peppers 
 and onions are appreciated by the poor in winter, because 
 
AND WHEBE TO FIND ONE. 181 
 
 they help to keep them -warm. With my meal I made 
 three dumplings, and these, with the pork and the pepper- 
 pod, I put into the pot with the beans and plenty of water 
 (for the pork was salt), and boiled the whole two hours ; 
 and then we had breakfast, for it was time for the children 
 to go to school. We ate one of the dumplings, and each 
 had a plate of the soup for breakfast, and a very good 
 breakfast it was. 
 
 ** I kept the pot boiling as long as my coke lasted, and at 
 dinner we ate half the meat, half the soup, and one of the 
 dumplings. We had the same allowance for supper ; and 
 the children were better satisfied than I have sometimes seen 
 them when our food has cost five times as much. The next 
 day we had another dime it was all I could earn for all I 
 could get to do two pairs of men s drawers each day, at 
 five cents a pair and on that we lived lived well. We 
 had a change, too, for instead of the cornmeal and beans, 
 I got four cents worth of oatmeal and one cent s worth of 
 potatoes small potatoes because I could get more of them. 
 I washed them clean, so as not to waste anything by paring, 
 and cut them up, and boiled them all to pieces with the 
 meat and meal." 
 
 " Which went the farthest ?" 
 
 "I can t say. We ate it all each day, and didn t feel the 
 want of more, though the children said : Ma, don t you 
 wish we had a piece of bread and butter, to finish off with I* 
 It would have been good, to be sure ; but, bless me ! what 
 would a dime s worth of bread and butter be for my family ? 
 But I had another change the next day." 
 
 " What, for another dime ?" 
 
 " Yes, that was all we had, day after day. W T e had to 
 live on it. It was very hard, to be sure ; but it has taught 
 me something." 
 
 "What is that?" 
 
182 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 " That poor folks could live a great deal cheaper and 
 better than they do, if they only knew how to economize 
 their food. You have told them how, but they are slow 
 to learn, or loth to change from foolish old practices." 
 
 " What was your next change?" 
 
 " Oh, yes, I was about to tell you that. Well, I went to 
 the butcher s the night before, and bought five cents worth 
 of little scrap pieces of lean beef, and I declare I think I 
 got as much as a pound, and this I cut up into bits, and 
 soaked over night an all-important process for soup or a 
 stew cooking it in the same water. Then I bought two 
 cents worth of potatoes and one cent s worth of meal 
 that made the eight cents ; two had to go for fuel every 
 day, and the paper I got my purchases in served for kin 
 dling. The meal I wet up into stiff dough, and worked out 
 into little round balls, about as big as grapes, and the pota 
 toes I cut up into slices, and all together made a stew, or 
 chowder, seasoned with a small onion and part of a pepper- 
 pod that I got with the potatoes. It was very good, but it 
 did not go quite so far as the soup either day, or else the 
 fresh meat tasted so good that we wanted to eat more. 
 But I can tell you, small as it may seem to you, there is a 
 great deal of good eating in one dime." 
 
 " So there is what a pity everybody don t know it ! 
 What a world of good might be done with a dime ! 
 
 " Reader, have you got a dime that is, to spare only 
 one dime ? Give it to that poor widow. Give it ? No ; 
 you owe it. She has given you twice its value, whether 
 you are one that will feast to-day on a dollar, or be stinted 
 with a dime. She bas taught you what you never knew 
 before the value of one dime." 
 
 In his essay on " Economy of Food," Mr. Kob- 
 inson speaks as follows : 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 183 
 
 " Meats generally are about three-fourths water ; and 
 milk, as it comes from the cow, over ninety per cent. 
 How is it as it comes from the milkman ? It is true that 
 chemical analysis does not give us the exact comparative 
 value of food, but with that, and the prices of the various 
 articles, it cannot be a hard matter to determine what is 
 the cheapest or most economical kind of food for us to use. 
 Perhaps of all the articles named, taking into account the 
 price and nutritious qualities, oatmeal will give the greatest 
 amount of nutriment for the least money. But where will 
 you find it in use ? Not one family in a thousand ever saw 
 the article ; not one in a hundred ever heard of it ; and 
 many who have heard of it have a vague impression that 
 none but starving Scotch or Irish ever use it ; and, in short, 
 that oats, in America, are only fit food for pigs and horses. 
 It is a great mistake. Oatmeal is excellent in porridge, and 
 all kinds of cooking of that sort, and oatmeal cakes are 
 sweet, nutritious, and an antidote for dyspepsia. Just now, 
 we believe, oats are the cheapest of any grain in the mar 
 ket, and it is a settled fact that oats give the greatest 
 amount of power of any grain consumed by man or beast. 
 This cheap food only needs to be fashionable, to be ex 
 tremely popular among laborers, all of whom, to say noth 
 ing of other classes, eat too much fine-flour bread." 
 
 Again, he says : 
 
 " Look at the Scotch with their oatmeal porridge, as ro 
 bust a set of men as ever lived. A Highlander will scale 
 mountains all day upon a diet of oatmeal stirred in water 
 fresh from a gurgling spring with his finger, in a leather 
 cup. Another excellent, though little used, breadstuff, par 
 ticularly for the sedentary, or persons of costive habits, is 
 cracked wheat, or wheaten grits, as the article is called. 
 That and Graham flour should be used in preference, at 
 
184: HOW TO GET A FABM, 
 
 the same price per pound, to white flour, because more 
 healthy and more nutritious. One hundred pounds of Gra 
 ham flour is worth full as much in a family as one hundred 
 and thirty-three pounds of superfine white flour. Corn- 
 meal usually costs less than half the price of flour. It is 
 worth twice as much. It is not so economical in summer, 
 because it takes so much fire to cook it. The first great 
 error in preparing cornmeal is in grinding it too much, and 
 next in not cooking it enough. Cornmeal mush should 
 boil two hours ; it is better if boiled four, and not fit to eat 
 if boiled less than one hour. Buckwheat flour should never 
 be purchased by a family who are obliged to economize 
 food. It is dear at any price, because it must be floated in 
 dear butter to be eaten, and then it is not healthy. Oatmeal 
 makes as good cakes as buckwheat, and far more nutritious. 
 But it is more nutritious and is particularly healthy for chil 
 dren, in the form of porridge." 
 
 Thousands of the poor, in all ages, have studied 
 the great problem of how to get rich. How to get 
 a farm, as the stepping-stone to wealth, is shown in 
 a new light in the following article from the New 
 York Tribune for August, 1859 : 
 
 " Carlyle has said somewhere that the only state of future 
 torment much regarded or feared now-a-days, is Poverty. 
 How to make money how to acquire rapidly abundant 
 wealth is the general and anxious inquiry. Somebody 
 has lately published a book purporting to lay bare the 
 whole art and mystery of making money including the 
 difficult feat of making the first $1,000 for the paltry 
 sum of one dollar. Fired with emulation, we propose to 
 contribute our mite toward the development of auriferous 
 science. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 185 
 
 " Let us begin by frankly confessing that we know no 
 royal road to desirable wealth, and greatly doubt the exist 
 ence of any. We have heard of this or that man making 
 a great pile in a day, or night, or some other short period, 
 by speculation, forestalling, gambling, or something of the 
 sort, but have no faith in that sort of acquisition as either 
 desirable or (save in rare instances) practicable. The Old 
 Book says, * He that maketh haste to be rich shall not be 
 innocent and a more important truth has rarely appeared 
 in any book. If those who are hot on the scent of coffee 
 plantations in Central America or sugar estates in Cuba 
 don t believe it now, ninety -nine in every hundred of them 
 will rue their skepticism before they shall be ten years older. 
 
 " Nor can we advise any one to rush to Pike s Peak in 
 quest of the eagerly-coveted gold. A good many are now 
 streaming thither, and more perhaps will follow them, 
 some of whom will probably succeed in their quest, while 
 a far larger number will return poorer than they went, be 
 sides being sick, sore and weary. Of the few who make 
 anything in the new Dorado, many more will owe their 
 good fortune to success in gambling or peddling than in 
 personally digging gold. Still less can we counsel any 
 young man to seek a classic education, with a view to emi 
 nence in some profession. The professions are all over 
 done ; it would be a blessed thing for all if not another 
 lawyer or doctor should be ground out during the next ten 
 years. The market is already glutted, and the stock held 
 for a better demand is deplorably heavy. Nor do we think 
 it well for even one more youth to addict himself to trade. 
 There are this day as many as two persons engaged in sell 
 ing goods to each twenty families throughout the country. 
 In other words : Productive industry is paying about one- 
 quarter of its products for the trouble of exchanging them, 
 not taking into account the cost of transportation. If 
 
186 HOW TO GET A FABM, 
 
 we could reduce our aggregate of merchants of all grades 
 by three-fourths, the remainder might thrive, while selling 
 goods at one-half the profit now charged. And yet we be 
 lieve the world never afforded larger or better opportuni 
 ties for acquiring wealth than it does just now ; and that 
 there is no better place for trying than our own country 
 affords. Let us give a few hints on this head to those who 
 may need them. 
 
 " We will suppose the inquirer to be a young man of fif 
 teen to five-and -twenty, whose educational advantages have 
 been meager, and who is not thoroughly qualified for any 
 field of productive labor. How shall he set about getting 
 rich ? We say : 
 
 " 1. Consider whether you would prefer to be a farmer or 
 an artisan ; and, if the latter, of what trade. Having de 
 cided, keep your eye steadily on the pursuit you prefer, and 
 find employment in it so soon as possible doing meantime 
 the best thing that offers, though that be chopping wood at 
 two shillings per cord. Never be idle a secular day when 
 there is any work to be had ; and if there is absolutely 
 none where you now are, keep in motion towards a less 
 crowded locality till you find some. Having found work, 
 stick to it heartily and faithfully, and, if it pays you but 
 twenty-five cents per day, contrive some way of living upon 
 twenty. 
 
 " Whenever you can find employment in the pursuit you 
 mean to live by, accept it, unless withheld by the necessity 
 of earning more at something else in order to pay your debts. 
 And, in deciding where first to follow so as in time to master 
 the calling you have chosen, prefer the place where you can 
 learn most and fastest to that where you can obtain the 
 largest pay. 
 
 " 3. Be sure that work and thought go together. Keep 
 your eyes wide open and your mind intent and active. Re- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 187 
 
 solve not only to keep trying till you know how to do ev 
 erything just right, and then do it no otherwise than that, 
 but to know ichy that is the best way its reason in the na 
 ture of things. If you have chosen farming, be sure to find 
 some time in each week to read the best treatises on that 
 noble calling, and keep a keen eye on all the periodicals 
 within reach that treat of it. Take the best one yourself, 
 and study it carefully. In short, give the next two, three 
 or four years to the vital work of mastering your chosen 
 pursuit, so that thenceforth, through every clay learning, 
 you may confidently measure your strength in it with any 
 competitor. 
 
 " 4. Having thus mastered your calling, go to work in it 
 for others for the best wages you can obtain, resolved so to 
 earn them that you will be morally certain to command a 
 larger sum next year. Thus persevere in industry, frugal 
 ity and temperance, carefully economizing your time and 
 means, until you shall have earned enough to strike out 
 boldly for yourself. 
 
 " 5. By this time you will have made friends, especially 
 among those of kindred position and habits to your own ; 
 and now you can make that sympathy available for your 
 mutual good. Have as many as possible join you in a pur 
 chase of land to be divided among you according to your 
 several means and needs; whereby your wealth may be 
 doubled in a month. For example : two or three hundred 
 young men of twenty to thirty, knowing and trusting each 
 other, and each of them a good, thrifty, likely farmer or 
 mechanic, having severally earned and saved from $200 up 
 to $2,000, resolve to buy and settle together. So they send 
 out two or three of their number to look and buy lands for 
 them in any of the new or of the border Slave States, 
 where even improved lands are cheaper than elsewhere on 
 earth. They select and purchase from 2,000 to 10,000 
 
188 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 acres of land, according to the price and their means, sur 
 vey it into large and small farms and village lots, and sell it 
 at auction to the highest bidder, each member being en 
 titled to buy to the extent of his investment in the pur 
 chase, and as much more as he can pay for each being 
 pledged to settle and improve his tract. The hour this is 
 done and the tract all settled, the members lands alone are 
 worth double their cost often much more. The farmers 
 have thus secured lands at wilderness prices, and secured at 
 the same time the vicinage of millers, merchants, mechan 
 ics, &c., which gives additional value to lands long since 
 improved ; while the carpenter, shoemaker, blacksmith, 
 tailor, tinner, &c., &c., have acquired not merely homes, 
 but life-long customers at the lowest possible prices. CON 
 CERTED EMIGRATION is a plan by which the industrious can 
 at least double their moderate means without making a 
 profit out of anybody else ; and there are millions of our 
 people, especially of the young, who might speedily double 
 their little properties by means of it. 
 
 " 6. Having thus made a home, resolve to spend your re 
 maining days there, and to be one of the best farmers or 
 artisans to be found there or elsewhere. Work steadily 
 but not immoderately ; think, observe and read so as to 
 make every blow tell. If your land is mainly timbered, 
 contrive a way to make the timber, if possible, a source of 
 profit ; if the soil is rather lean, devote all the time not ab 
 solutely needed otherwise to making it richer. Sell only 
 for pay down, and buy likewise for cash. Do not allow 
 your wants to grow faster than your means. Make each 
 mistake or failure a source of instruction and improvement. 
 Form no bad habits have no liquor on your premises, and 
 no tobacco unless to repel vermin. Have no capital locked 
 up in land that you do not use, unless it be woodland rap 
 idly enhancing in value ; nor in fat horses, showy turnouts, 
 
AND WHERE TO FIXD ONE. 189 
 
 nor any sort of fancy property at least, not till you shall 
 be out of debt, with good buildings, well fenced fields, and 
 everything comfortable about you. Thus move on quietly 
 and steadily ; and if you have no bad luck, you may be be 
 yond the reach or fear of want in five years, in comfortable 
 circumstances by the end of ten, and as well off as a man 
 need be within twenty. 
 
 "Do you say this seems a slow, humdrum, petty way of 
 getting rich ? Well, it is not quite so fast as gambling, or 
 slave-trading, or making $100,000 in a month by cornering 
 an adverse party in the stock market ; but let two hundred 
 young men try the course we have so rapidly outlined, 
 against an equal number who try any radically different 
 course gold-mining, trading, speculating, or the profes 
 sions and if our party do not, in the average, come out 
 very far ahead, we shall be forced to conclude that the 
 world is a lottery and that Chance is God." 
 
190 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 CHAPTEE VIII. 
 
 The Long Island Barrens Their Condition, Price, and Crops. 
 
 WITHIN one to three hours ride of the city of 
 New York, by railroad, there lies a vast body of un 
 cultivated land popularly known as " The Barrens." 
 Why an area so extensive should have remained un 
 appropriated and idle, within cheap and easy reach 
 of a population of nearly a million of consumers, 
 has long been a subject for wonder and speculation. 
 But of late years the public attention has been more 
 particularly turned in that direction, principally by 
 publications of the Farmers Club of the American 
 Institute, the writings of Hon. John A. Dix, Mr. 
 Thomas Schnebly, Dr. E. F. Peck and others, from 
 whose examinations and reports the substance of the 
 following account has been compiled. 
 
 It would perhaps be difficult to say exactly how 
 these lands first acquired the damaging name of ; 
 " Barrens." In the early settlement of Long Island 
 they secured a very different character, and were 
 held in the highest esteem by all who either de 
 scribed or lived upon them. The writers of two 
 centuries ago referred to them as exceedingly fruit 
 ful, with a fine climate, and beautiful streams and 
 bays abounding in all kinds of fish and water fowl. 
 They enumerate the grains, the fruits, and the 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 191 
 
 grasses that they produced. None of them mention 
 the land as being poor or barren. The plains, free 
 from timber, and covered with grass, were wonder 
 ful as natural curiosities. A traveller in 1759, says 
 that strangers were always taken to them as the only 
 great curiosity of the kind then known in America. 
 Other portions of the island were covered with im 
 mense forests. 
 
 It is suggested by Mr. Schnebly that the charac 
 ter of barrens attached to these lands in conse 
 quence of their being held in very large bodies, 
 whose owners cultivated only a few acres, allowing 
 the forest to occupy the remainder. The island was 
 mapped out by patents owned by various parties, 
 whose possessions extended from the waters on the 
 north and south sides to the middle and woodlands 
 in the centre. The Nicholas patent, at West Islip, 
 contained originally ten miles square. There were 
 numerous other holders of enormous tracts. They 
 made little effort at cultivation, neither did they de 
 sire any others to improve them, " and consequently 
 shut out all investigation, and while they lived 
 among gorgeous scenery, a genial climate, and on 
 so productive a soil, were satisfied with cultivating 
 a few acres to supply their wants, leaving the bal 
 ance of their territory to unproductiveness, which 
 in time, for that reason, became known as the wild 
 or wood lands of Long Island." 
 
 Such is Mr. Schnebly s explanation. More mod 
 ern times have substituted " barren" for " wild." 
 But the fact of land being thus held in vast tracts 
 on Long Island affords another illustration of the 
 
192 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 evils inseparable from a land monopoly. These 
 owners became an aristocracy. They not only fail 
 ed to improve their possessions, but, by refusing to 
 sell, prevented others from doing so. When the 
 monopoly was broken up by their descendants di 
 viding and selling, population flowed in and farms 
 were established. Emancipation in Russia is pro 
 ducing like results, and such will follow the enact 
 ment of the Homestead Law. % 
 
 The great bulk of these lands were comparatively 
 inaccessible to the public. There were roads, it is 
 true, but they were few in number. The island was 
 not a thoroughfare, having crowds of travellers 
 from other States passing over its soil. Few, there 
 fore, saw these tracts, and these few, seeing that 
 they were uncultivated, adopted and propagated 
 still further the popular idea that they were barren. 
 The opening of the Long Island railroad served to 
 dissipate this delusion. It opened up a tract of 
 country ninety-five miles in length. 
 
 In September, 1860, the Farmers Club made ex 
 cursions over the railroad for the purpose of exam 
 ining the Barrens. They say that " a stranger un 
 acquainted with the country would readily remark 
 the immense quantity of uncultivated land traversed 
 by the railroad, with only here and there a spot ex 
 hibiting tillage, and hence the inquiry would nat 
 urally arise, why is it that this extensive tract, so 
 near the great city of New York and its sister city, 
 Brooklyn, remains unsubdued and untilled, and 
 what means can be economically used to make this 
 apparent wilderness productive and remunerative 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 193 
 
 to the labor of man ?" Along the railroad line is a 
 district containing 150,000 acres, but partially cul 
 tivated. In Queens and Suffolk Counties there 
 were nearly 200,000 acres of unimproved land, as 
 shown by the census of 1855. All this lay within 
 two and three miles of the railroad. In leaving 
 the cultivated lands about Jamaica, there is an un 
 occupied, uncultivated, unenclosed expanse, without 
 tree or shrub to obstruct the view for miles. 
 
 Numerous towns held great tracts containing 
 thousands of acres, which were kept for public use 
 as commons. Hempstead originally held 17,000 
 acres. North Hempstead disposed of her lands at 
 low prices, and was largely benefited by the influx 
 of new settlers. When the railroad was opened in 
 1844:, it traversed an almost unbroken wilderness, 
 in which scarcely a dwelling was to be seen. But 
 twenty years have wrought wonderful changes in 
 the condition of the lands adjoining it. 
 
 In many places on and near the railroad, within 
 about an hour s ride of New York, there is land for 
 sale at moderate prices Mr. Schnebly says at from 
 ten to thirty dollars an acre, according to location. 
 He refers to the crops produced by various farmers 
 on land in this condemned region. Peach trees 
 grow luxuriantly and bear profusely. Corn, oats, 
 barley and rye are produced as largely as in the 
 best regions, while the average wheat product of 
 the island exceeds that of the State. The State Ag 
 ricultural Society awarded to Mr. Yan Sicklin, of 
 Riverhead, the premium for the best cultivated 
 farm, he having produced crops worth $3,300 at an 
 
 9 
 
194 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 expense of $1,100 for manure and labor. Another 
 party, who bought land at $12.50 per acre, so culti 
 vated it as to produce one hundred bushels of oats 
 to the acre, and the same season grew turnips which 
 yielded an additional profit of $29 per acre. A 
 tract of these neglected lands has produced twenty- 
 five bushels of wheat per acre, a year or two after 
 being taken up. 
 
 These lands have been a frequent subject of dis 
 cussion at the New York Farmers Club. As the 
 parties who share in these discussions are experi 
 enced agriculturists, some of their opinions are 
 quoted. Professor Nash said : 
 
 " It has been stated and denied that the land is loam, 
 and not sand or gravel. I have lately spent some days in 
 examination of this soil, and find that statement correct, 
 and that it is beautifully adapted to garden culture, and 
 capable of producing various crops most profitable to the 
 cultivator. This loam has produced and is able to produce 
 $400 to the acre in strawberries. I wish the slanders that 
 have been spoken against the lands of Long Island could 
 be counteracted, and their value better known and made 
 useful to the world. Although not as rich as prairie soil, it 
 is well worthy of the attention of small farmers and men 
 in search of lands for homes. Such homes can be made 
 upon the wild lands of Long Island as well, to say the least, 
 as in the west." 
 
 Dr. Peck said that these lands do not need ren 
 ovating, but merely cultivation. The whole centre 
 of the island is a natural clover field. He added 
 that upon just such land as that which is called bar 
 ren, fifty-four bushels of wheat had been grown, 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 195 
 
 taking the State Society s premium. One man had 
 fifty acres of clover in the very midst of the scrub- 
 oak barrens, as fine clover as ever grew. He gave 
 the figures of a thirty-acre farm, which gave a profit 
 for the year of $9,300. There were ten acres in 
 cucumbers. Another farmer raised 4,000 bushels 
 of potatoes, which he sold for $7,000. 
 
 A member of the Club having asserted that " it 
 was impossible for any poor man to occupy such 
 land, because he could not improve it," another said 
 in reply : 
 
 " The Long Island lands were no poorer than those along 
 the Camden and Amboy Railroad, which have been made 
 the garden spot of New Jersey, and made so by the labor 
 of poor men. He deprecated this continual attack upon 
 Long Island, this constantly telling poor men not to go to 
 that poverty-stricken region to starve. It was this oft- 
 repeated assertion that the lands are barren which keeps 
 them so ; it is not because they are so, for it has been 
 proved by the most incontestable evidence that these plains, 
 or barrens, as they are called, can be profitably cultivated. 
 He thought it would prove a great blessing to a great many 
 poor men if they should go out upon the island and culti 
 vate it like a garden. It is no use to talk about capitalists 
 undertaking the work of renovation, if they have got to 
 buy the land and spend a hundred dollars an acre to im 
 prove it before they begin to realize a profit. Such men of 
 money are much more likely to spend it in Wall street 
 speculations. For the improvement of Long Island we 
 must look to the laborers, the hard-working poor men, such 
 as the gentleman, in his old-fogy argument, would discour 
 age from the attempt to better their condition." 
 
 Another member related an interesting anecdote 
 
196 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 of one of his acquaintances, who proved, in the 
 most practical manner, that a poor man could settle 
 upon these so-called poor Long Island lands, and 
 make a good support for his family, and gain prop 
 erty at the same time. He thought it a disgrace to 
 the country and the age we live in to say that these 
 lands were incapable of improvement, except by an 
 expenditure of money so far beyond the reach of all 
 ordinary cultivators that none would be found to 
 undertake the work of improvement. 
 
 How some of this land within a few miles of New 
 York is used, and what a variety of products it is 
 capable of yielding, is related in the following live 
 ly article from the Tribune for July, 1858 : 
 
 <k Long Island is to New York city just what is, or should 
 be, the little inclosure picketed in at the back of every 
 farm-house the garden-spot furnishing a great abundance 
 of fruits and fresh vegetables to the residents of the man 
 sion in front. Unfortunately, the simile holds good in 
 several respects, for this great garden spot is, like a great 
 many kitchen gardens, run to weeds and waste for lack of 
 care and cultivation. Like the garden divided off in plats, 
 parterres and little nooks, it shows one of lovely flowers 
 and another of weeds a third is filled with choice fruit, 
 and the next is a nest of wild vines, crabs and brambles 
 a fourth is waving corn, growing in all the luxuriance of 
 the wonderful soil, while right alongside is a spot that only 
 affords a scant pasture to a stray cow. Instead of being 
 one great garden, unsurpassed by all the world, it is a sad 
 evidence of what neglect and careless cultivation can do to 
 such a spot. 
 
 " In the course of our ramble we became satisfied that 
 the soil is capable of furnishing this great city with all its 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 197 
 
 food except, perhaps, the great staples of the west, which 
 alone bear transportation. At Ravenswood we looked into 
 a garden where raspberries are grown by the acre four or 
 five acres, we should say, in a plat not for fruit, but to 
 sell the plants to others, at $70 or 880 a thousand, the de 
 mand being greater than the owner could supply. Within 
 the same inclosure is an acre or two of rhubarb, which, 
 grown as a crop on several farms on Long Island, yields 
 8500 an acre. 
 
 " There are also a great number of sample vines started 
 as stocks for cutting, and to show what is the quality of 
 the fruit of those two new and very superior grapes, the 
 Delaware and Rebecca. The cuttings are all started in 
 thumb pots, in forcing-houses in the winter, and as they 
 make roots, successively removed into larger and larger 
 pots, until there is a mass of fibrous roots filling a gallon 
 pot, which gives a rapid growth to the vine when set out, 
 which buyers greatly prefer to the slower growth obtained 
 from cuttings set in the open ground. The owner is profit 
 ably working land that is worth at least $1,000 an acre for 
 building lots. 
 
 " Next to his grounds we visited those of a grower of 
 the new cherry currant. But, excellent as that is, he is 
 not satisfied without an attempt to get a better one, and so 
 he has 2,000 seedlings a year old, grown from seeds of the 
 very largest of the fine ones at present grown. Of these, 
 2,000 plants were grown with much labor, requiring the 
 care and attention of the planter for three years before he 
 can obtain and prove the fruit. He may be rewarded with 
 one choice new seedling, and cast the other nineteen hun 
 dred and ninety-nine into the fire, or he may not get even 
 that single one. It is a great labor to grow seedlings until 
 one is obtained better than the original, yet some one must 
 persevere in such labor, or we should never have the choice 
 
198 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 fruits we now enjoy such as Hovey s, Hooker s, Long- 
 worth s, McAvoy s, Peabody s, Burr s, Wilson s, and other 
 new strawberries; Brinkle s raspberry, Houghton s goose 
 berry, Lawton s blackberry, and an almost endless list of 
 apples, pears, plums, cherries, and other choice fruits and 
 plants, that somebody has had the patience and perse 
 verance to grow from the seed of old sorts. 
 
 4t Jumping from Ravenswood that village of beautiful 
 residences on the bank of the East River, opposite the Isle 
 of Penitence to East Brooklyn, we shall see as we ride 
 out Division avenue, alias Broadway, a considerable num 
 ber of small gardens and cultivated spots ; but most of the 
 land lies waste and useless to the thousands of starving la 
 borers that throng the streets in pursuit of employment. 
 Not that they are unwilling to work, or the owners of the 
 land unwilling that it should be cultivated, but because the 
 absurd practice prevails of letting cows, horses, hogs, goats, 
 geese, ducks and fowls run at large, pirating their living 
 upon the unfenced lands, and frequently breaking into in- 
 closures. Thus no one can plant a little patch of garden 
 vegetables, which in some cases would save the family from 
 begging or being a public charge. And it is almost an 
 annual charge to fence in a lot, since the material will be 
 stolen for winter fuel, unless closely watched. And so a 
 wide breadth of rich soil, extending as far out as the land 
 has been cursed by city lot surveyors, is a worthless waste, 
 with only here and there a rich green spot, to show us it is 
 not by nature a barren. 
 
 " One of these green spots we notice on our left hand, 
 some three miles from Peck Slip Ferry, is a pear nursery, 
 where more than ten thousand trees were in bloom last 
 spring. Tfce most of the trees are grafted upon quince 
 stocks, and are growing vigorously in a clayey loam soil, 
 deeply prepared and highly manured. The trees grown 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 199 
 
 for fruiting are some of them trained to branch three to 
 five sterns from the ground, and others one stem, with 
 branches only a few inches from the surface, and top of 
 pyramidal shape a few feet high. Between all these trees 
 plants of Hovey s seedling strawberries are set, and one 
 spot of wonderfully small dimensions, for such a yield, was 
 pointed out, from which forty quarts were picked one even 
 ing, which sold readily for forty cents a quart. We should 
 say an acre at the same rate would produce a thousand 
 dollars. 
 
 u Between the rows of nursery trees one or more rows of 
 cabbages are grown, by which a clean and continual culti 
 vation is insured to the trees, and a summer crop sufficient 
 to pay for all the labor, leaving the money for trees sold as 
 profit less the first cost. All of the quince stocks, and 
 many of the pears ready grafted in them, are imported from 
 France. One bill of freight covered 20,000 trees. "Who 
 buys all the trees annually imported, or grafted, and culti 
 vated here, we cannot say ; but the proprietor assured us 
 that he had constantly upon his book orders ahead of his 
 ability to fill, not being willing to send out any but well- 
 rooted trees. 
 
 " Now, all this production from a waste spot has come 
 without premeditation ; the proprietor, while engaged in 
 other business, built a house here for his family residence, 
 and could not bear to see all around him a desert of waste ; 
 and so he began, first for his own use, to plant pear-trees, 
 and finding his neighbors wanted them, he enlarged his 
 production, until from an amateur he has become a nursery 
 man, and has made an oasis in the middle of the desert of 
 unoccupied, unfenced city lots, where whole farms have 
 been turned out to common grazing-ground for wandering 
 cows. 
 
 " By his side, a man has fenced in with wire several of 
 
200 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 these vacant lots, and made a market garden, which is more 
 profitable than twenty times its area of wheat and corn in 
 Illinois. We were pointed to one portion of it that had 
 already yielded two crops this season, worth about $700 an 
 acre, and is now set with celery that will produce four or 
 five hundred more. True, it costs labor and manure, and 
 requires skill beyond that requisite to grow potatoes or 
 pumpkins, but it pays a large profit upon all outlays, and 
 leaves a handsome surplus to reward the man of intellect 
 who does or directs the work. 
 
 " A little further on we stopped a few minutes to look at 
 the work of two remarkably skillful English gardeners, 
 father and son, enthusiastic propagators and producers of 
 new plants and rare flowers. Among the curious things in 
 the garden are a thousand thrifty plants of the Lawton 
 blackberry, alt propagated from one plant stem last spring, 
 by some secret of their own, which enables them to multi 
 ply it almost indefinitely. But the most curious of all 
 things about this garden, where we see everything growing 
 so luxuriantly, is the fact that it is done without manure. 
 They were too poor to buy it, and they cannot afford to 
 grow weeds to make compost, and as the surface had been 
 exhausted by long cropping it in the old style of farming, 
 what were they to do? Go on the same old course of put 
 ting nothing on, and taking everything off that the thin 
 surface-soil would produce ? No, they could not live by 
 that, and as they would not buy and cart on fertility, they 
 dug for it. They found it two or three feet below the sur 
 face, where they put the loose stones, enabling the water to 
 drain off, and roots to run down. Now, when a plant needs 
 fertilizing, a loosening of the surface with a fork lets in the 
 air, and the plant grows again with renewed vigor. De 
 voted industry and spade labor produce the results we see. 
 " Next we come to East New York, where waste lots lie 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 201 
 
 all around, with only here and there a house upon a plain 
 miles in extent. Now, getting beyond these we come to 
 fields of most wonderfully rich and rank green Indian corn, 
 great hay -fields, and smaller ones of rye and wheat stubble, 
 with here and there men digging potatoes. There are but 
 few market gardens or fruit farms, though every one has 
 apple and pear trees for his own use. As a general thing, 
 going on towards Jamaica, farming appears to be done now 
 much as it was in the days of the fathers and grandfathers 
 of the present occupants. Here is an exception. Captain 
 Briggs, who for thirty years followed the sea, and has since 
 been engaged in commerce, and even now, at sixty-five 
 years old, goes every day to the city to attend to business, 
 has still found time to plant an orchard covering twenty- 
 five acres, in which he has sixteen hundred pear-trees, now 
 six to eight years old, and very thrifty, and all in bearing 
 condition. A good many are in fruit this year, although it 
 is a season of general failure, and all show a vigor of 
 growth that proves this fact, that although a man may be 
 bred upon the sea, or has been fifty years of his life en 
 gaged in commercial pursuits, it does not disqualify him 
 from cultivating the earth with success if he is a man of 
 sense, who never does a thing without knowing why it 
 should be done. 
 
 " For instance, he thought when about to plant his apple- 
 trees, that they were strong-rooted trees, with heavy tops, 
 and should be planted on the northeast side of the orchard 
 to break the prevailing winds from the slower-growing and 
 weaker pear-trees. In looking about, however, he found 
 that apple-trees, as they are usually planted out, are of slow 
 growth, sometimes dying, and sometimes being blown over 
 by the winds that sweep up this gently inclined plain from 
 the broad Atlantic. So he inquired, why ? He soon found 
 why. He saw trees stuck down into holes that were so 
 
 9* 
 
202 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 small that the few roots not trimmed off, had to be doubled 
 and coiled around the clump root, and trod and jammed 
 into their narrow quarters, and there the tree was expected 
 to grow. 
 
 " How can it ? said the old sailor. * These people 
 never reason I ll have no such work on my farm. 
 
 " It was difficult to get men to work differently, but he 
 could work himself, with his own strong hands. So he had 
 holes dug eight feet broad and two feet deep, and threw 
 back a foot of the top soil in the bottom of the hole, well 
 mixed with compost manure, all as finely pulverized as a 
 garden bed. Then he went to the nursery and bought 
 large trees too large to do well, the nurseryman said, 
 * he had better take smaller ones. No, he wanted trees, 
 not whip-stalks. And these trees he wanted with roots, and 
 by determined perseverance he got them with roots. Great 
 sprawling things, the man said who dug them, that never 
 could be set out, because nobody was a going to dig holes 
 big enough for that. He was mistaken, for somebody did 
 dig holes big enough, and somebody got down upon some 
 body s hands and knees, and * with fingers weary and worn 
 straightened out every little fibrous root, and bedded it 
 nicely in the soft earth, and not a tree failed to grow at 
 once ; and now, who ever saw such handsome, large, bear 
 ing trees at eight years old ? Every tree in the orchard 
 stands up as straight as the spars of the owner s ship. 
 
 " At Baiseley s Pond we saw^men and teams at work 
 digging out the deep bed of muck that for #ges has been 
 accumulating, and we said to the man who was digging his 
 potatoes small potatoes and few in a hill within a few 
 rods of great piles of this muck, which the contractor had 
 had to buy the privilege of placing on dry land, Your 
 crop would be better if you had a good lot of that inuck, 
 well rotted and mixed with your soil. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 203 
 
 " Humph so I have heard before. 
 
 " And that was his answer to our kindly-meant sugges 
 tion ; and he bent again over his profitless toil, disinclined 
 to talk of what * he had heard before. Some of this muck, 
 compressed like brick while moist, and then dried, burns 
 like cannel coal, leaving an ash highly charged w r ith pot 
 ash. As we walked over the immense pile, extending in a 
 broad belt around the pond, we picked up tuft after tuft as 
 large as a man s hat, so light that we played football with 
 them. They were made up of a knitted mass of fibrous 
 roots, which would burn like dry wood twigs, and afford an 
 equal per cent, of potash. Yet, while they lie here and de 
 cay and waste away, the owners of the poor, sandy soil ad 
 joining will send to Vermont or "Western New York for 
 leached ashes, for these they have proved are good for the 
 land, while the value of the muck they have only * heard 
 tell of before. They have also heard that it 4 is pizen to 
 the land, and therefore will not listen and learn how to use 
 it and make it most valuable. 
 
 " Turning away from this pile of wasted wealth, we 
 drove a mile or two across the plain to visit a successful 
 market-truck farmer ; not a 4 garden-trucker, but one who 
 grows field crops for market. To-day he was digging po 
 tatoes a very fair crop of Mercers, about 150 bushels per 
 acre. The tops were still very green, and the farmer 
 thought the tubers would have increased about a quarter, if 
 left to ripen, but then they would not bring as much. The 
 price to-day is $3.25 a barrel. The vines are pulled and 
 tubers shaken off between two rows, and the remainder 
 forked out with a five-pronged, flat-tined fork. Then 
 two men pass along picking all the marketable tubers into 
 a basket that holds about three pecks three being counted 
 to a barrel saving, as they go along, all the best in a 
 smaller basket, to top off with the best, of course, always 
 
204: HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 on top. The small potatoes left on the ground are after 
 wards picked for pig feed, yet sometimes they are sold to 
 the bakers to piece out the superfine flour, and make it 
 carry more water, so as to answer the law that requires 
 bread to be sold by weight. The baskets being filled are 
 loaded upon a wagon that carries forty, with feed and food 
 for a man with two horses, who starts in time to reach the 
 market some time in the night, where he sells his load 
 early the next morning, and returns in time to rest and 
 load up again. This potato ground is sown as soon as 
 cleared of the crop, to wheat and seeded to clover." 
 
 From this copious summary of the condition and 
 capabilities of the neglected lands of Long Island, 
 new wonder will be excited at the fact of any large 
 body of them continuing to be unoccupied. The 
 term " barrens" should now become obsolete they 
 never have been such. The consumer is at their 
 very door, taking not only all they now produce, 
 but ready to devour all that their uncultivated acres 
 could be made to yield. It would be wise for the 
 producer to plant himself beside this consumer. 
 Every man now looking for a farm should go and 
 examine them. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 205 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 The neglected Lands of Delaware Repeopling the Slave Re 
 gionCondition, Soil, and Products Crops and Lumber 
 Farms for Sale, and Prices Railroads Maryland Farms. 
 
 THE State of Delaware is rapidly coming before 
 the public in a new and regenerated attitude. The 
 immemorial blight of slavery is fast disappearing. 
 A wholesale Northern emigration is coming in to 
 enlighten and control the remaining heresies which, 
 for a generation at least, must linger among those 
 who were born and educated to believe in them. 
 About eighteen months ago, an association of prom 
 inent citizens was formed, with no view to individual 
 profit, but having for its sole object the circulation 
 of knowledge touching the cheap and fertile lands 
 of the State, so that Northern settlers might be 
 drawn thither, thus at once crushing out at the bal 
 lot-box the pro-slavery element which had ruled and 
 blasted the region. Many such have become pur 
 chasers in consequence of this information, and 
 the number is constantly increasing. 
 
 As Delaware presents great attractions for those 
 who desire a farm, much pains has been taken to 
 obtain a full insight into the condition and prices of 
 land, and of, its facilities for reaching market. A 
 leading object of the association referred to was the 
 
206 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 improvement of the State by introducing farmers, 
 artisans, manufacturers, and tradesmen, from other 
 localities. A special object was to develop the agri 
 cultural resources of the State, particularly the 
 Central and Southern portions, by encouraging the 
 settlement of truckers, who would purchase and 
 divide the large tracts into small truck farms, pro 
 ducing fruit and vegetables for the Philadelphia 
 and New York markets. This course would not 
 only bring the lands into a higher state of cultiva 
 tion, but would invite a thriving and enterprising 
 population, greatly adding to the productive wealth 
 of the State, purifying its political atmosphere, and 
 enhancing the value of property. 
 
 For the securing of thes*e ends, it was necessary 
 to disabuse the North in regard to the true senti 
 ment of the State, and to assure all who thought of 
 settling there, that they would be welcomed by a 
 large and intelligent portion of the population, from 
 whatever section of the country they might come, 
 and whatever their political views, if loyal to the 
 Government, and disposed to contribute to the de 
 velopment of the resources of the State. The doc 
 uments thus put forth for general information have 
 been freely used in this chapter. 
 
 Such an enterprise appeals strongly to Northern 
 self-interest. It cannot be doubted that, in thus de 
 veloping Delaware and adjoining sections of the 
 peninsula, with other portions of the South, the 
 trading interests of the North will be largely ben 
 efited. By furnishing increased facilities to settlers, 
 capitalists of all classes may make profitable invest 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 207 
 
 merits in new village locations, in lots, and in man- 
 ufacturino 1 and other establishments, which would 
 
 O 
 
 greatly appreciate in value with the growth of the 
 place. Destined, as Delaware is, to be the great 
 thoroughfare to Eastern Virginia and the further 
 South, when a general tide of emigration shall set 
 in that direction after the war, investments wisely 
 made in that State must be highly remunerative. 
 In the past, many properties have doubled in value 
 within a few years. 
 
 After Delaware has been thus unionized and 
 emancipated, the idea was to present the same 
 potent example of the superiority of free-labor en 
 terprise to other portions of the South. Maryland 
 was to come next, then her neighbors. It is averred, 
 as the most probable hypothesis, that at the close 
 of the rebellion, a large standing army must be 
 maintained for years, or the sentiment of union and 
 liberty must be rapidly created in the South by an 
 infusion of Northern emigration. The blood of the 
 two sections must be made to mingle the Yankee 
 taking his seat beside the Southron, there teaching 
 him a new lesson of life, how to work or whittle 
 until he is educated to the right sentiment. Such 
 infusion must be an overflowing one. But the signs 
 of the times indicate that such will be its character. 
 
 In Delaware, slavery would still be, as it always 
 has been, a fatal objection to settlement there. The 
 Milford News stated, in 1858, that "in Newcastle, 
 the most northerly county in Delaware, where there 
 are scarcely any slaves, improved lands are worth 
 over 50 per acre, while in Sussex, where the bulk 
 
208 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 of the slaves of the State are held, lands are worth 
 only from $7 to $8 per acre." The same paper says, 
 that three years previous, " A band of 300 Swiss 
 emigrants arrived in New York with, all their ar 
 rangements made to settle in Delaware. They were 
 farmers, with money to buy land ; and hearing that 
 land was cheap in Delaware a State settled by 
 their fathers they concluded to settle there ; but 
 finding, on their arrival, that Delaware was a slave 
 State, they passed us by, settled in Ohio, and helped 
 to augment the wealth of that young giant of the 
 Union." The sagacious editor declared, eight years 
 ago, that an act of emancipation would at once in 
 crease the value of real estate in Delaware five 
 millions of dollars. But emancipation is now at her 
 very door rebellion has destroyed the institution, 
 and the few slaves are rapidly disappearing. 
 Northern immigration will soon secure an entire 
 eradication of this only remaining drawback to the 
 prosperity of the State. Delaware may therefore 
 be considered a free State, running with Maryland 
 a race for freedom. 
 
 The Puritan element having never predominated 
 in Delaware, churches and schools are scarcer than 
 in New England. Slavery has cast its usual blight 
 on the religion and education of her people. Yet 
 these indispensable elements of a high civilization 
 are not wholly absent. They exist in larger extent 
 than in most places where land is equally cheap. 
 They are incomparably better developed than in the 
 new States and Territories of the extreme West. 
 There are churches of different denominations in 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 209 
 
 the principal villages, and a large number within 
 convenient distances in the country. Schools exist 
 in equal number ; while the villages and towns con 
 tain others of a better class, and sometimes acad 
 emies. The great need is an infusion of Northern 
 religious and educational elements. 
 
 A farmer can do but little active work without 
 health. The country is, in general, pre-eminently 
 healthy, the climate being mild and regular. It is 
 recommended to all who are troubled with pul 
 monary or bronchial diseases incident to bleak and 
 changeable Northern latitudes. Preachers, who had 
 been compelled by these affections to abandon the 
 pulpit, have been enabled to resume it after a few 
 months residence in Delaware. It has also advan 
 tages, in point of healthfulness, over more newly 
 settled regions, in being less subject to chills and 
 fever. Good soft water abounds, at from ten to 
 twenty feet. All fruits and vegetables can be 
 raised for very early market. A week or two at 
 the beginning of a season, is sometimes worth 
 thousands to the truckman. Ploughing can gen 
 erally be done all through the winter. 
 
 There is almost every variety of soil, most of 
 which may be said to be the natural home of the 
 peach and sweet potato. Major Anthony Reybold 
 has netted 20,000 in one season from peaches. 
 Mr. George Parrish, from 9,000 trees, occupying 
 ninety acres, in 1863, netted $10,000. The tree 
 is here free from the blights that affect it in the 
 North, thus it lives and thrives for many years. 
 Sweet potatoes produce enormously, as much as 
 
210 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 200 to 300 bushels per acre. Grapes, melons, and ber 
 ries of all kinds, produce largely. In the wild black 
 berry trade alone, almost incredible quantities are 
 gathered by women and children, and sent to market. 
 Before the construction of the Delaware Railroad, 
 thousands of acres in the central and southern por 
 tions of the State were shut in from market. Hence 
 there are vast quantities of virgin land, more or less 
 wooded, whose timber is to be felled, and whose soil 
 developed by the hand of industry. Much timber is 
 still standing along and near the railroad- A profit 
 able business is done in getting out ship timber, while 
 the railroad is constantly requiring wood for fuel 
 and ties for the track. Distant roads are buying 
 ties almost without limit. Numerous tracts of such 
 timber land are for sale. As an illustration of their 
 general character, I copy a single advertisement of 
 a farm of nearly 300 acres, which, finding no pur 
 chaser at $25 per acre, was withdrawn from sale : 
 
 " With the exception of 50 acres cleared, it is all cov 
 ered with the heaviest timber to be found anywhere in the 
 State, including heart and yellow Pine, Cypress, Beech, 
 Chestnut, Gum, Poplar, &c., with some scattering White 
 Oak. Most of the large pine timber is perfectly straight, 
 and they run up 60 to 110 feet before the first limb is 
 reached. A great many of them will make from 4,000 to 
 5,000 feet of lumber each. Many of the cypress trees are 
 from four to six feet in diameter three feet above the 
 ground, and will yield from 5,000 to 8,000 shingles each. 
 The soil of the tract is a deep, black, yellow muck, from 
 three to five feet in depth, thoroughly drained by county 
 ditches, and when cleared will yield from 50 to 100 bush- 
 
AND WHEKE TO FIND ONE. 211 
 
 els of shelled corn per acre, and other crops in proportion. 
 On the cleared part there is a small dwelling and outbuild 
 ings, and some few fruit trees of various kinds. A good 
 opening for a steam mill." 
 
 Thirty such announcements might be quoted, the 
 terms of payment being in all cases extremely ac 
 commodating to the buyer. With reference to the 
 timbered land, it may be added that there are nu 
 merous mill seats, with flour and saw-mills in opera 
 tion, and much unused water-power. Many of the 
 latter are for sale at reasonable prices. As fuel is 
 abundant and cheap, so steam power may be and is 
 used to advantage. 
 
 The lumber question will be one of interest to 
 many readers. It ranks among the most extensive 
 interests in the country. While in the Free States 
 the forests have been melting away before the axe of 
 the freeman, those in the Slave States have remain 
 ed comparatively undisturbed. Delaware abounds 
 with tracts of invaluable forests of hard and soft 
 woods, which wait only for the hand of Northern 
 enterprise to lay them low. The lumber could be 
 worked up in many profitable ways. The neighbor 
 ing market of Philadelphia would consume immense 
 quantities. With an influx of population there will 
 be an increased demand for saw-mills. In new vil 
 lage sites already selected, two or three are needed 
 now. There will also be a demand for planing-mills 
 and sash factories. Turning establishments will 
 pay, as black gum, the best material for carriage 
 hubs, is very abundant. They now leave these 
 woods in rough blocks, to be manufactured else- 
 
212 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 where, instead of being more cheaply turned on the 
 spot where they grew. Spokes and axe-helves could 
 be produced at the lowest cost. Now, Connecticut 
 comes to these Delaware woods and takes away 
 quantities of hickory logs, converts them into spokes 
 and axe-handles, and then brings them back among 
 the very people where the timber grew, and where 
 they could be more cheaply turned. It is the same 
 with manufactories of agricultural implements, with 
 tanneries and other indispensable employments. 
 But one of the greatest wants is a development of 
 the vast deposits of muck which are found in many 
 places. These masses of decayed fertilizers are de 
 posited in basins along the creeks, many feet in 
 depth. But so far they have shared the general 
 neglect. It will be the task, as well as the remune 
 ration, of enterprising settlers, to seize and appro 
 priate these abounding deposits of manure. 
 
 Until within a very few years, Delaware has been 
 a comparatively sealed book. It had but one or 
 two railroads. There was no thorough view of the 
 country to be had no ready ingress, no ready 
 egress. Moreover, it was blasted by dominion of the 
 slave power, and few desired to know what it really 
 was, because none were willing to remove into a 
 slave region. Land was consequently unsalable ; 
 but this condition of things has undergone a mighty 
 change. Railroads have been built, which open up 
 to public observation a region heretofore of difficult 
 access to travellers, slavery is certain to be speedily 
 wiped out, and immigrants are pouring in. Even 
 yet the price of land is very low, ranging from ten 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 213 
 
 to forty dollars per acre. Farms with house and 
 outbuildings, fences and fruit trees, within three or 
 four miles of a railroad station, of fair quality and 
 in fair condition, may be obtained for from twenty 
 to thirty dollars per acre. The purchaser can take 
 as much or as little land as he wants. Kent and 
 Sussex counties contain much of this description. 
 
 After soil and price have been considered, the vi 
 cinity to market is to be looked at. Here it is near 
 and accessible daily by railroad. Products, such as 
 in the West would perish for want of buyers, here 
 find ready sale at high prices. Philadelphia, New 
 York and Boston, are all reached in a few hours. 
 New lines of railroads and steamboats leading direct 
 to New York, are in progress, and when opened 
 will enlarge the present outlets for all kinds of 
 produce. At certain points along the Delaware 
 Railroad there are large establishments for canning 
 peaches, in which hundreds of hands are employed. 
 That portion of the crop which goes to market from 
 the tree, takes the daily train to New York in the 
 afternoon, and reaches that city by daylight the 
 next morning. 
 
 In some sections there has already been a marked 
 change in the value of real estate, in consequence of 
 the opening of new railroads, and of the public at 
 tention having been directed to these lands. About 
 Middletown, in New Castle county, land which 
 some years ago was thrown out into commons as 
 worthless, cannot be obtained now- for less than one 
 to two hundred dollars per acre. Farms in Kent 
 county, now obtainable at from $15 to $4:0, must 
 
214: HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 within a few years command $75 to $100 per acre. 
 Such are some of the inducements to a settlement 
 in Delaware. If the reader has by this time learned 
 how to get a farm, it is very certain that here he 
 can find one. Population is scarce, land is abun 
 dant, and consequently cheap. There are hundreds 
 of owners who, insensible of the advantages they 
 possess, are overstocked with land, and desirous of 
 selling. 
 
 The opening of railroads here, as elsewhere, at 
 tracted enterprising men from abroad. Among the 
 most active of these is Mr. Alfred T. Johnston, of 
 Milford, in Sussex county, on the Junction and 
 Breakwater Railroad, six miles from Delaware Bay, 
 a hundred from Philadelphia by rail, and at the 
 head of navigation on the Mispillion river. Here 
 the fisheries are very productive, and shipbuilding 
 is extensively carried on. In population Milford 
 ranks next to Wilmington, the second town in the 
 State. Mr. Johnston came from Pennsylvania and 
 settled, five years ago, in Milford. Being shrewd 
 and enterprising, he soon discovered the wants of 
 the region, and the numerous openings for settle 
 ment that it presented. He made himself thorough 
 ly acquainted with the land and with those owners 
 who desired to sell, then devoted himself to intro 
 ducing settlers by making the outside world ac 
 quainted with the capabilities of Delaware lands. 
 These were such as to attract hundreds from all 
 parts of the Union. He has introduced so large a 
 population as to change majorities at the polls. In 
 the summer of 1864 I went among some of the set- 
 
AXD WHERE TO FIND ONE. 215 
 
 tiers thus introduced. Some are mechanics, but 
 most of them are farmers. I saw their improve 
 ments, their crops, and questioned them as to their 
 prospects. As most were from a colder climate, 
 they spoke strongly in favor of this. I found none 
 of these recent comers desirous of selling and re 
 moving. On the contrary, they were writing let 
 ters to former neighbors to invite them to settle be- 
 
 j 
 
 side them. The cheap lands they had bought a few 
 years ago had in all cases risen in value, some 
 double, some treble. 
 
 It did not appear that any of these settlers were 
 mere speculators they came to cultivate the soil. 
 But while doing so, it rose enormously in value. A 
 farmer from Bucks county, Pennsylvania, purchased 
 in 1858 a tract of 475 acres, at $12.50 per acre, 
 within two miles of Milford. It had good buildings 
 and fences, and much of it was cleared. He made 
 payment in a house in Philadelphia, with a mort 
 gage on the farm for the remainder. He has sold 
 off three farms containing 355 acres, in the three, 
 for 12,600, and reserved, during a period of fifteen 
 years, the fruit from 3,000 peach trees he had 
 planted, besides having a farm of 120 acres, now 
 worth $6,000. The peach crop thus reserved is 
 worth 3,000 per annum. Other instances of rapid 
 increase of values were pointed out, some of them 
 quite as remarkable. 
 
 Mr. Johnston showed me a long list of properties 
 which he controlled, and was offering to settlers. 
 Many of these were large enough to cut up into half 
 a dozen farms. Others would divide handsomely 
 
216 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 into two or three, while some were already of the 
 proper size, and others contained only fifteen acres. 
 The aspirations of every possible class of buyers 
 could here be gratified, from the man with a full 
 purse down to him whose whole capital was only a 
 few hundred dollars. Most of these properties were 
 astonishingly cheap, the price, in many cases, being 
 less than the cost of the improvements. All could 
 be had by paying down a fourth, a third, or half 
 the purchase money, with, in most cases, a long 
 term of years for the remainder. Some had been 
 sold without any money being required, a credit 
 having been given for the whole. 
 
 For men not strictly farmers, or for farmers with 
 a talent for other business or trade, there were on 
 some of these very advantageous openings for op 
 erating in lumber. The timber standing on much 
 of this land could be cut and marketed at a profit 
 of double the first cost of the land, leaving the lat 
 ter all clear, with a profit besides. This operation 
 has been repeatedly performed, as much of this fine 
 timber stands within a few miles of schooner navi 
 gation, and with saw-mills near at hand. In short, 
 for those looking for a new location, there are few 
 regions deserving more attention than the hitherto 
 neglected woods and farms of Delaware. 
 
 The lands on which Mr. Johnston is thus intro 
 ducing settlers, are located principally in Sussex 
 county, It is here the peach tree flourishes in such 
 profitable luxuriance. The product of the county 
 was very large in 1863, but for 1864, it was esti 
 mated at 500,000 baskets. This increase is owing 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 217 
 
 to the young orchards, planted by new settlers, 
 coming into bearing. Mr. Johnston s estimate is, 
 that in five years from this time, Sussex county will 
 send millions of baskets to market. The strawberry 
 culture is just beginning on a large scale. But in 
 the common wild blackberry trade, the amount has 
 been so great as to be a most important item in the 
 cash account of every railroad in the State. Sussex 
 county has poured these things into Philadelphia 
 by tens of thousands of bucketfuls, the railroads 
 having opened a market for what formerly perished 
 in the fields. At every railroad station I saw the 
 platform covered with hundreds of buckets of these 
 berries, sometimes a thousand in one place, waiting 
 for the train, while men, women, and children, were 
 constantly bringing in additions to the huge supply. 
 There were buyers from the city who were taking 
 all that came, paying fifty cents per bucket of about 
 eight quarts. In less than twenty-four hours, the 
 great bulk of this supply would be eaten up by the 
 people of Philadelphia. 
 
 It will be a subject of wonder with many as to 
 what becomes of this vast supply of light and ex 
 tremely perishable fruit. The history of a single 
 establishment will go far to remove it. A house in 
 Philadelphia, Messrs. Aldrich and Yerkes, has been 
 several years engaged in the business of canning 
 and preserving fruit. This firm occupies three 
 large five-story warehouses in Letitia street, in which 
 they manufacture pickles, jellies, marmalade, cham 
 paign cider, and put up great quantities of tomatoes, 
 strawberries, and blackberries, in cans. These va- 
 
 10 
 
218 KOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 rious preserves are sold all over the Union, pen 
 etrating even to the gold mines of Pike s Peak, and 
 consumed in every ship that sails the ocean. The 
 demand increases as their productions become better 
 known. They contract for whole orchards of peaches, 
 and last year used 26,000 baskets. Of common 
 wild blackberries they consumed immense quanti 
 ties : of pine apples 3,000 dozen cans were pre 
 served ; of raspberries and currants they consumed 
 wagon loads. In addition to these items, they put 
 up 60,000 jars of honey, and 36,000 bottles of 
 champaign. Pears and good plums they have 
 never been able to procure in sufficient quantity. 
 This year, 1864, they will want some 40,000 baskets 
 of peaches, and fifty acres of pickles. They employ 
 400 hands, principally women, and can put up 
 nearly 20,000 cans daily. Their pickle tank holds 
 25 barrels, which are greened in 24 hours, and re 
 placed by as many more. In 1863, this establish 
 ment consumed 30,000 worth of sugar. 
 
 Here is a single manufactory which buys or 
 chards, cucumber patches, strawberries, raspberries, 
 blackberries, tomatoes, &c., by the acre. But it is 
 only one among many others doing quite as large a 
 business. Every city contains several such, and 
 they are springing up in all the smaller towns. 
 Even in the present infancy of the business, they 
 exercise a marked influence in preventing a dis 
 couraging glut of the general market. The public, 
 having had a taste of canned fruits and vegetables, 
 call for increased quantities. The market for these 
 perishable productions, instead of being limited to 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 219 
 
 a few weeks, is made to extend over the whole year. 
 Formerly, a third of the peach crop did not pay for 
 taking to market, and fine fruits of other kinds were 
 frequently given away on reaching the city, the 
 glut being so complete that no buyers were to be 
 found. The canning and preserving establishments 
 are now so numerous as to check these gluts and 
 prevent these losses. From this brief reference to 
 them, the reader will learn something as to what 
 becomes of the enormous amount of the smaller 
 fruits transported over the railroads, as well as of 
 the propriety of going to work at producing them. 
 
 Leaving Delaware for Maryland, a very similar 
 condition of things is found to exist. The quantity 
 of land for sale is enormous. The firm of Messrs. 
 R. "W. Templeman & Co., of Baltimore, control 
 more than four hundred farms, to which they are 
 inviting the attention of settlers. Some of these 
 contain thousands of acres in a single tract, and 
 could be advantageously divided into smaller farms. 
 Others contain only five to seven acres. Every 
 possible variety of property is embraced in the ex 
 tensive catalogue which these gentlemen control, 
 while the locations are as various as the different 
 tracts. Many are within easy reach of Baltimore, 
 a city whose daily wants require the products of a 
 large extent of country. In that market, all that 
 the farmer can produce, the fruits and vegetables 
 especially, command highly remunerative prices. 
 Around that city there are farms having fifty acres 
 set with strawberries alone. Some of the first 
 pickings are distributed among northern cities as 
 
220 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 far as Boston and Portland, but the great bulk of 
 the crop is consumed in Baltimore and Washington. 
 Whoever should be searching for a location in this 
 region will save himself labor, time, and money, by 
 first consulting the gentlemen referred to. They are 
 well acquainted with all these lands, and have been 
 kind enough to furnish me with many facts in rela 
 tion to them. They have introduced multitudes of 
 settlers from Ohio, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and 
 the New England States. 
 
 The buyer of a farm in Maryland will find no 
 difficulty in arranging favorable terms of payment 
 with the seller. Hundreds of owners are anxious 
 to dispose of their properties. The conditions are 
 as accommodating as in Delaware ; for where the 
 competition to sell is so keen, the buyer is very sure 
 to have his own way. I know of farms belonging 
 to a non-resident, who is vainly offering them to 
 Northern men on almost any terms either to buy, 
 to occupy on shares, or at a nominal rent with priv 
 ilege of purchasing, or giving them, by some other 
 arrangement, the use of the owner s capital. Many 
 settlers from New Jersey have located in the vicinity 
 of Baltimore, where they are successfully pursuing 
 their former trucking business, feeding both Balti 
 more and Washington, and doing remarkably well. 
 
 By examining the map of Maryland, the reader 
 will perceive that the Chesapeake Bay nearly di 
 vides the State into two separate parts, known re 
 spectively as the Eastern and Western shore. 
 Beginning at the south end of the Eastern shore, 
 lie will find the lands mostly sandy and of sandy 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 221 
 
 loam, up to the line of Talbot county. They are 
 adapted to growing corn, melons, sweet potatoes, 
 and such fruits as peaches, strawberries, &c., and 
 are generally quite level. Where unimproved, they 
 are valued at $10 per acre; where improved, at 
 from $20 to $50. 
 
 Continuing north, on the same shore, the lands 
 are generally of a red, stiff soil, level or slightly 
 rolling, and are underlaid with beds of marl. They 
 produce large crops of wheat, corn, fruits, and roots. 
 These lands, unimproved, along the broad waters, 
 are valued at from $30 to $40 per acre ; if im 
 proved, at from $60 to $80. Further inland, the 
 prices are one-half less. The country along the 
 whole of this shore is indented with numerous broad 
 and deep inlets, furnishing the inhabitants with vast 
 supplies of the finest fish and oysters, crabs, terra 
 pins, and the famous canvas-back and other varieties 
 of ducks. ISTear the larger towns, and in many 
 other localities, will be found a very superior so 
 ciety. Access to the cities is had by a railroad 
 partly completed, and by steamboats traversing the 
 Chesapeake Bay. 
 
 The Western shore will be found, from its most 
 southern point north to the line of Anne Arundel 
 and Prince George county, to be of sandy and sandy 
 loam soil, and in all respects like the first part of the 
 Eastern shore described above, except that the land 
 is more undulating, and produces a light variety of 
 tobacco in large quantities. The value per acre is 
 about the same. 
 
 Going North, on the same shore, we reach the 
 
222 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 very productive lands of "The Ridge," in Anne 
 Arundel county, and "The Forest," of Prince 
 George county, extending to within forty miles of 
 Baltimore. These lands yield large crops of wheat, 
 corn, tobacco, and roots, are of sandy loam with 
 clay subsoil, are mostly improved, and are valued at 
 $40 to $100 per acre. Continuing North, the lands 
 are of light sandy soil up to the vicinity of Balti 
 more. When improved, they produce fine crops of 
 early small fruits, melons, peaches, and corn, and 
 are valued, where accessible by railroad, at about 
 $20 to $30 per acre ; if not improved, at $12 to 
 $15. The foregoing portions of the State have 
 heretofore been worked exclusively by slave labor, 
 hence the farms will not be found as neat or well 
 cultivated as those in other portions of the State. 
 The inhabitants have access to the cities by steam 
 boat and river craft, the latter furnishing cheap 
 transportation of freight. 
 
 From Baltimore, going north and west, to the 
 Alleghanies, and northeast, the lands are high and 
 rolling. The valleys are of limestone, the hills of 
 gray rock, blue slate, and red soil, generally. On 
 the valley lands large crops of w r heat and corn are 
 produced, with many cattle. Lime is relied on 
 as the great fertilizer. These lands vary in price 
 with their accessibility. Generally, when distant 
 from the cities, the improved valley lands are val 
 ued at from $30 to $80 per acre the hill lands at 
 about a third less. This region abounds in turn 
 pikes and railroads. Near the large towns, the so 
 ciety is good, and distant therefrom, the people are 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 223 
 
 a thrifty, hard-working class. Here white labor 
 preponderates. 
 
 From the base of the Alleghanies, going west, 
 the lands are in many places almost entirely unset 
 tled, and west of the dividing ridge are valued for 
 the large and numerous deposits of the finest bitu 
 minous coal, and of hematite and other varieties of 
 iron ore. The table or glade lands of these moun 
 tains produce the finest wheat and potatoes, but are 
 too high above tide water for the certain production 
 of corn. Where the mineral region is approached 
 by railroad, the lands are very highly valued; but 
 the table lands can be bought at from s2 to S5 per 
 acre, and offer to a race of hardy settlers very at 
 tractive inducements. In this region the winters 
 are long, and sometimes very severe. East of the 
 Alleghanies, down to the latitude of Baltimore, they 
 are shorter and milder. In many pains of the East 
 ern and Western shore, cattle are not housed except 
 for a very short time. 
 
 Northern farmers are astonished at hearing of the 
 low prices at which these Delaware and Maryland 
 farms can be purchased. Compared with rates es 
 tablished throughout the North, they find it difficult 
 to understand why prices should be so high here 
 and so low there. They cannot believe that land in 
 a long populated region, offered so cheaply, can be 
 of any value. If it were, they think it would be 
 quickly occupied by others. The vast quantity for sale 
 is an additional amazement. Yet those who go and 
 see for themselves, discover that they have been mis 
 taken, while many of them purchase and remove to it. 
 
224: 
 
 A friend has furnished me with an illustration as 
 to these lands. In the autumn of 1854 he had oc 
 casion to visit a gentleman named Seely, living 
 about two miles from Perryville, on the Susque- 
 hanna, in Maryland. He there owned and occupied 
 a farm of 200 acres, on which was a stone house 
 standing on a knoll some distance from the main 
 road, and approached by a broad and handsome 
 carnage way. In conversation with Mr. Seely, he 
 stated that he formerly resided in Philadelphia, 
 where he had been engaged in business. He had 
 bought the land five years previously for $15 per 
 acre, or $3,000 for the whole farm. 
 
 The buildings, consisting of house, barn, cow 
 house, wagon-house, &c., were in tolerably good 
 condition at the time of purchase, but the fencing 
 was poor, and the soil almost entirely exhausted by 
 slave labor. The former owner was the possessor 
 of thirty slaves, of various ages and conditions, 
 whose labor had been employed in the cultivation 
 of this farm ; but both they and their master had 
 become literally starved out for want of proper 
 management. When the owner sold, he took his 
 slaves and purchase money with him, to seek an 
 other locality, there to repeat the same exhausting 
 operation. 
 
 At the time of my friend s visit, the whole ap 
 pearance of the farm had undergone a great and 
 favorable change. Everywhere the fences were in 
 good order, the land had been resuscitated by care 
 ful cultivation, and the crops of all kinds were 
 abundant. Mr. Seely stated that his wheat crop 
 
AXD WHERE TO FIND ONE. 
 
 225 
 
 alone had that year netted him. more than 600. 
 He employed two men the year round, and found 
 their help to be all that was requisite for the proper 
 care of that portion of the farm which was under 
 tillage, except during harvest and haying, when he 
 lent a hand himself. A German servant woman as 
 sisted his wife in household duties, and these three 
 hired persons were all the help needed to conduct 
 the farm properly. 
 
 My friend said to him, " Mr. Seely, what do you" 
 consider this farm worth at the present time ?" 
 
 He replied, " I have refused $10,000 for it, but I 
 have no disposition to sell. I find farming to be 
 both a pleasant and a profitable employment. I 
 am making money slowly, but surely. Philadel 
 phia and Baltimore afford me a ready market, at 
 good prices, for every thing I can raise, and as I 
 am near a railroad, my transportation is cheap, 
 quick, and easy. After an experience of five years, 
 I love farming, and no ordinary consideration would 
 induce me to leave it for the care, the toil, the anx 
 iety and uncertainties of business in the city." 
 
 Mr. Seely continues on his cheaply purchased 
 farm, for which, last year, he was offered $15,000. 
 This case embraces all the strong points which the 
 neglected lands of the two border slave States pre 
 sent. Slave labor exhausts the land, and starves 
 upon it until compelled by a famine of its own cre 
 ation to emigrate. Free labor comes in and changes 
 the scene from scarcity to plenty. "With thirty 
 slaves to work this land, it became too poor to keep 
 them, but with three or four free laborers it yielded 
 10* 
 
226 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 bountiful crops, while in ten years its market value 
 increased four hundred per cent. 
 
 Northern men, who are thus astonished at the 
 cheapness of these lands, and incredulous as to their 
 value, have overlooked the great underlying fact 
 that the prosperity of these two States has been 
 weighed down by the presence of slavery ; that the 
 average value of land in the slave States has uni 
 formly been less than in the free States ; that in the 
 former there are no large cities to give value to 
 thousands of surrounding acres, by furnishing 
 markets for their products ; that they support no 
 manufactories of their own, but depend almost ex 
 clusively on ours ; that consumer and producer are 
 everywhere widely separated ; that labor, instead of 
 being diversified, is confined principally to agricul 
 ture ; that instead of being honored, it has been 
 despised ; that education and morals have been 
 neglected, and free discussion forbidden. Into com 
 munities so governed, Northern men, educated to a 
 higher standard, refused to migrate. It is true, that 
 some were moved to do so, but the census proves 
 that there are more native-born emigrants from the 
 Southern States to the North, than Northerners to 
 the South. Foreigners avoided it for kindred rea 
 sons. Thus, with no increase of population from 
 abroad, and with very little at home, it was im 
 possible for land to rise in value. As the West 
 has grown to her colossal proportions by force of 
 immigration, so the South, having none, has failed 
 to increase her numbers to an extent sufficient to 
 enhance the value of her soil. 
 
AND WHEKE TO FIND ONE. 227 
 
 This unnatural condition of things is now passing 
 away, and a new era is opening on the South. 
 Delaware and Maryland, the two slave States near 
 est to the North, and, therefore, the most accessible, 
 are already beginning to feel its influence. Slavery 
 removed, they are becoming worthy of Northern 
 attention and enterprise. Delaware is rapidly re 
 viving. Emigration already sets strongly toward 
 her cheap and fertile soil. She is less exhausted 
 than Maryland, and will revive the sooner. An in 
 fusion of Northern morals, capital, and enterprise, 
 will regenerate her laws, her institutions, and her 
 habit of thought. Such, also, in the end, will be 
 the happy experience of Maryland. But until the 
 people of the free States enter in by families and 
 colonies, taking possession of the places which 
 nearly two centuries of slavery have made waste, 
 and teaching the inhabitants new thoughts, new 
 habits, and a new civilization, they must remain as 
 they are. Up to this moment they have stood still. 
 If they are to advance, it can only be by help of 
 Northern immigration. As that imperfect form of 
 civilization whose basis was slave labor, has failed 
 to promote State advancement, so the superior one, 
 whose basis has been education and free labor, must 
 be called in to work out in the slave region the only 
 salvation which could prevent it from sinking into 
 a barbarism that was overwhelming the white race 
 as well as the black. Its humanizing influence 
 having been sufficient for itself, it will be found 
 equally potential for others. 
 
228 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 Wild Lands of New Jersey Opening of the first Railroad 
 Rapid Improvements New Towns Hammonton, Egg Harbor 
 City, Vineland, its history, condition, and future The Neigh 
 boring Lands. 
 
 OF all the Middle States, none contain so wide an 
 area of uncultivated land, in proportion to the whole, 
 as New Jersey. By the report of the Geological 
 Survey, made in 1856, it appears that of 4,960,595 
 acres in the State, 3,192,604 acres were, at that 
 time, entirely uncultivated. In 1855, when a bill 
 was before the Legislature for incorporating a com 
 pany to construct an air-line railroad leading from 
 ISTew York across the lower section of the State, the 
 condition and extent of that uncultivated region 
 were often referred to. The Hon. William Parry, 
 Speaker of the House, made the following state 
 ments : 
 
 " The amount of land in West Jersey, including the 
 counties of Ocean and Monmouth, which would be ben 
 efited by this road, embraces an area of 2,632,000 acres, 
 and in the same section, according to the census of 1850, 
 there are 600,681 acres of improved land, leaving unim 
 proved, mainly for want of railroad facilities, over 2,000,000 
 of acres. This large extent of country, up to July, 1854, 
 when the Camden and Atlantic Railroad was opened, had 
 
AND WHEKE TO FIND ONE. 229 
 
 no railroad except that skirting along the northern border, 
 following the sinuosities of the river, with spurs to Mount 
 Holly and Freehold, located mainly to accommodate the 
 through travel, without reference to the wants of the in 
 terior. 
 
 " Can any other State show so large a tract of fertile 
 land, so well adapted to cultivation, and so admirably lo 
 cated as this great peninsula, intercepted between the 
 largest city in the Union and the broad Atlantic, fronting 
 hundreds of miles on the great waters connecting us with 
 Europe, with no more railroads than this section has ? The 
 Camden and Atlantic Railroad Company have the credit 
 of opening the way through this heretofore uncultivated 
 portion of our State. Cast your eyes along that road, the 
 location of which is not so favorable for reaching the eastern 
 market as this Air Line, and see the magical effect upon 
 the value of property. Thousands of acres of land, which, 
 previous to its construction, were comparatively of little 
 value, although naturally good, the location being so re 
 mote that the price obtained for crops in market would 
 not bear the expense of carting them through the sand, 
 have, since the completion of said road, advanced in value, 
 some, one hundred, some five hundred per cent., and some 
 more, according to the location. The wood which covers 
 most of the high table land, and has heretofore been con 
 sidered an incumbrance in the way of cultivating the soil, 
 now readily commands from three to four dollars per cord 
 on the road." 
 
 The testimony of Mr. Parry "becomes especially 
 valuable from two facts he unites in himself the 
 two professions of land surveyor and nurseryman. 
 He has been for many years the successful propri 
 etor of a nursery embracing two hundred acres, in 
 
230 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 Burlington county. As surveyor, he necessarily 
 travelled on foot over the land he describes, and 
 therefore had the fullest opportunity of seeing it, 
 while his lifelong occupation of growing trees and 
 plants of all descriptions, qualifies him. as a compe 
 tent witness as to their capabilities. Thus qualified 
 as an impartial judge, Mr. Parry further said : 
 
 " Having spent some time during the past summer sur 
 veying in that vicinity, I witnessed what would otherwise 
 have seemed almost incredible ; one tract of 30,000 acres 
 was purchased a little before the location of said road, at 
 $1 per acre, and sold shortly after at $5 per acre; $30,000 
 given and $150,000 received by that transaction, which 
 land is now being divided into small farms, and a large 
 portion of it already sold to actual settlers, at $10 per 
 acre. Another tract of between 20,000 and 30,000 acres 
 has, since the opening of said railroad, been divided into 
 lots and farms, and all sold at $10 per acre to over one 
 thousand purchasers. 
 
 " This land has not yet reached one-half its real value, 
 for by this railroad it is brought within one hour s ride of 
 Philadelphia, and it is fertile land, of a sandy loam on the 
 surface, underlaid with clay and gravel, so very essential to 
 retain manures and moisture, and promote the growth of 
 fruit trees, plants and flowers, which flourish remarkably. 
 It is well adapted to raising all kinds of vegetables and 
 grain, which can be taken to market as quick and cheap by 
 railroad as similar articles can in wagons from farms which, 
 owing to their proximity to the city, will bring from $100 
 to $200 per acre. 
 
 " Peaches, which seem to have degenerated in older sec 
 tions, where the soil has been highly stimulated with arti 
 ficial manures, there I beheld in a flourishing condition ; 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 231 
 
 trees over fifteen years of age were laden with luscious 
 fruit, bending their slender branches nearly or quite to the 
 ground. There is scarcely an enterprise offering such rich 
 rewards for capital and labor as the extensive cultivation of 
 peaches along the Camden and Atlantic Railroad. Orchards 
 there would rival those so recently celebrated in Delaware. 
 
 "Grapes were abundant, and plums without planting 
 natives of the soil offered their fruit gratuitously. This is 
 only a part, several other tracts, varying in size from 17,000 
 to 70,000 acres each, and many of smaller dimensions, are 
 now offered at the low sum of from 5 to $10 per acre, and 
 purchasers and settlers are actually pouring in by thou 
 sands, like pigeons to their roost. It seems almost incred 
 ible that land of this quality and price should so long re 
 main unnoticed by enterprising men, within thirty or forty 
 miles of Philadelphia, and it is altogether owing to the 
 Camden and Atlantic Railroad that it is now brought be 
 fore the public. 
 
 "Great as these developments are, they dwindle away 
 when compared with what the Air Line will unfold. We 
 who have lived along the Delaware river, and been bound 
 as with a spell to the Camden and Amboy road, cannot 
 appreciate the hidden treasures through the interior of our 
 State. Through this great Peninsula, a large part of which 
 is naturally good land, and all valuable for some purposes, 
 penetrated by lively streams, some of them navigable, many 
 above the limit of navigation would furnish strong power 
 for mills and factories, and all of them, in addition to nu 
 merous springs, afford an abundant supply of soft water. 
 
 "After the fires, which frequently pass through the 
 woods, destroying large quantities of timber, have abated, 
 Nature, ever active in good works, pushes forth a sponta 
 neous growth of rich, sweet grass, equally nutritious either 
 in the green or dry state, and so protected by dead bushes 
 
232 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 and trees as to defy the skill of man to gather it ; but it is 
 well adapted for feeding stock, and herds of young cattle 
 are marked and driven there from the surrounding country 
 to graze on the pasture, shielded from the sun, and supplied 
 with brooks of pure water, from which they are drawn in 
 the fall or at the approach of winter, fat and ready for the 
 knife. 
 
 " I have examined these lands of which I speak, have 
 spent much time in surveying and tracing out the bound 
 aries of hundreds and thousands of acres, and have yet to 
 find the first acre that is not valuable for some purpose 
 that does not possess intrinsic worth within itself. Some 
 swamps which are termed worthless by the casual observer 
 from a stage en route for the fashionable watering places on 
 the coast, when examined through the aid of science, un 
 fold large deposits of iron ore, more than enough for home 
 consumption. Others are well adapted to, and periodically 
 furnish a spontaneous growth of tall, stately white cedars, 
 unequaled for fencing material. Some of the land on 
 which there is no growth of timber or grass, has been 
 called barren, but upon a closer view it is found to consist 
 of a superior quality of glass-sand, and would furnish large 
 quantities for exportation. Other portions are underlaid 
 with large deposits of marl, so very fertilizing to the soil 
 when brought to its surface. The amount of this valuable 
 article is deemed inexhaustible at least, there is a plenty 
 to enrich the whole State of New Jersey, if we had rail 
 roads to distribute it. On other portions, on which there is 
 but a small growth of timber and scanty supply of grass, 
 sand is found to predominate, intermixed with a fine loam. 
 This quality of land is admirably adapted to the cultivation 
 of early vegetables; heavy rains leaving the surface and 
 filtering through the soil, when followed by a hot sun, act 
 like gentle, refreshing showers to hot-house plants; the 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 233 
 
 ground still remains free and mellow to imbibe the atmos 
 pheric influence, and does not bake in drying so as to ex 
 clude the air, like our heavy, loamy land. This is the 
 reason why sweet potatoes grown on light, sandv soil, are 
 dry and mealy when cooked, light colored and of excellent 
 quality, while those grown on rich, heavy land, worth from 
 $100 to $200 per acre, according to the location, are 
 watery, heavy, dark colored and unpalatable. This is the 
 reason why our light Jersey soil is so very certain for a 
 crop of round potatoes." 
 
 Here are some two millions of acres of unculti 
 vated land, shut out from all ready approach, until 
 the year 1854:, for want of railroads. In that year 
 the Camden and Atlantic road was opened. It be 
 gins at Camden, opposite to Philadelphia, and ex 
 tends to the ocean at Atlantic City, once a mere 
 barren sand-heap, but now a populous town, with 
 gravelled streets lighted with gas, and built up with 
 great hotels on the beach, and private summer resi 
 dences of wealthy Philadelphians. At that time 
 Atlantic county contained 315,000 acres, of which 
 only 15,000 were improved ; Cumberland contained 
 335,450 acres, with only 4^,460 improved. The 
 railroad traversed an almost desolate wilderness. 
 The land had only a nominal price, and was con 
 stantly accumulating in large tracts in the hands of 
 wealthy owners. But no sooner had the railroad 
 been opened than the whole condition of things was 
 changed. Its track is becoming lined with farms 
 and villages. The old growth of pine and scrub 
 oak is being cleared off. buildings erected, lands en 
 closed, and crops produced. On every side tho 
 
234- HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 traveller sees tokens of rapid and substantial im 
 provement, for a market has been opened for what 
 ever the land can be made to yield. 
 
 Large tracts have been bought by companies and 
 individuals, and divided into small farms for the ac 
 commodation of settlers. It is the West over again, 
 only on a smaller scale. One of the first of these 
 enterprises was at Hammonton, where 5,000 acres 
 were speedily sold in small farms, many of the set 
 tlers coming from JSTew England. They find a cash 
 market at Philadelphia for all that they can pro 
 duce. Yet this was a barren tract, producing noth 
 ing salable but wild berries. Another settlement 
 on the railroad is called Egg Harbor City, founded 
 by Germans, who bought a large tract at a low 
 price immediately after the road was opened, and 
 divided it up into town lots and farms. The excel 
 lence of the location has attracted to it many fami 
 lies from the West. Nearly all the dwellings are of 
 brick, made on the spot. They have several brick 
 yards, numerous stores, a printing office, piano fac 
 tories, saw-mills, and other industrial establishments. 
 The streets are lined with shade trees, and the whole 
 settlement is a model of enterprise, ingenuity and 
 thrift. As seen from the railroad, it will strike 
 every observer as an eminently flourishing place. 
 A great area of wild land has been cleared and 
 farmed, and is producing crops quite satisfactory to 
 the owners. Some are establishing vineyards, oth 
 ers growing tobacco, and others sending great quan 
 tities of fruit and vegetables to Philadelphia. All 
 the land thus taken up and improved has quintupled 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 
 
 in value within a few years, while that within the 
 neighborhood, though still wild, has advanced in 
 price at least three to four fold. 
 
 The natural quality of the soil of this whole sec 
 tion of New Jersey has been long established as 
 good. Its means for improvement are abundant 
 and cheap, in consequence of the vast deposits of 
 marl. You see these deposits cropping out by the 
 road-side, in some places far above the water level. 
 The area of this marl deposit covers 900 square 
 miles, or 576,000 acres, and its benefits are shared 
 by a large district of country lying on each side of 
 it, so that a much greater area than that stated may 
 be fertilized by using it. It has been worth mil 
 lions of dollars to the State in the increased value 
 of land and produce. It has long been known that 
 Monmouth county potatoes, grown with marl as 
 manure, command half a dollar more per barrel 
 in New York market than any other kind. Mr. 
 Cook s report on the geological and agricultural 
 resources of this portion of the State, made in 185T, 
 informs us, that while the potato crop of Connect 
 icut, New York, and Pennsylvania, has diminished, 
 that of New Jersey and Delaware has largely in 
 creased. This increase in New Jersey was mostly 
 in the counties of Monmouth, Burlington, Camden, 
 Gloucester, Salem, and Cumberland, the counties in 
 which marl is found, while in the other counties the 
 gain was small, and in some there was a material 
 falling off. In Delaware, Newcastle county, where 
 marl is found, shows the largest gain. In New 
 York, only three counties showed an increase. 
 
236 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 These were on Long Island, and the largest was in 
 those which, there is some reason to believe, lie in 
 the same geological formation with those New Jer 
 sey counties in which there was the greatest increase. 
 Uniformly, the potato crop increased most where 
 marl existed. Mr. Cook says : 
 
 " The absolute worth of the marl to farmers it is 
 difficult to estimate. The region of country in 
 which it is found has been almost made by it. Be 
 fore its use the soil was exhausted, and much of the 
 land was so lessened in value that its price was but 
 little, if any, more value than that of Government 
 lands at the "West ; while now, by the use of marl, 
 these worn-out soils have been brought up to more 
 than their native fertility, and the value of the 
 land increased from fifty to a hundred fold. In 
 these districts, as a general fact, the marl has been 
 obtained at little more cost than that of digging and 
 hauling but a short distance. There are instances, 
 however, in which large districts of worn-out land 
 have been wholly renovated by the use of this sub 
 stance, though situated from five to fifteen miles 
 from the marl beds, and when, if a fair allowance 
 is made for labor, the cost per bushel could not 
 have been less than from twelve to sixteen cents. 
 Instances are known where it has been thought re 
 munerative at twenty-five cents per bushel." 
 
 A ton of marl is sometimes dug from under each 
 square foot of surface; at even half this rate, a 
 square mile will yield nearly 14,000,000 tons. The 
 quantity being thus inexhaustible, the price is con 
 sequently low. A right to dig a pit ten feet square 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 237 
 
 costs about $8. The buyer removes the top soil, 
 and plunges into a deposit ten to thirty feet deep, 
 and goes down until stopped by water. In other 
 cases he digs on high ground, and obtains more 
 marl at less cost. The farmer applies from five to 
 twenty-five loads to each acre, according to the ex 
 hausted condition of his land. The latter is uni 
 formly benefited by the application. Facts of this 
 description are unanswerable ; while the statistics of 
 the potato crop are remarkable enough to secure 
 attention from the most indifferent observer. 
 
 Another singular resource for enriching these 
 lands has been discovered and applied. A large 
 crab, known as horse-foot, sea-spider, and king-crab, 
 abounds along the sea-coast, but nowhere in such 
 numbers as on the Delaware Bay. In June, they 
 come on shore in numbers absolutely incredible, for 
 the purpose of depositing their eggs, covering the 
 beach for a distance of forty miles, a moving, crowd 
 ing, jostling cavalcade, looking as if the beach 
 itself were a living expanse. For weeks they are 
 to be found upon the beach. A million of these 
 unsightly creatures could be gathered in a single 
 mile. The sand is so thickly covered with their 
 eggs, that they are shovelled up by wagon loads, 
 and carried off as food for hogs and chickens. The 
 hogs feed and fatten on the whole crabs, whose 
 average weight is four pounds. During the season 
 when this spontaneous offering of the sea is made 
 to man, the farmers near the ocean come there and 
 collect the living crabs in huge piles, where they 
 cover them with soil, thus composting them into a 
 
238 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 most energetic manure. A quantity equal to two 
 to four thousand crabs, when applied to the poorest 
 soils, may be relied on to produce 20 to 25 bushels 
 of wheat, though even 30 are by no means uncom 
 mon. This fertilizing power has long been known 
 among the farmers. 
 
 As it was manifestly impossible to use up the 
 millions of crabs that came upon the beach, within 
 the few weeks that they remained upon it, a manu 
 factory of manure was established at Goshen, in 
 Cape May county, some nine years ago, by Messrs. 
 Ingham and Beesley. These gentlemen first dry the 
 crabs, then grind them into powder, and deodorise 
 the product by combining plaster and charcoal. The 
 manure thus produced they call cancerine, and is 
 Bold over a wide extent of country. The quantity 
 manufactured in 1863 was about 500 tons. It is 
 cheaper than guano, which contains about one-sixth 
 of ammonia, while this has been proved to contain 
 more than a fourth. On corn, potatoes, &c., this 
 manure produces very marked results, in all cases 
 beneficial. With these bountiful treasures of the 
 sea and land within reach of the people of this 
 portion of New Jersey, it can be the fault of none 
 but themselves if they should fail to convert their 
 admirable soil into one vast garden. 
 
 When access to this long neglected portion of the 
 State was opened, in 1854, over the Camden and 
 Atlantic Railroad, nothing was more natural than 
 that the attention of enterprising men from other 
 quarters should be attracted towards it. To secure 
 this attention of the great outside public was a 
 
A.ND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 239 
 
 principal object of those who built the road. The 
 holders of the vast tract of cedar, pine, and scrub- 
 oak, through which the road was to run, combined 
 in aid of the enterprise. Half the railroads in our 
 country, all of those which traverse wood and 
 prairie throughout the "West, owe their origin to 
 like combinations of great land-owners to open 
 up an inaccessible region to settlement and im 
 provement. Such objects may be denounced as 
 speculative ; but their accomplishment has con 
 ferred blessings on the Union which cannot be 
 estimated. It has provided new and better homes 
 for millions, built up entire States whose prosperity 
 is an amazement to the world, and done more to 
 secure the perpetuity of the Union than any other 
 movement witnessed among us. 
 
 As it has uniformly been in the West on the 
 opening of a new railroad, so it was in New Jersey 
 on the opening of that from Camden to Atlantic 
 City. Enterprising men were drawn to the region 
 thus inviting speculation, investment and improve 
 ment. They brought capital, skill and energy, and 
 quickly made an impression. Among the earliest 
 and most thorough-going of these was Mr. Charles 
 K. Landis, of Lancaster, Pennsylvania. This gen 
 tleman was impressed with the great value and 
 availability of organized colonization. He secured 
 5,000 acres on the railroad at Hainmonton, and in 
 1858 his colony was fairly under way. His ideas 
 with respect to colonization appear to have outstrip 
 ped all others for comprehensiveness, while his plans 
 were definite, practical, and liberal. He sold to 
 
240 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 none but actual settlers, telling the mere speculators 
 to go elsewhere, and gave especial encouragement to 
 fruit growing. He introduced the New England 
 school system, and kept out the sale of liquor. He 
 laid out streets and roads, and in other ways ex 
 pended money liberally in promoting the welfare of 
 the settlers. These were of the best class, princi 
 pally from New England intelligent, tasteful and 
 industrious. Home manufactures of various kinds 
 were introduced, churches and school-houses were 
 built, good crops were yielded to the farmer, and a 
 general prosperity prevailed which astonished all 
 who witnessed it. The settlement speedily num 
 bered 2,000 persons, who now produce more food 
 than they need, and ship large quantities to New 
 York and Philadelphia. 
 
 The experience acquired in settling Hammonton 
 enlarged the views of Mr. Landis, showed him his 
 omissions and mistakes, and gave him ideas which 
 he considered so valuable that he determined to 
 carry them out on a wider field. Accordingly, in 
 1861 he secured 25,000 acres in one body, in Cum 
 berland county, all in the same wild and unculti 
 vated condition. This tract of waste land lay on 
 the then newly opened railroad from. Camden to 
 Cape May, passing through Milville and Glasshoro. 
 It covered an area of 45 square miles, witli the rail 
 road passing through it, and was within 35 miles of 
 Philadelphia. This settlement he named VINE- 
 LAND. 
 
 In this great undertaking his plan was to estab 
 lish a perfect, regular, and comprehensive system of 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 241 
 
 public improvement for the benefit of the commu 
 nity to be there located ; to found a town in con 
 nection with and as an adjunct to an agricultural 
 settlement ; to develop therein a system of home 
 manufactures and industry ; to promote religion, 
 morals, and a high standard of education, and to 
 provide homes for intelligent and worthy families 
 who might be seeking them. 
 
 It was a gigantic project, such as no other indi 
 vidual in this country had ever undertaken to carry 
 out. It required experience, incessant personal at 
 tention, great administrative and engineering abil 
 ity, and the expenditure of a large capital. There 
 have been owners of tracts as large, but none who 
 undertook to transform them from a desolation into 
 a populous community. The lay of this land was 
 such as to admit of its being plotted out as the 
 owner desired. There were no rocks to blast, no 
 mountains to remove, no unwholesome swamps to 
 drain or fill up. He began the enterprise amid the 
 gloom which overspread the public mind immedi 
 ately after the outbreak of the slaveholders rebel 
 lion. His friends predicted difliculties and discour 
 agements, while all advised him to wait before 
 commencing such an undertaking. But his conn- 
 
 O O 
 
 deuce was not to be shaken he knew that the very 
 convulsion against which his friends were warning 
 him, was one of those which, of all others, induce 
 men to look for pecuniary safety by purchasing 
 land. 
 
 In August, 1861, Mr. Landis went upon his new 
 purchase with a surveyor, for the purpose of locating 
 
 11 
 
24:2 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 the first street that was to cross the railroad, since 
 called Landis Avenue. As there was no carriage 
 road either to or through the woods, they traversed 
 the narrow cow-paths afoot, until they reached the 
 spot where the surveyor was to plant his first stake. 
 A profound stillness reigned around them nothing 
 could be heard beyond a rustling of the leaves 
 there was not a house within several miles. While 
 the surveyor was planting his stakes, an old dweller 
 among the pines and scrub oaks of that region 
 came up to them, looked at the instruments, and 
 inquired of Mr. Landis what they were doing. 
 He replied that he was locating an avenue a hun 
 dred feet wide for a new town, and that within two 
 years he would see the spot they then stood on sur 
 rounded with buildings for miles, with farms and 
 orchards where now the forest alone could be seen. 
 The man turned away incredulous, and pitying the 
 infatuation of the projector. No wonder he had 
 lived seventy years in that particular locality as a 
 wood-chopper, had never been to Philadelphia, did 
 not Jknow how a city looked, and considered the 
 idea of building one in that wilderness as the dream 
 of a lunatic. 
 
 But the town was laid out, with many five and 
 ten acre lots, and many farms. Miles of spacious 
 streets and roads were opened, public squares, and 
 a park. Every purchaser was required to plant the 
 front of his property with shade- trees, to build a 
 house within a year, at a certain distance from the 
 roadside, and affording room in front for shrubbery 
 and flowers. Unity of plan was thus secured, in- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 24:3 
 
 snring the utmost neatness and the highest embel 
 lishment it was to be, in fact, a vast assemblage of 
 beautiful cottage residences. Mr. Landis has al 
 ready, at his own expense, opened nearly eighty 
 miles of streets and roads, building bridges wherever 
 needed, cleared out acres of stumps and rubbish, es 
 tablished the grade, and on many other improve 
 ments expended thousands of dollars in making his 
 great enterprise acceptable to the numerous families 
 who have located on his property. 
 
 I visited this remarkable spot in the summer of 
 1864, to examine its condition and surroundings. I 
 had known and passed over the spot, years before, 
 when it was a perfect solitude, with neither hut nor 
 clearing. It would be impossible, within these 
 limits, to specify the marvellous changes that had 
 been made. The forest had disappeared, and in its 
 place was to be seen a settlement containing some 
 650 houses and 4,000 inhabitants. There was a 
 rapidly-growing town, having churches, schools, 
 stores, mills, and other conveniences. I conversed 
 with numerous settlers as to whence they came and 
 how they fared in their new location. As a body, 
 they belong to the better class of citizens, are edu 
 cated, intelligent, moral, and enterprising. The 
 drones which infest other communities are never 
 found in hives like this. Great numbers of them 
 are from New England, while the neighboring 
 States, and even the West, are largely represented 
 ii this common centre. Many have built costly 
 and elegant houses. Many are professional fruit 
 growers and gardeners. Those who buy farms are 
 
244 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 practical farmers. There are wealthy families in 
 Vineland who remain there because of the mildness 
 of the climate and healthfullness of the place. Taken 
 altogether, the settlement has an old and cultivated 
 look already. 
 
 The soil of this great tract varies from a sandy to 
 clay loam, is retentive of manures, and abundantly 
 productive. It produces from 100 to 250 bushels 
 of potatoes per acre, 15 to 25 of wheat, though the 
 premium crop for wheat in Cumberland county, in 
 1855, was 44 bushels per acre. Of shelled corn, 50 
 to 75 bushels is the ordinary crop, and two tons of 
 grass. Fruit trees and vines bear abundantly. I 
 saw new peach orchards of thrifty growth, some 
 trees showing fruit, and grape vines giving promise 
 of abundant crops. The winters are so mild as to 
 allow out-of-door work nearly all through them. 
 Mr. Landis told me that for seven years he had not 
 known the ploughing to be interrupted, by reason 
 of frost, for five days in any one winter. All kinds 
 of fruits are cultivated, the five and ten acre lots 
 being mostly devoted to the smaller descriptions. 
 All such are planted so that the picking will come 
 in succession, thus strawberries, raspberries, black 
 berries, peaches, grapes, apples, &c. 
 
 In driving many miles over Vineland, I entered 
 into conversation with numerous settlers at work by 
 the roadside. Most of these happened to be farm 
 ers from the West, from New England, and western 
 New York. All were busy on their growing crops, 
 sometimes in groups of two or three in the corn 
 field. Not one of them but expressed his prefer- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 245 
 
 ence for his new location over the bleak climate he 
 had left. I saw but one desirous of selling and re- 
 
 3 
 
 moving, and but one house having on it a handbill 
 as being in market. Most of these farms were just 
 carved out of the woods, showing piles of roots that 
 had been grubbed up. They were, of course, rough 
 looking, like all new clearings in a new country ; 
 but the hand of industry was rapidly taming their 
 wildness, and bringing them into prime condition. 
 The general testimony was, that one day s labor on 
 this soil would accomplish twice as much work as 
 if expended on the heavy or strong soil from which 
 they had migrated. 
 
 Such was the condition of the farms bought 
 within six months or a year. Those which had been 
 taken up by the first settlers, those of two and a- 
 half years ago, presented a very different appear 
 ance. The genial and tractable soil had enabled 
 their owners to work a great transformation even in 
 that brief period. From most of these the stumps 
 had wholly disappeared. Great fields of grain were 
 whitening to the harvest ; many acres of peach and 
 apple orchards were to be seen, the former promis 
 ing to yield a crop the coming season ; gardens were 
 full of fine vegetables ; the front upon the road had 
 been trimmed up and seeded to grass, while shrub 
 bery and flowers were visible on many of the lawns. 
 Of the thirty-acre farm of Mr. William O. H. 
 Guynneth, a brief notice may serve as an illustration. 
 This gentleman is from Boston, and was among the 
 earliest of the settlers. He bought thirty acres, 
 then utterly wild, now completely tamed. His 
 
246 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 dwelling-house is so beautifnl ^structure as to com 
 mand admiration anywhere. He has planted 
 orchards, now growing finely, and has acres of ex 
 cellent wheat. His large cornfield showed as fine 
 a growth as farmer could desire, and so also did his 
 clover crop. 
 
 I walked over his ample garden, vineyard, and 
 fruit grounds. Every kind of ordinary garden truck 
 was growing with a luxuriance altogether unex 
 pected, and fully equal to the average of that on 
 lands that sell readily at seven times the cost of his. 
 Several hundred grape vines, Concord, Isabella, and 
 Catawba, two years planted, showed such an excess 
 of fruit as to compel Mr. Guynneth to remove at 
 least half. In no section of New Jersey have I seen 
 the grape vine grow so rampantly as in this ground. 
 Cherry trees, pears, and other fruits, flourished 
 equally well. It was the same with strawberries, 
 gooseberries, and blackberries. This ground had 
 not received a particle of manure. What it now is 
 affords a practical illustration of the real value of 
 this section of New Jersey three years ago a 
 forest, now the productive and really elegant home 
 of an intelligent and accomplished family. 
 
 On reaching the extreme boundary of the Yine- 
 lancl tract, I called on Mr. Robert G. Brandriff, who 
 has here cultivated a farm of 90 acres during the 
 last eleven years. This length of tillage I judged 
 likely to show what was the real stamina of this 
 soil whether it had any enduring heart in it, or 
 whether it would speedily run down to barrenness. 
 As Mr. BrandrifFs land was of even lighter char- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 24:7 
 
 acter than that of Yineland, its behavior under 
 long cropping would afford a favorable test for the 
 whole neighborhood. He gave me, without reserve, 
 all the particulars of a truly remarkable history, 
 with permission to use them. 
 
 Eleven years ago, this farm was covered with 
 forest. The owner offered it to Mr. Brandriff for 
 400 for the 90 acres, and an ample time for pay 
 ment, and being a storekeeper a few miles off, added 
 the important help of a credit on his books for sup 
 plies for family use, and materials for buildings, to 
 the amount of 600. At this time Mr. Brandriff 
 was not possessed of a dollar ; but he went to work, 
 cleared up his land little by little, a few acres 
 yearly, and thus conquered all difficulties, until 
 now he has 60 acres in cultivation, from which his 
 receipts, in 1863, were 2,000. His family consists 
 of six persons, who have lived well during all this 
 time. His fences and buildings cost him some 
 1600. He keeps four cows, pigs, and one horse, 
 by which all the work on the easily tilled soil of 
 the farm is done. He hires but one man, except in 
 busy times. For the wants of his family, and the 
 prosecution of other improvements, his annual out 
 lay is $1,000. 
 
 Mr. Brandriff showed me his account book for 
 the eleven years he had been at work, in which all 
 his receipts and expenditures were clearly entered, 
 with the balance accurately struck at each year s 
 end. His farm is now worth 6,000, and he has 
 abundant property outside of it to represent any 
 debt he owes. His residence here has not been the 
 
248 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 hum-drum existence of a mere sandpiper or wood- 
 chuck. He is a keen sportsman with line and gun. 
 At the proper season he plunges into the forest that 
 covers much of this section of New Jersey, camps 
 out at night as naturally as an Indian, considers 
 sleep of no consequence when compared with a 
 coon hunt, and is a dead shot at any unlucky deer 
 that crosses his path. The huge antlers hanging up 
 in his shed afford evidence of his skill with the rifle. 
 At other times he visits the neighboring waters of 
 Delaware Bay, where squadrons of wild ducks make 
 generous contributions to his fondness for the gun. 
 
 Mr. Brandriff sells his crops at Milville, two miles 
 from his farm. His wheat crop has been 20 bushels 
 per acre, 75 of shelled corn, 200 of round potatoes, 
 100 of sweet, 560 of carrots, 620 of turnips, while 
 his cabbages pay $100 per acre, and of grass 
 the yield is two to three tons. For manure, his 
 main dependence is on the home product, sometimes 
 using the fertilizers. The particulars of his ex 
 perience have been thus recited as affording un 
 answerable evidence of the character of nearly all 
 the land in this heretofore neglected region of New 
 Jersey. Much of it is superior to this particular 
 farm. 
 
 The visitor to Yineland cannot fail to notice the 
 absence of fences, even in a ride of fifty miles. No 
 farms have been fenced in, and not a dozen town 
 lots. It had been calculated that $5,000,000 would 
 be required to do the fencing of the whole tract. 
 To save the settlement from this useless tax, Mr. 
 Landis invoked the aid of the Legislature. A new 
 
AXD WHERE TO FIND ONE. 24:9 
 
 township was erected, bearing his name, in which 
 the running at large of cattle and swine was pro 
 hibited thus each settler fences in his own stock 
 only, and is saved the great cost of fencing out the 
 vicious road-thieves of his neighbors. Xo otjier 
 township in ]S"ew Jersey is found with a similar 
 regulation. 
 
 Another peculiarity will be noticed the total 
 absence of grog-shops, with gangs of loafers con 
 gregated about their doors. The law erecting 
 Landis township gave to the people the power of 
 saying whether rum should be sold there or not. 
 So far they have rigidly refused to have it among 
 them, and the character of the settlers coming in 
 will guarantee exclusion in the future. The fine 
 hotel which accommodates strangers has been at no 
 expense for either bar or toddy-stick. These two 
 enactments were portions of Mr. Landis s original 
 plan, and afford satisfactory evidence of the sound 
 morals and practical good sense which he has 
 brought to bear in carrying it out. 
 
 No one can spend a day at this place without be 
 ing strongly impressed in its favor, nor converse 
 with its proprietor without being struck with his re 
 markable executive capacity. His whole enterprise 
 of settling a tract of forty-five square miles of wild 
 land, has been conceived and carried out on the 
 most comprehensive scale. It is now successfully 
 established on what was three years ago a perfect 
 solitude, by the energy of a single capacious mind. 
 I have seen much of the process of making new 
 settlements on the waste places 6f the earth ; but 
 11* 
 
250 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 no instance of methodical planning, of far-seeing 
 judgment, of just calculation of greater ends from 
 a great beginning, than is here exhibited. The ori 
 ginal plan, as it was transferred from the projector s 
 mind to paper, can now be seen unfolded in all its 
 symmetrical vastness. Even the details are every 
 where visible, all of them in harmony with the 
 whole. 
 
 That these results have been actually realized, is 
 shown by the rapid and astonishing success of the 
 settlement. Families are daily coming in from a 
 distance, and selecting homes wherever they think 
 best. As at the beginning, the proprietor contin 
 ues to convey these locations at low prices and on 
 liberal credit. Mere idle speculators the men who 
 buy but do not improve, were not wanted, and have 
 been kept out. Many purchasers being well sup 
 plied with means, paid cash for what they bought ; 
 but to many worthy families the credit given has 
 proved extremely useful. The railroad from Cam- 
 den through Milville and Glassboro to Cape May, 
 renders the spot accessible to all. 
 
 Vineland is probably increasing as rapidly as any 
 new town in the West. In March last, lots were 
 selling so rapidly as to insure the erection of 40 
 new houses every month, or 480 per annum. E"o 
 such annual growth as this was realized by William 
 Penn in the early history of Philadelphia. These 
 new buildings are not ephemeral structures, mere 
 shanties to keep off sun and rain, such as one con 
 nects with the idea of a new settlement, but sub 
 stantial and durable houses. Some of them are 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 251 
 
 truly elegant, such only as would be built by men 
 possessing means and taste. When the whole tract 
 has been disposed of, the population of Vineland 
 will be 15,000. Now, the population of the entire 
 county of Cumberland in 1860 was only 22,605 ; so 
 that in a few years more it will have been nearly 
 doubled by the energy and enterprise of a single in 
 dividual. Whichever way you turn, progress and 
 improvement of some kind are visible here a new 
 house is going up, there a new farm is being clear 
 ed. The settlement must become in the end an im 
 mense fruit garden. Its products reach the two 
 great cities over cheap and rapid railroads, and 
 command cash at generous prices. Its history 
 shows the great public benefit that can be realized 
 from the ownership of a vast tract by one man, 
 when that man uses it and handles it as this tract 
 has been managed. Such wholesale colonization 
 may have been attempted by others, but it has 
 nowhere been so successful as here. 
 
 No ducal owner of hereditary acres, either in 
 England or on the Continent, with an annual in 
 come greater than the value of the fee of all Vine- 
 land, has ever undertaken a similar scheme of colo 
 nization. Such men devote their enormous wealth 
 to acquiring more land, not to sharing their acquisi 
 tions with their less fortunate neighbors. Instead 
 of clearing up forests and letting in population to 
 improve, and beautify, and acquire permanent and 
 happy homes, they plant the already cleared ground 
 with trees, and shut population out, increasing the 
 difficulty of the masses for acquiring even the small- 
 
252 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 est freehold. It has been left for a single American 
 citizen, whose capital, unlike that of these baronial 
 landowners, lay more in his head than in his purse, 
 to set before all others thus extensively endowed 
 with land, an example which will add more largely 
 to the sum of human happiness the oftener it may 
 be imitated. 
 
 As may be supposed, such a transformation as 
 Mr. Landis has thus effected has powerfully affected 
 the condition and value of thousands of acres within 
 miles around Yin eland. Prices have risen, settlers 
 are coming in from abroad, and the area of the great 
 body of waste land is annually becoming lessened 
 by the creation of new farms. The cloud of preju 
 dice which overhung this portion of New Jersey 
 has been effectually dispersed. Railroads have 
 made it as accessible as a^iy other region. Within 
 two hours ride of it there is a population of a mil 
 lion of consumers whose consumption of its pro 
 ducts must annually increase. Within such an at 
 mosphere, these lands, which now sell at from $20 
 to $30 per acre, must rapidly rise in value, until 
 they reach the prices commanded north of Camden, 
 where, having enjoyed railroad facilities for a longer 
 period, they bring from $100 to $300 per acre, if 
 the reader is at a loss where to find a farm, let him 
 look in this quarter. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 253 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 The West Illinois, and the Central Railroad Lands Climate, 
 Soil and Productions Vine Growing in Missouri Free Lands 
 in the Territories. 
 
 THE vast region popularly known as " The West," 
 has been so often travelled by thousands from the 
 older States, and so repeatedly described in print, 
 that all must have a general knowledge of its char 
 acter and capabilities. Little, therefore, remains 
 for me on these subjects, than a compilation of de 
 tails appropriate to the matter in hand where to 
 find a farm. 
 
 In the year 1850 Congress granted to the Illinois 
 Central Railroad Company 2,595,000 acres of land, 
 to aid in building a railroad which would open up 
 to sale and settlement a much greater adjoining 
 area belonging to Government, most of which had 
 been many years in market without finding pur 
 chasers, even at the low price of a shilling per acre. 
 The quality of the land thus so long for sale was 
 undoubted. It was prairie and rolling land of well 
 ascertained fertility, but, like the long neglected 
 soil of Long Island and of certain portions of New 
 Jersey and Delaware, was effectually shut out from 
 public approach for want of railroads. Mr. Gree- 
 
254 HOW TO GET A FARM. 
 
 ley s description of the State, given in 1861, is too 
 graphic to be omitted : 
 
 "In the very heart of the great valley, midway between 
 the Arctic and the Tropic, the Atlantic and the Rocky 
 Mountains, lies the State of Illinois, the young Hercules of 
 the West, touching Lake Michigan on the north, and the 
 lower Ohio on the south, with the majestic Mississippi 
 washing her entire western border, and the Wabash skirt 
 ing her for more than half its length on the east. Her 
 growth, during the last decade, has been really more rapid 
 and considerable than that of any other State, though some 
 of the newest have increased in population by a larger per 
 centage than hers. Her population has all but doubled 
 during the last decade, having risen from some 900,000 to 
 about 1,700,000. 
 
 " Other States have each some peculiarity in which it 
 may fairly claim a precedence. Michigan and Wisconsin 
 are both far better timbered, each having an abundance of 
 pine, whereas Illinois has not a stick. Pennsylvania, Vir 
 ginia, and Missouri, are richer in minerals; Iowa and 
 Kansas have more undulating surfaces, and are (we think) 
 better watered ; Ohio lies nearer to the seaboard ; New 
 England has her manufactures, and New York her foreign 
 commerce ; but in average depth and richness of soil in 
 capacity to produce, cheaply, grain and grass, meat and 
 vegetables, Illinois is probably the first among the States, 
 and surpassed by no equal area on the face of the globe. 
 
 " Originally, scarcity and imperfect distribution of timber, 
 with defective facilities for transportation and travel, were 
 her great drawbacks. Probably three-fourths of her sur 
 face were prairie when settlement commenced ; while her 
 timber was for the most part stunted and gnarly, by reason 
 of the high winds constantly wrenching, and the fierce fires 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 255 
 
 frequently scorching it. She had no evergreens of conse 
 quence, and very few trees from which decent boards could 
 be sawed. Many prairies were ten to twenty miles wide 
 some were thirty to forty. The deep, black muck which 
 formed the soil was powdered into dust by drouth, or sod 
 den into mire by rain. The moment the prairie sod was 
 cut through, the wheels of each loaded vehicle sank, 
 through half of each year, nearly to the hub ; and thus 
 not only building materials, salt and groceries, but fencing 
 and fuel, were to be carted for long distances a load of 
 wheat being drawn to Chicago, and the proceeds converted 
 into a load of boards for fencing the journey out and 
 back often consuming a week. Many a load of produce 
 thus marketed, has seen nearly or quite its price absorbed 
 in the inevitable expense of the journey out and in. This 
 impelled the State to engage prematurely in the construc 
 tion of canals, which involved her heavily in debt, without 
 very materially improving her access to markets. Rail 
 roads followed in due season, and did her good service, 
 while, being constructed mainly by private enterprise, 
 whatever advantage accrued to the public was so much 
 clear gain. Still, extensive areas of her soil must have re 
 mained unimproved, uninhabited for ages, but for the con 
 struction of the Illinois Central Railroad. That great work, 
 munificently endowed with wild lands by Congress, starts 
 from Chicago in the northeast, and Dunleith in the north 
 west of the State, and converging to a junction near the 
 center, runs thence by a single line to Cairo in the extreme 
 south, at the junction of the Ohio with the Mississippi, the 
 work having thus a total length of over six hundred miles. 
 And, though not run as the profit of the stockholders 
 would have dictated, its course is precisely such as best 
 conduced to the settlement and growth of the State. Mil 
 lions of acres, else uninhabi table, are by it rendered among 
 
256 now TO GET A FARM, 
 
 the most inviting and valuable of any wild lands on our 
 Continent ; and though the Federal grant covered more 
 than two and a half millions of acres, we believe the public 
 domain was increased not merely in value, but in produc 
 tiveness to the Treasury by this enlightened liberality. 
 
 " Illinois, already the fourth, and probably soon to be 
 the third State in the Union for Virginia is already be 
 hind her in every element of consequence and power is 
 yet in her infancy. Of her soil, probably less than one- 
 fourth has yet been ploughed ; and her last crop immense 
 as it was, especially of corn is but a fraction of what she 
 can and will produce. We believe her product of this 
 staple already far exceeds that of any other State, while in 
 wheat, beef, and pork, she is scarcely second to any. Her 
 coal is hardly exceeded in abundance by that of any other 
 State ; nearly every foot of her surface is underlaid with 
 lime ; and her iron, though less abundant, is good. Her 
 chief mart, though hardly thirty years old, ranks seventh 
 among American cities ; it promises ere long to be the 
 fifth. Illinois bids fair to have five millions of inhabitants 
 in 1880, and to increase the number to ten millions early 
 in the next century. Her career is hardly begun." 
 
 Three years after the Central Railroad Company 
 began their operations, their sales of land amount 
 ed to 1,312,373 acres, realizing a total sum of 
 $16,663,823. The terms of sale are probably more 
 liberal than are elsewhere to be found. Had they 
 been otherwise, it would have been impossible to 
 attract to a new and wholly unsettled country the 
 largest body of settlers ever voluntarily collected on 
 one spot within so short a period. The buyer has 
 his choice among a million of acres still unsold, and 
 may take land at from $7 to $12 and upward per 
 
AND WHEBE TO FIND ONE. 257 
 
 acre, according to location. He may pay for it in 
 cash, if able to do so, and thus obtain a discount of 
 twenty per cent. ; or he may take land and be al 
 lowed four, five, six, and seven years in which to 
 pay for it, but paying the interest yearly in advance. 
 He may buy as small a tract as forty acres, or one 
 as much larger as his means will justify. 
 
 The land grant to this Company was the first pub 
 lic gratuity in aid of railroads. When first made, 
 the central portion of Illinois was an unoccupied 
 prairie, as fertile as any soil in the world, but 
 wholly unavailable. It now swarms with popula 
 tion, that along the railroad having trebled within 
 ten years. Great towns have sprung up along its 
 track, and the annual growth of population and 
 wealth is enormous. Here the enterprising man 
 will be sure to find a farm, and the Railroad Com 
 pany will show him how to get it. Their road is 
 704 miles in length, and extends from Cairo, in the 
 extreme southern part of the State, to Dunleith, in 
 the northwest, with a branch from Centralia, in the 
 centre, to Chicago, on the shore of Lake Michigan. 
 For all the purposes of agriculture, these lands are 
 equal to any in the world, producing wheat, barley 
 and oats in the north ; corn and wheat in the cen 
 tre ; and wheat, tobacco and cotton in the south. 
 In all parts of the State vast numbers of live stock 
 are produced. A healthy climate, a rich soil, and 
 railroads to convey to market the fullness of the 
 earth all combine to place in the hands of the 
 working man the means of independence. Ko- 
 where can the farmer, the mechanic, the roanufac- 
 
258 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 turer, and the laboring man, find surer rewards of 
 industry. With 12,000 common schools, 21 col 
 leges, 48 academies, and a liberal fund for the sup 
 port of learning, Illinois offers the means of edu 
 cation such as few States can boast. All the 
 conditions favorable to prosperity are to be found 
 here. 
 
 From publications made by the Company, most 
 of the facts and descriptions contained in this chap 
 ter have been compiled ; such, at least, as refer to 
 their lands, and to the statistics of climate and pro 
 ductions. The climate of Illinois is healthy, and 
 the mortality is less than in almost any other part 
 of the country. The immigrant seeking a location 
 regards the healthfulness of the district as a matter 
 of primary consideration, and Illinois, so far as its 
 sanitary condition is concerned, ranks with the most 
 favored States of the Union. The vital statistics 
 collected in 1860 show that in this State the deaths 
 per cent, to the population were in that year only 
 1.14, while the average of the whole country was 
 1.27. Extending 380 miles from north to south, 
 Illinois has all the varieties of climate to be found 
 between Boston, in Massachusetts, and Norfolk, in 
 Virginia : in the southern part, the genial climate 
 of Virginia, Kentucky and Tennessee, and in the 
 northern section more nearly resembling that of 
 Pennsylvania, Southern New York, New Jersey 
 and Connecticut. 
 
 The soil in the different parts of the State presents 
 very marked characteristics. Frpm the latitude of 
 Chicago as far South as the Terr,e Haute and Alton 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 259 
 
 Railroad, the country for the most part is open prai 
 rie, with here and there groves of timber, and tim 
 bered on the banks of the various streams. The 
 soil in this region consists of a rich black loam, and 
 is remarkably adapted to the production of corn, 
 sorghum and tame grasses. For stock-raising no 
 better land can be found. South of this line the 
 soil is lighter and of a greyish tinge the country 
 is also more broken, and the timber more plentiful. 
 The small prairies in this region produce the best of 
 winter wheat, tobacco, flax and hemp. From Cen- 
 tralia to Cairo, in the south, the country is heavily 
 timbered. In this district, fruit, tobacco, cotton, 
 and the different productions of the Border States, 
 are largely cultivated and highly remunerative. A 
 large number of saw-mills are erected near the line 
 of the railroad, the lumber from which commands 
 at all times a ready sale. 
 
 Indian corn is perhaps the most important crop 
 in the country. It is applied to so great a variety 
 of purposes, and is so indispensable an article for 
 foreign consumption, that however abundantly it 
 may be produced, the constantly increasing demand 
 will press heavily upon the supply. In 1859 the 
 United States yielded 827,69^,528 bushels, of which 
 Illinois contributed 115.296,779, about fifty millions 
 of bushels more than any other State. Illinois stands 
 pre-eminently first in the list of corn-producing 
 States. 
 
 For the culture of wheat the lands of the Illinois 
 Central Railroad are in all respects equal to any 
 in the State. One great advantage which these 
 
260 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 lands have, is their nearness to the railroad, by 
 which the purchaser has the means of putting his 
 crop in the market at the earliest or most favorable 
 time, and at a cheap rate of transportation. During 
 the year 1862, the stations on this road sent for 
 ward to market 4,688,755 bushels of wheat, besides 
 567,627 barrels of flour. In Southern Illinois, win 
 ter wheat is almost certain to yield a good return to 
 the grower. The reaping, threshing and cleaning 
 machines, now so generally in use, have made wheat- 
 growing a source of great profit to the farmer. 
 
 It seems well established that cotton is to become 
 a remunerative crop in the southern part of Illinois. 
 It was cultivated in 1862 in almost every town 
 south of Centralia, and if we regard the planting 
 as an experiment, the result is completely satisfac 
 tory. It would be a low estimate to assume that in 
 that year 5,000 bales of ginned cotton were grown. 
 There was a large demand made upon the neighbor 
 ing States (particularly Tennessee), for cotton seed, 
 and more than one hundred tons had been sent for 
 ward from Cairo arid distributed. 
 
 The rapidly increasing cultivation of sorghum in 
 this country deserves particular notice. In another 
 year Illinois will send to the eastern market thou 
 sands of barrels of sorghum molasses, besides retain 
 ing sufficient for home consumption. In 1859 this 
 State produced 797,096 gallons, and at that time at 
 tention had only just been directed to sorghum. 
 Since then its cultivation has been increased ten 
 fold. A prominent sugar refiner estimates the an 
 nual consumption of molasses in the United States 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 261 
 
 at 80,000,000 gallons, and of this vast quantity of 
 sweets it is safe to say the free States consume 
 60,000,000 gallons. He goes on to say: "This 
 enormous and increasing consumption of molasses 
 and syrups in our Northern States should encourage 
 the western cane growers in their efforts to produce 
 crops of western cane syrups, with the certainty 
 that they will find a ready sale for all that will be 
 produced of merchantable quality and in good 
 packages." 
 
 Hemp and flax can be produced in Illinois, of as 
 good a quality as any grown in Europe. Water- 
 rotted hemp, from as far north as Sangamon county, 
 when submitted to Government tests, compared 
 favorably with Russian hemp, and exceeded in 
 strength the standard fixed by the Government, in 
 some instances as high as twenty per cent. Good 
 corn lands are good hemp and flax lands, and there 
 fore we may safely conclude that Illinois can pro 
 duce these important articles much -cheaper than 
 they can be imported. If the fabrication of linen 
 goods has made but little progress in this country, 
 it is because the raw material has been grown in 
 but limited quantities. In many parts of the West, 
 farmers have raised flax simply for the seed, and 
 thrown away the fibre as valueless, under the mis 
 taken idea that flax which produced seed could not 
 be worked into fine linen. In the Chicago market, 
 hemp and flax seed are now sold at from three to 
 five dollars per bushel. The Lockport (N. Y.) Flax 
 Cotton Company have contracted with as many 
 farmers of Niagara county as desired to do so, for 
 
262 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 their crops of flax straw at $10 per ton. In Illinois, 
 with heavy seeding, twenty bushels of seed and 
 three tons of flax straw have been gathered from 
 an acre. This was an extraordinary yield. The 
 average crop in Niagara county, New York, in 1862, 
 was one ton of straw and fourteen bushels of seed 
 to the acre. 
 
 Much attention is directed to Southern Illinois, 
 on account of its peculiar adaptation to fruit rais 
 ing. It has the advantage of early season, as well 
 as a soil especially suited to the growing of fruits 
 and vegetables, together with unequaled railroad 
 facilities, by means of which the product is brought 
 to the very door of all the great markets of the 
 Northwest. Fruit placed upon the cars in the 
 evening will reach Chicago the next morning. St. 
 Louis is still nearer than Chicago ; and strawberries, 
 tomatoes, &c., are supplied to Cincinnati nearly a 
 fortnight in advance of the ripening of these luxu 
 ries in the immediate neighborhood of that city. It 
 is the early market that gives the greatest profit to 
 the fruit grower. Strawberries from Cobden and 
 Makanda are placed in Chicago as early as the 14th 
 of May. The Railroad Company supply every con 
 venience for transporting fruit to market. Cars 
 are run with especial reference to this branch of 
 traffic, and the time of running the trains is so ad 
 justed as best to suit the requirements of shippers. 
 Southern Illinois has become the best fruit-growing 
 region of America. While every part of Illinois is 
 to some extent adapted to fruit culture, it is only in 
 the southern part of the State that all conditions 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 263 
 
 are found in the highest perfection. Pears, apples, 
 peaches, grapes, and strawberries, are produced in 
 all abundance. During the last year, upwards of 
 200,000 fruit trees were planted in orchards south 
 of Centralia, within six miles of the railroad track : 
 but no matter to what extent they may be multi 
 plied, the demand for fruit will always be in ad 
 vance of the capacity to furnish what is wanted. 
 
 Pork packing has become an immense business 
 in this State, the number of hogs packed in 1862 
 amounting to 1,484,834 head, half a million in ex 
 cess of Ohio, which until the last year or two has 
 stood first among the pork-producing States. The 
 following table, giving the number of hogs packed 
 in seven States in 1862, shows a wonderful result : 
 
 Illinois 1,484,834 
 
 Ohio 981,683 
 
 Indiana 587,528 
 
 Iowa 403,899 
 
 Kentucky 130,920 
 
 Wisconsin 196,745 
 
 Missouri 284,011 
 
 Total 4,069,620 
 
 Illinois is the great stock-raising State of the coun 
 try sending two thousand head of beef cattle a 
 week to the New York market. In the census re 
 turn of 1850 the live stock in Illinois had a valua 
 tion of $24,209,258, and in 1860 it had increased to 
 73,434,621 only two States (New York and Penn 
 sylvania) exceeding that amount of value. The 
 raising of stock for market has been the source of 
 many fortunes in Illinois. The Company have large 
 
264 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 tracts of land well adapted by nature to the raising 
 of cattle, sheep, horses and mules better adapted, 
 indeed, than are the lands of almost any other State 
 of the Union. During the year 1862, the Illinois 
 Central Railroad brought to Chicago, from va 
 rious stations along the line, upwards of 30,000 
 head of beef cattle, and about 10,000 sheep. Wool- 
 growing is a branch of industry that cannot be 
 overdone, and will inevitably be largely increased. 
 
 The immense coal deposits of Illinois are worked 
 at different points near the railroad, and thus the 
 settlers are enabled to obtain fuel at the very cheap 
 est rate. Du Quoin and St. John in Southern Illi 
 nois, and La Salle, are the principal places from 
 which coal is distributed. The statistics of coal 
 produced in the United States for the year ending 
 June 30, 1860, place Illinois third in the list of coal 
 States Pennsylvania being first, and Ohio second. 
 In the period named, the coal mined in this State 
 amounted to 14,906,643 bushels, valued at more 
 than a million of dollars. The production at the 
 present time is largely in excess of this amount. 
 
 To whatever extent the resources of this State 
 are developed, there can never be any very great 
 accumulation of breadstuffs in this country. It is 
 impossible for Europe to yield enough wheat for its 
 three hundred millions of people, and the soundest 
 writers upon the subject assert that even with the 
 most favorable harvests, three-fourths of the popu 
 lation are inadequately fed. With cheap means of 
 transportation to the shores of the Old World, it is 
 believed that five hundred million bushels of bread- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 265 
 
 stuffs would be annually purchased from the United 
 States. But it is not alone to wheat and corn that 
 the export trade is confined. In Illinois almost 
 every thing that contributes to food for man is pro 
 duced in excess of the wants of the population, and 
 finds a profitable market in the Eastern States and 
 in Europe. 
 
 As before stated, the ^>rice of the lands varies 
 from seven to twelve dollars and upward per acre. 
 The prairie lands, except in the immediate vicinity 
 of towns and stations, are generally sold upon the 
 " Long Credit Terms," i. e., payments of principal 
 in four, five, six, and seven years, with interest 
 annually in advance at the rate of six per cent. The 
 timber lands in the southern part of the State, 
 within three miles of the railroad, are sold upon 
 what are known as " Canal Terms," i. e., one-fourth 
 of the purchase money in cash, and the balance in 
 one, two, and three years, with six per cent, interest 
 each year in advance. The following examples 
 illustrate the different terms : 
 
 4:0 ACEES AT $10 PEE ACEE LONG CEEDIT TEEMS. 
 
 Interest. Principal. 
 
 Cash payment $24.00 
 
 Payment in one year 24.00 
 
 two years 24.00 
 
 three years 24.00 
 
 four years 18.00 $100.00 
 
 five years 12.00 100.00 
 
 six years 6.00 100.00 
 
 seven years 100.00 
 
 12 
 
HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 40 ACRES AT $10 PER ACRE CANAL TERMS. 
 
 Interest. Principal. 
 
 Cash payment $18.00 $100.00 
 
 Payment in one year 12.00 100.00 
 
 " two years 6.00 100.00 
 
 " three years 100.00 
 
 Thus, forty acres bought on the long credit sys 
 tem, if the credit is all used, will cost the buyer 
 $132 for interest, and $400 for principal a total of 
 $532. If bought on canal terms, they would cost 
 him $36 for interest, and $400 for principal a total 
 of $436. If bought for cash, the discount of twenty 
 per cent, would reduce the cost to $320. 
 
 Some years ago, Mr. John S. Barger bought five 
 hundred and forty acres of the company s land for 
 $1,513. He had two hundred and eighty acres pre 
 pared for seeding, and his gross income, the first 
 year, amounted to $4,428, of which $1,210 was net 
 profit. But to this should be added $1,094, the cost 
 of making the farm, as it was not necessary to 
 repeat the same work another year. Mr. B. had 
 little more than a theoretical knowledge of farm 
 ing. 
 
 Mr. William "Waite purchased a prairie farm of 
 eighty acres, in the spring of 1853, paying $4.50 
 per acre. His land thus cost him $360; the fencing, 
 $400, and the breaking up of sixty acres, $150 a 
 total of $910. None of these outlays would have to 
 be repeated a second year. He marketed 2,100 
 bushels of wheat and corn, producing him $1,545, 
 leaving him a clear profit of $134, to which the 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 267 
 
 $910 aforesaid should be added. In three years 
 from the time Mr. Waite first broke up the prairie, 
 his farm was worth $25 per acre. 
 
 Every small capitalist who can command only 
 $200 or $300, can quickly acquire a farm in this 
 locality. At first he must put up a shanty of some 
 kind in which to live, then a fence just high enough 
 to turn cattle and horses, these being the only stock 
 permitted to run at large. Then what is known as 
 sod corn may be planted in May, and if the season 
 be fair, it will yield him twenty to forty bushels per 
 acre. The planting is done by striking an axe or 
 spade between the layers of sod, and after dropping 
 the corn, applying the heel of the boot freely. It 
 needs no culture whatever. A man with two horses 
 can ordinarily attend to thirty or forty acres of reg 
 ular corn land, one ploughing being sufficient. 
 Wheat follows the corn crop. An industrious man 
 can manage eighty acres, by having help at seed 
 time and harvest. 
 
 Mr. W. R. Harris began in 1S47 with a capital of 
 $700. He bought one hundred and eighty acres of 
 timber and prairie, of which he broke up fifty-five 
 the first year, and at the end of the fourth year had 
 one hundred and fifteen under the plough. The 
 annual product was 2,000 in cash. At the end of 
 six years, Mr. Harris s capital of $700 had increased 
 to $8,000. 
 
 These settlers on the prairie are not subjected to 
 the inconveniences that many will suppose insepara 
 ble from a pioneer life. Such as they may be, the 
 robust and thorough-going man will not regard with 
 
268 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 apprehension. A very neat little house, sixteen by 
 twenty-four feet, a story and a half high, containing 
 five rooms, is furnished and delivered on the cars for 
 about $200. When within one hundred and fifty 
 miles of Chicago, it is put up, plastered, painted, 
 and made ready for occupancy for $350. There are 
 regular manufactories of these portable houses, at 
 which they can be purchased ready made, and the 
 settler fitted out without delay. 
 
 But the great West is full of instances like the 
 foregoing. It is true that there have been disastrous 
 failures. Whoever goes there must make up his 
 mind to dispense with some of the comforts and 
 conveniences to which he may have been accus 
 tomed. If without capital, he should avoid hanging 
 round the towns, but strike directly for the country, 
 where labor is in demand at paying rates. When 
 able to buy a team, to fence his farm, and pay for a 
 cheap dwelling, then he may safely purchase land. 
 Let him avoid grasping after too many acres at first. 
 The great rock on which many have split is that of 
 seeking to own greater tracts than they can either 
 manage or pay for. Three years of working out 
 will enable a man to save money enough to make a 
 safe beginning. His first crop of sod corn, with a 
 little money, will carry him through the first year, 
 and the second year his land will be mellow enough 
 to bring him a crop of double value. 
 
 The Central Railroad Company have given no 
 encouragement to speculators, few of whom are 
 either permanent or improving owners. Their effort 
 has been to secure the actual settler by offering him 
 
AND WHERE TO FIXD OXE. 269 
 
 extraordinary inducements, for it is he whose labors 
 enhance the value of the neighboring lands, and 
 contribute to the traffic of the road. The good 
 effects of this policy have long been apparent. More 
 than a hundred cities and villages now line the rail 
 road, with populations varying from 200 to 10,000 
 or more, having factories, mills, stores, postoffices, 
 schools, churches, and .newspapers. They rapidly 
 increase in numbers and wealth, distributing the. 
 comforts and luxuries of civilized life to the settlers, 
 while they open up unlimited opportunities for pro 
 fitable employment to the business man, the trader, 
 and mechanic. 
 
 Other western States afford diversified openings 
 for all classes of enterprising men, whether rich or 
 poor. Kansas has some thirty thousand farms 
 already hewed out of the forest and prairie, on which 
 at least ten millions of dollars have been invested. 
 Some of her towns have grown up as in a single 
 night. Leaven worth expanded, in three years, from 
 a population of 100 to 8,000, with eight newspapers. 
 All the towns of Indiana, Michigan, Wisconsin, and 
 Minnesota, are growing rapidly. The immigrant 
 can find a farm under the Homestead Law, let him 
 look in what direction he may. 
 
 Missouri has been extensively settled by colonies 
 of German wine-growers. These form communities 
 by themselves, who are covering the hillsides with 
 vineyards, and have already had remunerating vint 
 ages, their wine carrying off the premium at Cincin 
 nati, and coming everywhere into demand. The 
 single town of Hermann, with less than 2,000 inbab- 
 
270 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 itants, produced in one season 80,000 gallons. A 
 vineyard of three to four years old yields the owner 
 two hundred and fifty to three hundred gallons per 
 acre, while a very favorable site has yielded 1,000. 
 One industrious man manages five acres ; and as 
 the wine sells for $1.25 to $1.50 per gallon, five 
 acres are sufficient to secure an ample subsistence. 
 The climate is more favorable to vine growing than 
 that of Germany. The German population detests 
 slavery. JSTow that it has been swept from the soil 
 of Missouri, immigrants are pouring in with every 
 arrival, lands are rising in value, and the Home 
 stead Law is providing thousands of them with per 
 manent homes. 
 
 Further west, the territories contain millions of 
 acres of the public domain, all open to settlement 
 by whomsoever chooses to locate upon them. How 
 vast the quantity is, and where situated, will be 
 seen by the following table of acres : 
 
 California 94,000,000 
 
 Dakota 83,000,000 
 
 Nevada 50,000,000 
 
 Colorado 66,000,000 
 
 New Mexico 72,000,000 
 
 Arizona 80,000,000 
 
 Utah 62,000,000 
 
 Oregon 55,000,000 
 
 Idaho 203,000,000 
 
 Washington 38,000,000 
 
 Nebraska 43,000,000 
 
 Kansas. 45,000,000 
 
 These figures are an approximation to the true 
 amounts, which in all cases are understated. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 271 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 Land in the South Effect of civil war on titles Progress and 
 results of Pacification Openings in Louisiana, South Carolina, 
 and Virginia Great demand for Labor Cotton Growing 
 Society after the War. 
 
 WHILE the eyes of thousands have for years been 
 directed westward, in search of homes, the slave 
 holders rebellion has opened up in that region a 
 new field for enterprising and adventurous spirits 
 from the North and West. 
 
 It is a peculiarity of civil war to unsettle or de 
 stroy the titles to real estate. A foreign war, even 
 when attended by invasion, produces no such result. 
 When "the British overran our northwestern frontier, 
 destroyed Buffalo and other settlements on the 
 Lakes, though personal property was carried off, and 
 houses burned, yet the title to real estate was unim 
 paired. When they landed on the Chesapeake, 
 sacking Washington and Havre de Grace, holding 
 a possession that was but feebly disputed except at 
 Baltimore, it was personal property alone that 
 changed owners. If the people abandoned their 
 domicils as the enemy approached, they returned to 
 them as he retired. No interlopers having occupied 
 them during their absence, there were none to set 
 up claim to title by possession. The flight of loyal 
 
272 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 people under such circumstances worked no civil 
 disability. What they suffered was simply a mis 
 fortune of invasion. If the enemy had temporarily 
 deprived them of their rights, holding them for the 
 moment in abeyance, yet when he retreated they 
 immediately revived. 
 
 But it was not so during the revolutionary con 
 test. That was so emphatically a civil war, that in 
 every State there were two parties in arms against 
 each other. One party fought for American inde 
 pendence, the other for British supremacy, but both 
 were composed of native-born citizens. One was 
 aided by the presence of a British army, the other 
 depended on itself. Had the American people been 
 unanimous in their opposition to Great Britain, it 
 would not have been a civil war, neither could it 
 have been so long maintained against them. But 
 citizen being arrayed against citizen, gave to it a 
 mixed character it was foreign and civil war com 
 bined. To fight for independence was held to be 
 loyal, to oppose it was held to be disloyal. 
 
 Those who opposed it were universally known as 
 Tories. Many of them had been office-holders under 
 the king ; many of them belonged to the highest 
 classes of society ; many were educated, talented, 
 and wealthy ; while the fact cannot be disputed, 
 that Toryism was so prevalent that it furnished more 
 armed men to assist in crushing independence, than 
 the Continental army was able to muster for main 
 taining it. As the Whigs of the Revolution staked 
 their all upon the issue of the contest, the Tories 
 necessarily assumed a like hazard. Many of the 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 273 
 
 latter withdrew from the country at the beginning 
 of the contest, carrying with them their personal 
 effects, but abandoning their real estate. Society 
 was already so disorganized, the future was so un 
 certain, and money was so universally hoarded, that 
 more were desirous of selling than of buying. 
 Titles had already become uncertain. As the war 
 progressed, the condition of things became worse. 
 Each State enacted confiscation laws designed to 
 cripple the Tories by stripping them of their prop 
 erty. They abandoned lands and houses precisely 
 as the Rebels have been abandoning theirs, and 
 thousands of them never returned to reclaim their 
 possessions. As the American armies advanced, the 
 Tories fled ; when the British army moved, others 
 were induced by fear to follow it. The fugitives 
 had no rest So large a quantity of their real estate 
 was thus brought within reach of the confiscation 
 acts that much of it was overlooked and escaped 
 condemnation and sale. 
 
 As the cities and their vicinity had been crowded 
 with Tories, so in those localities their abandoned 
 property abounded. Some of .them had been killed 
 in battle, others had fled the country, and dare not 
 return to reclaim what they had left. The few who 
 ventured to do so were again compelled to fly. In 
 multitudes of cases even the voluntary absentees 
 failed to return and resume possession. Titles thus 
 became unsettled. Their properties were entered 
 on by squatters, who eventually gained good titles 
 by long possession. Property of this description is 
 found in all our seaboard cities. Some of it has 
 
 12* 
 
274: HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 been thus taken out of its neutral status within a 
 very few years. There are also ground rents which 
 have not been demanded since the first outbreak of 
 the Revolution. Other estates, liable to confisca 
 tion, but overlooked at the time, have been squatted 
 on and held until title came of possession. So val 
 uable had some of these become, and so numerous 
 were they in some localities, that sharp lawyers, 
 who devoted themselves to unearthing the secrets of 
 a past era, have grown rich by levying contributions 
 from those who held them in possession, as the price 
 of undisturbed ownership. 
 
 These are invariable incidents of civil war. The 
 rich traitor knows beforehand that confiscation of 
 his wealth will be the penalty of his treason. "When 
 our population was barely three millions, of whom 
 say only half were hostile to the Government, if 
 civil war resulted so to disloyal owners of real prop 
 erty, what will be the uncertainty and misery among 
 a population nearly six times as large, whose defiant 
 boast has been that they are all traitors ? Thous 
 ands of them are now passing through the same 
 furnace which consumed the Tories. Like them, 
 having staked all, they have lost all, and are now 
 fugitives in the earth. Others will unquestionably 
 enter into their possessions, the loyal succeeding the 
 disloyal precisely as they did in the last century. 
 The old uncertainties of title may be cured by the 
 action of a Government which seems alive to the 
 necessities of the case. This, if done promptly, will 
 hurry on pacification. 
 
 As aforetime, squatting will be practiced every- 
 
AND WHERE TO FEND ONE. 275 
 
 where, and in the absence of healing legislation, 
 time will confer title. Owners have disappeared, 
 some killed in battle, some fugitives, others outlawed. 
 Families have been scattered, while others must 
 have perished bodily. Entire States have been 
 made a desolation. Offices of record have been 
 sacked and burned, their parchment contents de 
 stroyed or scattered beyond hope of recovery. 
 Trunks full of deeds and wills have gone into the 
 camp fire, or been distributed as military trophies. 
 Fences have been demolished, corner trees cut down, 
 and boundary lines so effectually obliterated, that 
 even the fugitive owners would find it difficult to 
 retrace them, while strangers would find it impos 
 sible to do so. The future is full of embarrassment 
 to all titles thus circumstanced. No such wholesale 
 exodus of people occurred anywhere during the 
 Revolution, nor were the armies of that period large 
 enough to produce a tithe of the havoc. The South 
 will thus abound in vacant places which their ban 
 ished owners dare not return to occupy. The North 
 will rush in to fill them, converting its liberating 
 army into an army of occupation. Into the remain 
 ing masses it will infuse new life, new morals, a 
 wholesale education. The sluggards of the South 
 will rise slowly from the depths in which they have 
 been wallowing, conceding to the North, by the 
 logic of events, her true position, that of the ascend 
 ant. Subjugated by Northern arms, she will vol 
 untarily acknowledge a new subjugation to Northern 
 mind. 
 
 Every Federal army which traverses the Southern 
 
HOW TO GET A FARM 
 
 States may be said to be an army of land survey 
 ors. The soldiers see for themselves that the trait 
 orous owners of vast plantations have abandoned 
 them, that repossession is impossible, and that they 
 must fall into ne*w hands. In some cases this change 
 of ownership will be caused by confiscation, .in 
 others by a hasty sale at ruinous sacrifice. In other 
 cases the soldiers will acquire title by marriage. 
 All these methods of transition came into active 
 operation soon after the war began. The magnifi 
 cent climate of the rebellious region, the fertile hills 
 and valleys, soon won the admiration of men whose 
 homes had been among the bleak and rocky soil of 
 New England, or the sparsely populated prairies of 
 the West. Their long stay in that region made 
 them familiar with its value, and there thousands 
 have resolved to settle. "With true Northern flexi 
 bility of character, they immediately became at 
 home. Intercourse between loyal residents and the 
 soldiers led to intimacy, and intimacy to marriage. 
 Thousands of young volunteers have already mar 
 ried Southern women, and will settle in the South 
 when peace is established. In a single company, as 
 many as thirty such contracts have taken place. 
 These marriages are not restricted to this or that 
 regiment. Wherever the army has gone, there it 
 has been greeted with sympathizers, and there such 
 ties have been established. The longer it remained, 
 and the further it advanced, the more numerous 
 they became. In addition to marriages actually 
 entered into, there will be innumerable engagements 
 to be consummated on the return of peace. Officers 
 
AND HEBE TO FIND ONE. 277 
 
 as well as men have been equally ready to enter 
 into like relations with Southern women. In the 
 case of wealthy women, some have thus married as 
 much to save their property as to secure a hus 
 band. 
 
 How far this element of pacification has already 
 progressed, may be seen by the following statement 
 of an army correspondent of the Tribune. 
 
 " I learn from the most undoubted sources, that in New 
 Orleans, .Yicksburg, Memphis, and in smaller places where 
 we have permanent military posts, nothing has become 
 more common than for our soldiers to marry the women of 
 the country. At Memphis, from fifteen to twenty such 
 marriages occur weekly. Let us look at this with the light 
 which social science gives us. Xaturally, men establish and 
 live in society. Whatever may be their occupation fight 
 ing, trading, or farming thev will associate in societv, and 
 the foundation of this is the family relation. Where oppor 
 tunity affords, no great length of time can pass in which 
 society will not be organized. It is now from two to three 
 years that we have held most of the places named, and, as 
 a consequence, men without wives, and women without 
 husbands, unite to form a new society, for the old one was, 
 if not destroyed, greatly disrupted, and this, without regard 
 to the fact that formerly they were bitterly opposed to each 
 other. At first widows with large property and no one to 
 attend to it, accepted Union husbands, hoping, and with good 
 grounds, to save their wealth. I know of several young men 
 of good qualities who thus have become rich. I know of one 
 who in a mouth after marriage, sold $50,000 worth of cotton, 
 which the widow for six mouths had tried to sell in vain. 
 Other ladies, whose" fathers and brothers were in the Rebel 
 army, and had no homes, married; and now, some with 
 
278 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 fair means and good homes, and who also are well edu 
 cated, are proud of a gay officer for a husband. There has 
 always been an idea among the women of the South that 
 Northern men make the best husbands. Whether this is 
 true or not is doubtful, but it is certain that multitudes of 
 our officers have every accomplishment, and are skilled in 
 all the arts which attract women. In the ball-room, the 
 parlor, or at promenade, they act the perfect gentlemen ; 
 and if the subject of the discourse be literature, art, or phil 
 osophy, or even matters of practical life, they are ready to 
 instruct or amuse. So long as we continue to possess the 
 country these marriages will increase. It is evident from 
 this that in a few years more, the Rebel soldiers will be for 
 gotten in the places where they were born, and should they 
 return they will find, beside their houses and land being oc 
 cupied by others, that their women have become the wives 
 of their enemies." 
 
 But whether love or lucre be the motive, the 
 effect on society in that region will be the same. 
 An infusion of Northern sentiment of this whole 
 sale character will be the entering wedge to a sec 
 tional salvation. It will be driven home by subse 
 quent accessions of civilians of all professions 
 mechanics, merchants, traders, lawyers, doctors, 
 speculators. The only true path to the supremacy 
 of civilization is by thus setting free the land, and 
 by planting a true democracy where the most 
 brutalized form of landed aristocracy had been the 
 only ruler. The latter suppressed education, the 
 former will encourage and diffuse it. There will be 
 " a man to every acre, with his right-hand full of 
 brains, and a school-house behind him." 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 279 
 
 Four years of such progression, even though all 
 were warlike, have already produced a stupendous 
 revolution. Wherever pacification became assured, 
 there agriculture, trade, and commerce, have re 
 vived. One Northern manufacturer has received 
 orders from Louisiana for a thousand ploughs, three 
 hundred farm wagons, as many carts, with harness 
 for all, and quantities of tools for carpenters and 
 blacksmiths. Others are crowded with orders from 
 the same region. The makers of agricultural ma 
 chines, of cotton gins and presses, are equally over 
 run with orders. Sugar machinery and farm mills 
 cannot be supplied as rapidly as they are wanted. 
 
 These are but solitary indications of the astonish 
 ing prosperity which is sure to follow in the path of 
 peace. In former times these products of northern 
 workshops were demanded by slaveholders. But 
 the current of events has already changed that 
 class has disappeared, and a new race of owners 
 and operators has pushed them from their seats. 
 The orders now come from northern capitalists who 
 have succeeded to the abandoned plantations, which 
 they now conduct with great profit by paying to the 
 liberated bondman a fair day s wages for a fair day s 
 work. These openings in Louisiana are numerous, 
 and of all dimensions, small as well as large. An 
 army correspondent thus describes the country 
 above New Orleans : 
 
 " For a long distance the road runs in sight of, and but a 
 few miles back from the Mississippi, and passes directly 
 through magnificent sugar plantations magnificent before 
 the war, but now in many instances tenantless, fenceless, 
 
280 now TO GI:T A FARM, 
 
 and desolate. The mansions, surrounded with orange 
 groves and with superb shade trees of the live-oak and the 
 cypress, are still there, and the long rows of negro dwel 
 lings, far superior to the huts and cabins of Virginia and 
 South Carolina, with their whitewashed sides still glisten 
 in the sun, and look not unlike some neat little village on 
 some Western prairie, clustered around the court-house 
 square. Indeed, all of these plantations are so large, the 
 mansions so princely, and the negro-houses so numerous, 
 that as you whirl by them in the cars it is difficult to real 
 ize that you are not passing village after village as you 
 would at the North. But the proud occupants of these 
 princely estates are gone. What they look like as you pass 
 by them in the cars, they are rapidly becoming. 
 
 " New England farmers are making them New England 
 villages. The schoolhouse and the church for the first time 
 since these bayous were diked and these vast deltas re 
 claimed from the Father of Waters and the Gulf, are be 
 coming permanent institutions. In a few years where now 
 you see but a platform alongside of the road for the accom 
 modation of the hogsheads of sugar and the bales of cotton 
 the crop of the planter through whose estate the road 
 runs villages will rise as numerous and thriving as along 
 the great Central Road of Illinois. 
 
 " Indeed, when this war is closed, and these great plan 
 tations are divided up and sold to the soldiers, the sailors, 
 and the German emigrants who will flock to these southern 
 States, Illinois, great as she is, and destined to be much 
 greater, must look out for her laurels. Louisiana could 
 and should have been the wealthiest State in the Union, 
 and when northern industry and enterprise have drained 
 all these swamps and diked all these bayous, no State in the 
 Union can surpass her in the fertility of her soil or in the 
 healthfullness of her climate." 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 281 
 
 Even in South Carolina, where slavery was most 
 despotic, white superintendence over paid black 
 labor has yielded generous returns to northern capi 
 tal and enterprise. On thirteen estates at Beaufort, 
 four hundred blacks were employed, rating two 
 children as one hand, and the average wages paid 
 them was fifty-five cents per day. With this help 
 814 acres were planted with cotton, from which 
 72,000 pounds of sea-island were obtained, worth 
 $1.50 per pound, while the whole cost was only 
 thirty-eight cents. The poor blacks themselves, 
 when working their own little cotton fields, have 
 lived better than at any former period of their lives, 
 and saved money enough to purchase small farms. 
 When domestic traitors charged that government 
 was wasting millions of dollars in feeding what was 
 said to . be a lazy crowd of them at Port Royal, 
 Congress instituted an inquiry, and the Secretary of 
 the Treasury replied that there has been expended 
 for agricultural implements, *77,081 ; for the pur 
 chase of the schooner Flora, $31,350; for white 
 labor, s-i .71S; for colored labor, $34,527. Total 
 expenses, 225,705. From this expenditure has 
 been realized $726,984. Deducting the above ex 
 penses, there remained on hand from this fund 
 $501,279. The Secretary says that no expenditure 
 whatever has been made from the Treasury on ac 
 count of the cultivation of the plantations or the 
 collection of cotton, or the educational or benevo 
 lent care of the laborers. More than half a million 
 of dollars were saved by these operations. If the 
 uneducated negro, just liberated from bondage, can 
 
282 now TO GET A FARM, 
 
 perform these pecuniary wonders, and at the same 
 time acquire a homestead of his own, how brilliant 
 must be the prospect for the educated northern free 
 man ! 
 
 It is thus evident that a new chapter is opening in 
 the history of South Carolina. In 1860 rebellion 
 defied the power of the Government. In less than 
 three years the result of this defiance was manifest. 
 The plantation despot became a fugitive. Over 
 100,000 acres of the sea islands, out of the 19,336,320 
 acres within the limits of the State, are being rapid 
 ly settled by soldiers, sailors, marines, negroes, and 
 teachers who have resided in the Department of the 
 South for six months. The lands have been put up 
 at auction by the Federal Government for non-pay 
 ment of taxes, and were bought in by its representa 
 tives. They are now being re-sold to actual settlers 
 at $1.25 per acre. Each unmarried man or woman 
 can purchase twenty acres, and each head of a fam 
 ily can buy forty acres in addition. So far, some 
 5,000 acres have been reserved for school purposes, 
 and the dwellings on the portion sold have been ap 
 praised at their value, and will be held at that 
 price ; the buyers of the soil can purchase the houses 
 only by paying the proper value in addition to the 
 $1.25 per acre for the land. There has been a great- 
 rush for the soil thrown open to .loyal settlers, and 
 as more of it is offered for sale the demand will 
 increase. A writer on the spot, describing the sale, 
 Bays : 
 
 " It is rather a matter for editorial comment than mere 
 correspondence, that the effect will be to inaugurate the 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 283 
 
 pacification of the country wrested from rebels and added 
 to the domain of the Union. The difficulties which our 
 armies have experienced during the progress of war among 
 hostile populations will, in this department, be prepared for 
 the secessionists, should they ever return to the sea islands. 
 After men have paid for land, and begin its cultivation, 
 they believe it to be truly theirs, and they will fight to de 
 fend their rights of ownership. Planting will immediately 
 follow the occupation of lands. Thus a new population of 
 workingmen, white and negro, will take possession of the 
 territory abandoned by the secessionists. Industry and 
 production will follow closely the armies in the field. Every 
 owner of twenty or forty acres, having bought and paid in 
 part at least for his homestead, will feel that he has an 
 interest in his country. The exhaustion of the productive 
 forces that usually remains as the worst evil of a state of 
 war, and that brings with peace a mere syncope of national 
 vitality, will be hereby obviated. The negro population of 
 the sea islands is about 18,000, of whom one-fifth are eligi 
 ble to pre-empt. In addition to these, the soldiers, sailors, 
 and civilians who are likely to claim land are numerous. 
 It is believed that under the new rule very little land will 
 be left unoccupied. Deeds for lands pre-empted will not 
 be given until the process of cultivation has begun, to prove 
 the good faith of the persons proposing to buy it. Under 
 the guidance of their friends the former cultivators of the 
 soil are staking off their claims. Whole plantations are 
 being settled by families of owners formerly slaves upon the 
 same estates. Generally, the former superintendents of 
 plantations are preparing to settle among their late pupils 
 and subordinate laborers. The place is thrown open to 
 immigration and settlement. At this time, furniture, 
 household utensils, farmers and mechanics tools, strong, 
 durable clothing and materials for the wear of both sexes, 
 
284 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 hardware, and nearly all other useful merchandise suitable 
 to the wants of a new country, are in great demand among 
 all classes at good prices for cash." 
 
 As regards that portion of Virginia east of the 
 mountains, the whole region has been made a des 
 olation. Politics and slavery have combined to 
 precipitate rebellion, and rebellion has made it the 
 tramping ground of armies which have eaten out 
 everything but the soil. Every gift of nature 
 seemed to have been lavished on this favorite re 
 gion it has an unequalled climate, rivers, coal, 
 and every valuable mineral. But these advantages 
 were thrown away. Virginia employed herself in 
 making Presidents, while New York employed her 
 self in making canals. Virginia was engaged every 
 year in reaffirming the resolutions of 98 and 99, 
 while New York was passing resolutions to build 
 the Erie Canal not only passing them, but carry 
 ing them out. Virginia was employed in setting 
 the machinery of the Federal government in motion, 
 while New York was taxing her colossal energies 
 to start the wheels of commerce. This tells the 
 whole story, and illustrates the superior utility of 
 industrial enterprise over a too long continued de 
 votion to mere political abstractions. 
 
 Separated now, the new State of West Virginia, 
 begotten by loyalty from disloyalty, is thus far, in 
 its most prominent features, singularly unlike that 
 of the righteously desolated Old Dominion. The 
 new State is founded upon free labor as opposed to 
 slavery. In that fact alone, she places enterprise, 
 intelligence, skill and forethought, in opposition to 
 
AND WHEEE TO FIND ONE. 285 
 
 their antagonistic elements. Her soil is rich and 
 fertile, as opposed to lands which have been cropped 
 to the last stage of exhaustion by a never-ceasing 
 and never-compensated harvest of tobacco. She 
 has a clear and health-invigorating air, noble 
 mountain-heights, and streams which leap out 
 among them, inviting manufactures. The govern 
 ment is aimiog for the greatest good of the greatest 
 number. 
 
 Nothing short of a high prosperity was to be 
 expected from conditions such as these. Thus, 
 after disbursing nearly $100,000 since June, 1863, 
 with one half the counties paying no tax whatever, 
 and only a portion of the residue paying their full 
 proportion, there was a balance in the treasury of 
 more than double that amount. This astonishing 
 result is evidence of high prosperity ; for if this 
 new State, " wrenched from the grasp of rebellion 
 by military power, and growing on the very hem of 
 civil war, can thus flourish under such circumstances, 
 the restoration of peace and order will develop a 
 prosperity surpassing all that has been writ 
 ten in the history of its ill-starred and traitorous 
 parent." 
 
 All through the Southern States there will be in 
 numerable openings for Northern enterprise, whether 
 the adventurers be farmers or mechanics. White 
 labor will be as urgently needed as that of the 
 blacks. The South must continue to grow cotton, 
 rice, sugar, and tobacco, as aforetime. The world 
 needs these products, and is determined to have 
 them. England has relied with pitiable helplessness 
 
286 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 upon the South for cotton, and France for the main 
 tenance of her stupendous monopoly of tobacco. 
 They have long been chafing under the stoppage of 
 their supplies, and to ensure an early resumption, 
 will at the proper time advance capital without 
 limit to the growers of free cotton. This infusion 
 of new capital will stimulate and invigorate every 
 department of business. More than this, the utter 
 destitution of the South, in consequence of the war, 
 will require the labor of more whites and negroes 
 than she ever possessed, to repair the damages she 
 has suffered. 
 
 One half of Kentucky, all Virginia and Tennes 
 see, a large portion of Louisiana, Mississippi, Ala 
 bama, and Georgia, have been stripped clean of 
 fencing. Others have suffered vast damage in the 
 same way. When the reader is told that the fences 
 in the single State of New York cost $144,000,000, 
 he may form some estimate of what must be the 
 demand for labor in the South, to make good this 
 single item in the long catalogue of ravages com 
 mitted by invading armies. 
 
 Houses, barns, outbuildings, factories, forges, 
 bridges, have been destroyed by thousands. Other 
 thousands have been stripped of doors, shutters, and 
 siding, to feed the camp fire. In very many in 
 stances whole towns have been destroyed. More 
 than half of Charleston lies in ruin. A vast rail 
 road system has been reduced to terrible disorder, 
 and receiving no repairs, will cease to be operated. 
 All these structures were the product of mechanical 
 labor. No one can doubt that the South will in 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 287 
 
 time recover from her desolation, and that these 
 damages will be repaired. But to place her where 
 she stood before the rebellion, will require enormous 
 drafts on Northern industry, not only on that which 
 may remain at home in the workshop, but on that 
 which, to be effective, must migrate to the spot 
 where the ruin exists. In addition to the huge 
 effort of repairing this waste, there will be even 
 more urgent demands for labor. Food must be 
 grown with which to support life, and exportable 
 products from the proceeds of which to purchase 
 clothing, hardware, horses, tools, machinery, and 
 the vast variety of comforts and necessaries which 
 a blockade by sea and land had long excluded. 
 
 Those who may be seeking for a farm, will be 
 able in this region to find a hundred. It is doubt 
 ful if much capital will be required to secure one. 
 The abandoned properties will be numerous, while 
 of the owners who remain in possession, thousands 
 will be found so impoverished and disheartened as 
 to hail with joy the advent of a Northern coadjutor. 
 It is help that they will need, not land. Of the 
 former they will have too little, of the latter they 
 have always had too much. Such, then, as think 
 that they know how to get a farm, and who have no 
 preference for remaining where they were born, will 
 have little difficulty in finding one somewhere in 
 the South. 
 
 On this branch of the subject it will be in point 
 to give the following letter from a prominent officer, 
 dated at Goodrich s Landing, in the northeast dis 
 trict of Louisiana, under date of October, 1863, 
 
288 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 and addressed to the Hon. Henry T. Blow, of St. 
 
 Louis : 
 
 " I write to you as my friend and as a public man, taking 
 interest in whatever concerns the public good. There is 
 an immense gold field down here, and nobody appears to 
 know it. I want it thrown open to the people, so the 
 people can work in it. I refer to the many abandoned 
 plantations from Helena, Arkansas, to Natchez, Louisiana. 
 The owners, most of them, have fled with their negroes to 
 Texas and elsewhere, leaving land that should be occupied. 
 
 "During this year, some of the plantations have been 
 worked by Northern men, by hiring negro labor. But few 
 leases were given, as it was late in the season when the idea 
 of cultivation was thought of. Three commissioners were 
 appointed by General Thomas, who gave the leases. The 
 plan was the best that could be adopted on the spur of the 
 moment. 
 
 " What leases were given expire in February next, and 
 then I want to see a large laboring population from the 
 North come down here and fill up the country. I lived at 
 Fort Kearney during two gold excitements. One was Cal 
 ifornia, the other Pike s Peak. I saw the great numbers 
 of people that moved there to dig for gold. The gold got 
 there was nothing to what can be made by coming to this 
 country. Let the prospect be advertised in the newspapers 
 of the West, that every man coming down here can have 
 80 or 200 acres of cotton land, according to his means for 
 working it to work for one year. Two hundred acres of 
 land means 200 bales of cotton, the net price of which, in 
 New York, will be $40,000. If 80 acres, it will be $16,000. 
 W 7 ith hired labor, cotton can be raised at 5 cents per pound, 
 which gives a profit of 45 cents per pound net. No farmer 
 of the North ever dreamed of such profit ; and if the ad- 
 
WHERE TO FIND OXK. 289 
 
 vantages of coming here were known, they would flock 
 down here by thousands. 
 
 This matter should be brought to the notice of the 
 Government. / want the man of moderate means, our 
 Western laborers, here. They will be a militia to take 
 care of the country, and our troops can go elsewhere. The 
 persons who cultivate the next cotton crop are the ones who 
 will buy the land here. Shall this land be distributed and 
 owned in small tracts ? For the good of the slaves freed 
 by Mr. Lincoln s proclamation I wish it ; for to a great ex 
 tent the ground will be tilled by their labor, and I want a 
 large population of white people here, so their labor will be 
 in demand and respected, and combinations of a few cap 
 italists cannot be made against them. We have uprooted 
 one aristocracy here ; let us not establish by our own act 
 one of another kind. 
 
 " The question of title to the land must not make timid 
 a man who is thinking to come here. The cultivation of 
 one year is enough to induce him to come. A man that 
 takes only 80 acres can go back home at the end of the 
 year with at least $8,000 in his pocket. Would he make 
 one-tenth that by staying at home \ See what you can do 
 towards sending the thousands to our gold fields, and lo 
 cating a large population on the banks of the Mississippi 
 river. Any man who has seen the emigrants going to Cal 
 ifornia and Pike s Peak knows the inducements and recom 
 mendations for coming here. Every officer I have spoken 
 to on the subject favors it. Those who want to plant 
 largely, and be the future aristocrats here, oppose it. Now 
 is the time to change the destiny of this country. I hope 
 you will work favorably and immediately for it." 
 
 It will not be doubted that, in multitudes of pri 
 vate circles, in parlor, counting-house, exchange, 
 13 
 
290 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 and wherever men do mostly congregate, the ques 
 tion has been constantly debated as to what is to be 
 the condition of the rebel States, arid what the atti 
 tude of North and South, when this rebellion shall 
 have been crushed. It is alleged that subjugation 
 will be succeeded by a sullen and scowling submis 
 sion to the laws, a peace in name only that, under 
 this novel dominion of the laws, the South will chafe 
 and fret, and be as intractable and malignant as 
 ever. A real, hearty, lasting peace, a thorough fra 
 ternization, is predicted as impossible. Old associa 
 tions divided by the sword, are presumed to be 
 beyond the hope of reunion. The nation, nominally 
 compacted, will be in reality an enforced association 
 of radically antagonistic elements, liable to be again 
 convulsed by rebellion, and by this liability so 
 weakened as to become dangerously open to foreign 
 aggression. Constantly on guard against domestic 
 treason, it will be impossible to combine against 
 foreign attack. Intercourse between the sections 
 will be greatly diminished business between the 
 two will never revive old friendships will die out 
 no new ones will be established and so general an 
 estrangement must occur as to convert us perma 
 nently into two distinct and hostile communities. 
 
 These are not such views as I either entertain or 
 desire to express. I give them as the utterances of 
 others ; and it may be added that, while they are 
 peculiar to one class "of thinkers, they are in direct 
 conflict with those of another class, whose habits of 
 thought and action entitle their opinions to be re 
 ceived with equal deference. Between the two, let 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 291 
 
 history and experience decide. The annals of 
 almost every nation are luminous with instruction 
 touching the finale of such a crisis as this, because 
 all governments have been subject to similar con 
 vulsions. Rebellion seems to be a chronic infirmity 
 of nations. None have escaped it ; many have re 
 peatedly experienced it ; most of them have sur 
 vived it. It involves the single certainty that some 
 how, and at some time, it must come to an end. 
 As we know how other rebellions have ended, we 
 may infer results as likely to succeed the termina 
 tion of this. I grant that the long smothered but 
 fierce heartburnings which precede and precipitate 
 them, are not, have never been, and cannot be im 
 mediately forgotten. In some instances, they have 
 been wholly obliterated in a single generation. In 
 others, they have survived for ages. Scotland has 
 no scowl for England now, notwithstanding the 
 murderous outbreak a century ago, and the equally 
 bloody war of the roses no longer lives in personal 
 animosities ; yet Ireland continues sullen and un 
 tamable. Even the Reign of Terror survives only 
 in Parisian history. But the desolation of modern 
 Greece remains fresh in the public memory, because 
 the family of Bozzaris still exists. 
 
 Our own history, however, furnishes abundant 
 illustrations of how rebellions end. They are of 
 greater significance, too, because occurring among 
 ourselves. What the past has done for us we may 
 feel assured the future will accomplish. The Revo 
 lutionary war closed with the withdrawal of the 
 British armies from our shores and the breaking up 
 
HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 of the very foundations of the vast Tory society 
 whose opposition had greatly increased the horrors 
 of the contest, as well as prolonged it. These do 
 mestic enemies were resolutely refused either pro 
 tection, indemnity, or even immunity, by the treaty 
 of peace, whose terms^were dictated by our commis 
 sioners. The public exasperation against them was 
 deep and universal. No act of oblivion was passed 
 by any of the States, but banishment and confisca 
 tion was the rule. The leaders became fugitives 
 and beggars. Even the rank and file fared but lit 
 tle better. As many of the former as the British 
 fleets could carry away, sailed with the troops for 
 England. The vast remainder, thus abandoned by 
 England, fled the country from every outlet by 
 which they could escape. The southern Tories 
 sought refuge in Bermuda and the West Indies. 
 Those in the middle and northern States escaped to 
 Canada and Nova Scotia, where they settled in 
 numbers so large as to give to British power in 
 those regions its first successful momentum. The 
 breaking up of families by this terrible exodus occa 
 sioned indescribable suffering. Thousands fled from 
 rich homesteads and ample means, carrying with 
 them little else than the clothes upon their backs, 
 losing all they possessed, and being refused permis 
 sion to return. The less active Tories, the mere 
 sympathizers, who secretly desired the British to 
 succeed, just as the sympathizing traitors of the 
 present day desire the rebellion to triumph, re 
 mained in the country. But they lived despised 
 and hated. Honest men shunned them, and society 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 293 
 
 spewed them out. Many, unable to live under an 
 intolerable odium, abandoned locations where they 
 were known as Tories, and sought new homes among 
 strangers. The breaking up of families from this 
 cause occasioned widespread suffering. The numer 
 ous gangs of marauding Tories, now represented by 
 the rebel guerrillas, were forced to quit the neigh 
 borhoods they had desolated, the people whom they 
 had outraged executing the task -with sanguinary 
 thoroughness. 
 
 The rebellions which succeeded the Revolution 
 were mere military episodes, though at times pre 
 senting an alarming front to the then feeble authori 
 ties. Shay s rebellion ended with the dispersion of 
 his followers, the flight, capture, and pardon of its 
 leaders, with an amnesty to the rank and file on re 
 turning to their allegiance. The more formidable 
 Whisky Insurrection in Pennsylvania ended quite 
 as ignominiously to its instigators. As in the case 
 of Shay s, that outbreak was fomented by a single 
 demagogue, who, fluent of speech and reckless of 
 results, traversed the country and roused the people 
 to arms. He in turn became a fugitive, with multi 
 tudes of his followers. Others were ruined pecuni 
 arily, while two were condemned and sentenced to 
 death for treason, though subsequently pardoned, 
 while a proclamation of amnesty secured a general 
 pacification. The leaders banished, the masses were 
 forgiven. In Dorr s rebellion the same general facts 
 and consequences are prominently visible. But 
 neither of these insurrections developed the murder 
 ous hatred which marked the contest between Whig 
 
294: HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 and Tory, or the still more bloodthirsty virus with 
 which the Slaveholders Kebellion has shocked the 
 world. Yet time, the great pacificator, has obliter 
 ated all the bitter feeling which these half- forgotten 
 contests engendered. With the death of the genera 
 tions that shared in them, it passed away ; and the 
 little of it that still survives exists only in the hand 
 ful of veterans who yet lag superfluous on the stage 
 of life. 
 
 Thus the thick-coming future must be conjectured 
 from the clearly defined past. As all rebellions 
 come to an end, so will the present one. The nation 
 will be no more likely to tolerate its bloodstained 
 iastigators within its bosom than our fathers toler 
 ated the masses of the less guilty Tories. Though 
 this government has never executed a man for trea 
 son, yet it will seern to many that the gallows may 
 now come actively into use. Flight or the halter 
 will be the only alternative for leading traitors whose 
 hands are dripping with loyal blood. The former 
 will expatriate thousands. That secured, the na 
 tional horizon will be comparatively clear, and 
 amnesty for the masses will develop the germs of a 
 pacification. 
 
 But it must be evident that time alone can make 
 it complete and permanent. Our habits as a people, 
 we know, will go far to hasten in the new millen- 
 ium. Commerce and trade, the modern humaniz- 
 ers, will rapidly reopen every channel now obstruct 
 ed. Collision of the scales and yardstick will abrade 
 a multitude of asperities, for with too many of us 
 the dollar is the only divinity to be worshipped. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 295 
 
 The nations of Europe which, six years ago, were 
 waging war against each other, have all recovered 
 their commercial equilibrium. Southern destitution 
 of a thousand comforts and necessities will compel 
 a grateful recognition of Northern abundance. A 
 vast railroad system, telegraphs, and steamers, cre 
 ated for the promotion of intercourse between the 
 sections, will be actively engaged in facilitating that 
 intercourse. The arrogance of Southern temper will 
 be modified under the subduing knowledge that its 
 chivalry has been soundly whipped by Northern 
 mudsills. Opinion, both printed and spoken, will 
 be free for Northern colonization will pour in with 
 schools and ploughs, educating a hitherto benighted 
 people, and redeeming an almost ruined agriculture 
 by placing the manufacturer side by side with the 
 producer. This intercourse will rapidly teach the 
 South how grossly her banished demagogues have 
 deceived her as to the design and purpose of the 
 North; and, though humbled by subjugation, she 
 will discover that her prosperity is becoming greater 
 than ever. 
 
 But it is idle to presume that the griefs, the pas 
 sions, the fierce animosities, engendered by this 
 awful contest, will die out while this generation 
 lives. Too many brave men have perished, too 
 many homes have been made desolate, too many 
 families have been, broken up and beggared for that. 
 Men whom it has impoverished will live and die 
 poor, remembering constantly the causes of their 
 poverty. Widows will weep over husbands, children 
 over fathers, slain in battle. No catalogue of griefs 
 
296 HOW TO GET A FARM 
 
 and horrors could be longer or blacker. These 
 things must be identical with those which closed up 
 the Revolution, only ten times magnified. In those 
 Southern States where loyal men have been out 
 raged by their neighbors, the latter will doubtless 
 be exterminated or driven off by those whom they 
 have persecuted. Blood for blood will be the rule 
 with them. Here, in the North, every local traitor 
 will be marked. Good men will shun him, honest 
 men refuse to trust him, society will keep him at 
 arm s length. His generation will never cease to 
 remember that he was a traitor. The status of 
 these is defined already. Thus history reproduces 
 itself, and we are living witnesses of the instructive 
 truth. 
 
 But underlying and overshadowing these general 
 facts, there remains the great question of American 
 slavery. In all former contests, both foreign and 
 domestic, slavery was passive or incidental. In this, 
 it is confessedly supreme, the sole animating cause 
 of rebellion, giving it impulse at the beginning and 
 vitality during its progress. Had it been struck 
 down at the outset, the rebellion would have been 
 brief and far less sanguinary. There has been no 
 pacification during sixty years of its aggressive ex 
 istence there can- be none so long as it may be con 
 tinued. It has the nation by the throat, and the 
 nation must have the courage to shake it off and 
 destroy it. I have shown how other rebellions have 
 ended, but it is only by universal emancipation that 
 this one ought to be crushed. 
 
 Yet even while the war was being waged, the 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 297 
 
 South was stretching forth her hands for Northern 
 wares and merchandise. While willing to fight, 
 she was even more anxious to trade. From the first 
 gun at Sumter, every lying trick that treason could 
 devise has been practised to smuggle into the South 
 the products of Northern workshops. A perjury 
 was regarded as commendable that secured the ad 
 mission of a handful of percussion caps. No false 
 swearing was too black to obtain an ounce of quin 
 ine. The dearth of Northern products compelled 
 Southern women to remain at home or go abroad in 
 meaner stuffs than are worn by paupers in a North 
 ern almshouse. Every intercepted letter of a 
 Southern woman called for clothing as a necessity, 
 pins and needles as blessings, and bonnets as the 
 greatest of mercies ! 
 
 With necessities thus embracing every depart 
 ment of human society, it will be impossible for the 
 South to stand aloof from the North. Agriculture, 
 trade, and commerce, will be greater necessities with 
 her than ever. Her people are now impoverished, 
 and they must begin life anew. As this grasping 
 after Northern products prevailed during the con 
 test wherever there was hope of its being gratified, 
 so will it become stronger and more general with 
 peace. Trade of all descriptions will immediately 
 revive. War has fulfilled its mission her people 
 have had enough of it, and the old antagonism on 
 the slavery question will no longer disturb what will 
 soon become a general harmony of interests. Com 
 merce will compel a thorough and lasting fraterniz 
 ation. The South will be far safer for Northern 
 13* 
 
298 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 emigrants than it has been, during three years, for 
 natives of her soil. 
 
 The quantity of land to change owners and be 
 settled up is almost incredible. In Virginia alone, 
 according to Judge Underwood, there are more than 
 two hundred million dollars worth of property, 
 chiefly real estate, which ought to be confiscated. 
 Thousands of acres have already been sold to 
 Northern purchasers. "These States," says Mr. 
 Julian, " constitute one of the fairest portions of the 
 globe. They are larger in area than all the free 
 States of the North. They have a sea and gulf 
 coast of more than six thousand miles in extent, and 
 are drained by more than fifty navigable rivers, 
 which are never closed to navigation by the rigor of 
 the climate. They have at least as rich a soil as the 
 States of the North, yielding great wealth-producing 
 staples peculiar to them, and two or three crops in 
 the year. They have a finer climate, and their agri 
 cultural, manufacturing, and commercial advan 
 tages, are decidedly superior. Their geographical 
 position is better, as respects the great commercial 
 centres of the world. The institution of slavery, 
 which has so long cursed these regions by excluding 
 emigration, degrading labor, and impoverishing the 
 soil, will very soon be expelled. The cry which al 
 ready comes up from these lands is for free laborers. 
 If we offer them free homesteads, and protect their 
 rights, they will come. John Bright, in a recent 
 speech at Birmingham, estimates that within the 
 past year 150,000 people have sailed from England 
 to New York. Let it be settled that slavery is dead, 
 
AND WHEKE TO FIND ONE. 299 
 
 and that the estates of traitors in the South can be 
 had under the provisions of the Homestead law, 
 and foreign immigration will be quadrupled, if not 
 augmented ten fold. Millions in the Old World, 
 hungering and thirsting after the righteousness of 
 free institutions, will flock to the sunny South, and 
 mingle there with the swarms of our own people in 
 the pursuit of new homes under kindlier skies. Im 
 migration has not slackened, even during this war, 
 and in determining the direction it will take, it must 
 be remembered that settlements have very nearly 
 reached their limits in the ^orth and West. Kansas 
 and Nebraska are border States, and must so con 
 tinue. Their storms, and droughts, and desert 
 plains, give a pretty distinct hint that the emigrant 
 must seek his Eldorado in latitudes further South. 
 In the new northwestern States the richest lands 
 have been purchased, and vast portions of them 
 locked up by speculators. Their distance from the 
 great- markets for their produce, and their severe 
 winters, will also check emigration in that direction, 
 and incline it further South, if lauds can be pro 
 cured there with tolerable facility. The rebel States 
 not only abound in cheap and fertile land, with 
 cheap labor in the persons of the freedmen to assist 
 in its cultivation, but they possess great mineral re 
 sources. They have also extensive lines of railroads, 
 which, in connection with their great rivers, bring 
 almost every portion of their territory into com 
 munication with the sea." 
 
 With slavery extinct, and peace restored, then, in 
 the eloquent language of Solicitor Whiting, u the 
 
300 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 hills and valleys of the South, purified and purged 
 of all the guilt of the past, clothed with a new and 
 richer verdure, will lift up their voices in thanks- 
 giving to the Author of all good, who has granted 
 to them, amidst the agonies of civil war, a new 
 birth and a glorious transfiguration. Then, the 
 people of the North and the people of the South, 
 will again become one people^ united in interests, in 
 pursuits, in intelligence, in religion, and in patriotic 
 devotion to our common country." 
 
 ]STo one who has not visited Virginia since her 
 desolation came upon her, can imagine how complete 
 and terrible it has been. When the army first pen 
 etrated the country beyond Alexandria, it was as 
 serted that the corps of axe-men was so large that it 
 levelled an acre of timber every ten minutes. But 
 much of this East Virginia land had been rendered 
 barren by a ruinous system of cultivation before in 
 vasion came. Farms were abandoned as worthless, 
 and were sold at one to five dollars per acre. Yet 
 there is no region in the Union containing finer 
 land than this. It is near to Alexandria, Washing 
 ton, and Georgetown, cash markets in which all that 
 a farmer can produce will sell at high prices. Its 
 soil is capable of the highest improvement at a 
 moderate cost, as was proved by numerous Northern 
 farmers who settled there previous to the rebellion. 
 They made it yield 40 bushels of wheat and 100 of 
 corn to the acre, and raised the market value of 
 their farms from $5 to $60. All these now deso 
 lated and abandoned lands must change owners. 
 They can be purchased at extremely low figures. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE, 301 
 
 Their location and advantages are so superior, that 
 of all the rebellious soil of the Southern States, 
 these will probably be first purchased and redeemed 
 by ^Northern farmers. Such of them as settled 
 there before the rebellion were rapidly becoming 
 rich. The chances for those who may settle there 
 hereafter will be infinitely better. 
 
302 HOW TO GET A 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 Many kinds of Farmers Women managing Farms Very Small 
 Ones Eleven Acres A Two-acre Farm The Spade and the 
 Fork A Single Acre Heads better than Hands Help Your 
 self. 
 
 THERE are all classes of farmers, the sick and the 
 well, the sound and the cripple, women as well as 
 men. Some are cultivating their thousands of acres, 
 using the steam-engine as a ploughman ; others are 
 contented on a single acre, depending on the spade 
 and hoe. Yet all seem to live. That they continue 
 to do so is presumptive evidence of intrinsic good 
 ness in the occupation, or that, if a poor one, they 
 manage it so prudently as to make it a paying one. 
 Some of them have been suddenly placed in charge 
 of a farm, with no previous knowledge of the busi 
 ness, yet have done well. Thus some men may be 
 said to be born farmers, as others have been born 
 generals. 
 
 It is related by an agricultural journal, that an 
 eminent London tradesman had married the daugh 
 ter of a farmer who held three hundred acres near 
 London, and who had acquired considerable proper 
 ty. The farmer having died, the widow carried on 
 the farm, but after two or three years experience 
 discovered that she was losing money. The son-in- 
 law was consulted as to what it was best to do. On 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 303 
 
 looking over the farmer s old accounts, he found 
 that the farm had paid well before his death, and 
 knowing no reason why it should not still do so, 
 under proper management, agreed to take the farm 
 himself. He had been eminent as a gunsmith, and 
 now commenced as an agriculturist. Knowing 
 
 O C5 
 
 literally nothing of farming, he began by reading 
 all the books and papers on the subject which fell in 
 his way. He had not read far before he found that 
 a knowledge of chemistry lay at the foundation of 
 good husbandry. He therefore put himself under 
 the tuition of an intelligent working chemist until 
 he made himself a good practical chemist for agri 
 cultural purposes. He then applied this knowledge 
 by adapting his manures to the quality of the soil 
 and the nature of the crop he intended to raise 
 from it. 
 
 The result was that the neighbors, who began by 
 ridiculing the " cockney farmer," and who prophe 
 sied his ruin in three years, were glad, at the end 
 of that period, to go to him for advice about their 
 crops. His own crops of grain, hay, and roots, were 
 the admiration of the whole country, and his wheat 
 would often command more than the market price 
 for seed. At the end of the fourth year, in making 
 up his account, he found a balance of twelve hun 
 dred pounds in favor of the farm. Such was the 
 result of science diligently acquired and judiciously 
 applied ; and by such tfceans, without any previous 
 knowledge of the subject, did one who had been 
 eminent as a tradesman become equally eminent as 
 an agriculturist. 
 
 1 \ 
 
 
304: HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 A lady is now residing in New Jersey whose case 
 is quite as remarkable. She was living with her aged 
 father, on a farm encumbered with mortgages to its 
 full value. He offered to convey it to any one of 
 his children who would agree to keep him for the 
 remainder of his life. All declined the offer except 
 the daughter. Her husband was in feeble health, 
 could be of no assistance, and died soon after. But 
 she engaged resolutely in the work she had under 
 taken, grasped with surprising readiness the whole 
 details of what, in the eyes of her neighbors, was a 
 hopeless case, and went on prosperously. There 
 happened to be a large quantity of currant and 
 gooseberry bushes on the place. She caused the 
 fruit to be gathered, and converted it into excellent 
 wine, for which she found ready sale in New York. 
 Taking the hint from this, she enlarged her opera 
 tions another season by buying all the common wild 
 blackberries and currants that were brought to her. 
 The farm was in an isolated location, with no ready 
 sale for perishable fruits ; but a market being thus 
 established by her, supply followed demand. All 
 the children for miles around took to picking black 
 berries, and the quantities offered to her were im 
 mense. With characteristic energy she enlarged 
 her facilities for handling them, and bought all that 
 came, converting some into wine, some into syrup, 
 and some into simple preserves. 
 
 Meantime, her ordinary farming operations went 
 on with unabated energy. Without doing any of 
 the work herself, she saw that it was done thor 
 oughly and well. In her wine manufacture she 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 305 
 
 was singularly successful. Her products obtained 
 a high reputation, and all that she could make was 
 readily disposed of. The business was profitable, as 
 was shown by her making repeated payments 
 toward freeing her farm from debt. When the 
 great army demand for blackberry syrup sprung up 
 in 1861, she supplied vast quantities at high prices. 
 This demand increased yearly as the war continued, 
 but she enlarged her supply, obtaining higher pri 
 ces each year, until, in 1864, after seven years of 
 energetic devotion to her farm, she paid off the last 
 dollar of the debt by which it had been encum 
 bered. This woman now owns an unhampered 
 homestead, and is carrying on a highly profitable 
 business, made up of items which the majority of 
 cultivators consider of no commercial value. Hav 
 ing the sagacity to discover their availability, and 
 the skill and energy to develope it, she has had an 
 abundant reward. 
 
 There are numerous cases of American women 
 who have been, and who still are equally successful 
 in the management of farms. In England, the de 
 votion of women to agricultural pursuits is even 
 more general and thorough than with us. Mr. 
 Holcomb, in his address before the Maryland State 
 Agricultural Society, relates the following incident 
 as showing the thorough knowledge possessed by 
 some English women on these subjects. 
 
 " I cannot but relate a casual interview I chanced to 
 have with an English lady in going up in the train from 
 London to York. Her husband had bought a book at the 
 
306 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 stand as we were about starting, and remarked to her that 
 it was one of her favorite American authors Hawthorne. 
 I casually observed that I was pleased to see that young 
 American authors found admirers with English ladies, when 
 the conversation turned on books and authors. But I said 
 to myself pretty soon, this is a literary lady probably 
 her husband is an editor or reviewer, and she uses the 
 scissors for him ; at all events, I must retreat from this 
 discussion about authors, modern poets, and poetry. What 
 should a farmer know critically of such things ? If I were 
 only in those fields, if the conversation could be made to 
 turn upon crops, or cattle, then I should feel quite at home. 
 
 " I finally pointed out a field of wheat, and remarked 
 that it was very fine. The lady, carefully observing it, 
 said, Sir, I think it is too thin a common fault this sea 
 son as the seeding was late. Those drills, she added, 
 turning to her husband for his confirmation, * cannot be 
 more than ten inches apart, and you see the ground is not 
 completely covered twelve, and even fifteen inches, is now 
 preferred for the width of drills, and two bushels of seed 
 to the acre will then entirely cover the ground, on good 
 land, so you can hardly distinguish the drills. 
 
 " If the goddess Ceres had appeared with her sheaf or 
 cornucopia, I could not have been more taken by surprise. 
 A lady descanting on the width of wheat drills, and the 
 quantity of seed ! I will try her again this may be a 
 chance shot, and remarked in reference to a field of ploughed 
 ground we were passing, that it broke up in great lumps, 
 and could hardly be put in good tilth. We have much 
 clay land like this, she replied, and formerly it was diffi 
 cult to cultivate it in a tillage crop, but since the introduc 
 tion of Crosskill s clod crusher, it will make the most 
 beautiful tilth in these lands, which are now regarded as 
 our best lands for wheat. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 307 
 
 u Conversation turned on cattle she spoke of the best 
 breeds of cows for the pail, the Ayrshires and the Devons 
 told me where the best cheese was made Cheshire; the 
 best butter Ireland ; where the milk-maids were to be 
 found Wales. * Oh, said I, I was mistaken. This 
 charming, intelligent woman, acting so natural and unaf 
 fected ; dressed so neatly and so very plainly, must be a 
 farmer s wife, and what a help-mate he has in her ! She is 
 not an extravagant wife, either not an ornament about 
 her yes, a single bracelet clasps a fair, rounded arm 
 that s all. 
 
 " The train stopped at York. Xo sooner had my trav 
 elling companions stepped upon the platform than they 
 were surrounded by half a dozen servants, men and maids, 
 the men in full livery. It turned out to be Sir John and 
 Lady H. This gentleman was one of the largest landed 
 proprietors in Berkshire, aud his lady the daughter of a 
 nobleman, a peeress in her own right ; but her title added 
 nothing to her, she was a nobleman without it." 
 
 It is not the size of a farm that in all cases deter 
 mines the question of success. Whether large or 
 small ones are the more desirable, is referred to 
 elsewhere. Great things have been accomplished 
 on the former, but results comparatively marvel 
 lous have been achieved upon the latter, sometimes 
 with very inadequate means. ~No farm is to be de 
 spised because it happens to be a very small one. 
 An acre of land possesses capabilities which few can 
 be made to understand until they see them fully de 
 veloped. It is not exclusively from the land that 
 profit comes, but from the judicious application of 
 labor upon it. 
 
308 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 An admirable specimen of farming on a small 
 scale is presented in the management of Mr. Nathan 
 G. Morgan, of Union Springs, New York. That 
 gentleman formerly possessed 300 acres, which he 
 subsequently reduced to 160, and afterward, in con 
 sequence of protracted illness in his family, he re 
 moved to another place containing only 11 acres. 
 He has remarked that even this is too large. Yet 
 from this little spot he has sold $300 worth of farm 
 products in a single year, besides retaining enough 
 for the use of his family. He performs all the labor 
 with his own hands. He is especially successful in 
 raising pork, and finds this the most profitable 
 branch of farming, much more so than raising 
 wheat. He long since gave up raising cattle, as 
 being far less productive. He has raised 130 bush 
 els of shelled corn per acre, but the average is 
 about 80. By his skill in the art of pork-making, 
 he realizes a dollar per bushel for corn when the 
 pork is five cents per pound in market. He makes 
 an acre of ground maintain a horse during the 
 whole year, by soiling, feeding corn, &c. He 
 thinks, nevertheless, that a large farm may be made 
 as profitable as a small one, if equally well man 
 aged; but he considers the temptation, in nearly 
 all cases, is to do the work too superficially. 
 
 Coming down to what has actually been done on 
 a two-acre farm, we obtain some approximate idea 
 of the real capabilities of well managed land. A 
 writer in the New England Farmer says, that nine 
 years previous he came into possession of a two-acre 
 farm, from the whole of which it was barely possi- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 309 
 
 ble to get one ton of hay, so badly had the land 
 been run down. Yet he increased the product of 
 hay to two and one-half tons, and the whole money 
 value of the two acres to 133 per annum. Let 
 only six or ten acres be farmed with equal skill, and 
 any one can cypher up how far the yield will count 
 in the keeping of a family. 
 
 The further one looks into this branch of the sub 
 ject, the more apparent does it become that success 
 depends not on the quantity of land, but on the 
 management. Some years since a little treatise was 
 published in London, by Mr. John Sillett, setting 
 forth the results obtained by cultivation of two 
 acres with the spade and fork. The author being 
 broken down in health by long confinement to busi 
 ness in London, purchased two acres of land, for 
 which he paid $1.180. He undertook farming in 
 total ignorance of the art ; yet, he supported him 
 self, wife, and child, entirely from the products of 
 his little tract. After twelve years experience he 
 speaks with confidence of the possibility of a man s 
 getting a living from two acres. He states the 
 requisites to be a fair start with a good piece of 
 land, sufficient means to commence with, skill, per 
 severance, a willingness to labor, and a reasonable 
 degree of economy. 
 
 This success on two acres was secured by reject 
 ing the plough and depending on the spade and fork, 
 the latter being subsequently used as the preferable 
 tool. His land had been many years in pasture, 
 but he produced wheat, potatoes, cabbages, turnips, 
 and mangolds. Of course he owned a cow, which 
 
310 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 fattened a calf annually to better profit than could 
 have been secured by selling milk or making butter. 
 The litters from a single sow he fattened and sold. 
 The manure he needed was manufactured on the 
 farm, and its efficiency greatly increased by keeping 
 it under cover. While these curious results were 
 being annually realized, Mr. Sillett contrived to 
 build a dwelling-house, cow-house, and piggery, and 
 was contemplating underdraining. 
 
 But other benefits accrued from his undertaking. 
 He says 
 
 " Besides the greatest of all benefits that I have derived, 
 in restoring a sickly constitution to perfect health, I felt 
 delighted at the thought of being independent of the har 
 assing cares of business. Of all the feelings which we 
 possess, none is dearer than consciousness of independence ; 
 and this no man who earns his living by the favor of the 
 public, can be said to enjoy in an equal degree with the 
 husbandman. In trade there is a great jealousy and com 
 petition existing, and a submission to the public which is 
 galling to the spirit. But since I have given my attention 
 to the cultivation of the soil, I find I have no competition 
 to fear, have nothing to apprehend from the success of my 
 neighbor, and owe no thanks for the purchase of my com 
 modities. Possessing on my land all the necessaries of 
 life, I am under no anxiety regarding my daily subsistence." 
 
 Spade husbandry means, and in reality is, thor 
 ough cultivation of the soil. Our gardens are all 
 perpetual illustrations of its superior value. There 
 is a man at Javington, in England, Dumbrel by 
 name, with a wife and several children, very poor, 
 
AND WHEKE TO FIND OXE. 311 
 
 and so afflicted by disease as to disable him from 
 working a whole day through. An acre of land 
 was let to him on condition of his stall-feeding a 
 cow, building a shed for her, and making a tank for 
 her liquid manure. At first his neighbors ridiculed 
 him for keeping his cow under shelter all the year 
 round, saying it would be unhealthy. But his an 
 swer was that some one had lent him 5 toward 
 buying a cow on these conditions, and he would try 
 them. Eminent agriculturists, hearing of this poor 
 man s case, went to see how he was succeeding with 
 his cow. They found her perfectly healthy, after 
 being stall-fed three years and a half, and that from 
 the butter he had sold he had soon paid off the loan 
 of 5, and had got a second cow on half an acre of 
 pasture, but he told them he had had to apply twice 
 to the farrier for the pastured cow, but never for 
 that which was stall-fed, while she gave a third 
 more butter than the other. This land was worked 
 with the spade, and thus was made to yield a suc 
 cession of green and succulent crops for summer 
 use, with abundant store for winter consumption, 
 besides supporting a large family. Dunibrel s con 
 dition was improving annually. Yet in his case 
 there was a combination of two exceedingly discour 
 aging elements ill-health, and spade-husbandry, 
 the most laborious description of agricultural toil. 
 Its superior value was manifest in making a sick 
 man entirely comfortable. 
 
 More remarkable than any of these cases is that 
 of a farmer who rose from nothing into absolute in 
 dependence, though born without either hands or 
 
312 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 arms. This man was William Kingston, the son of 
 a laboring woman, and was ushered into this world 
 poor and helpless, for he had neither hands, arms, 
 nor shoulders. But nature had blessed him with 
 longer toes, and greater flexibility of feet and legs, 
 which by constant use made up for the deficiency 
 of hands and arms. He shaved himself regularly, 
 wrote plainly and distinctly, and in dressing and 
 undressing required assistance in buttoning and un 
 buttoning only certain portions of his dress. He 
 was at no loss at meals ; tea, coffee, and food were 
 conveyed by his feet with equal facility as by hand. 
 In the hay field he was as active as any other in 
 securing the crop, and performed every duty in the 
 haymaking process, except mowing and pitching. 
 Few were better milkers he worked at all the re 
 quirements of a dairy-farm, with the aforesaid ex 
 ceptions. He could cut the hay at the stack, and 
 take it to the cows and fodder them as well as 
 others did. 
 
 But this deficient body was furnished with a ca 
 pacious head in which a mighty brain was stored. 
 When a mere boy, some compassionate neighbor 
 gave him a hen and chicken, then another gave 
 him a lamb. These fractions of a capital he nursed 
 and multiplied until he was able to procure a colt. 
 In the end he became possessed of a dairy-farm, 
 and died independent. It would seem clear that 
 his success depended exclusively on his head, seeing 
 that he was destitute of arms. 
 
 Few facts could show more conclusively than 
 this, that he who is striving for success in life must 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 313 
 
 be his own right hand-man. A writer who is un 
 known to me, lavs it down as a rule that " people 
 who have been bolstered up and levered all their 
 lives, are seldom good for any thing in a crisis. 
 "When misfortune comes, they look around for some 
 body to cling to or lean upon. If the prop is not 
 there, down they go. Once there, they are as help 
 less as capsized turtles, or unhorsed men in armor, 
 and they cannot find their feet again without assist 
 ance. Such silken fellows no more resemble self- 
 made men, who have fought their way to position, 
 making difficulties their stepping stones, and deriv 
 ing determination from defeat, than vines resemble 
 oaks, or sputtering rushlights the stars of heaven. 
 Efforts persisted to achievements train a man to 
 self-reliance ; and when he has proven to the world 
 that he can trust himself, the world will trust him. 
 It must therefore be unwise to deprive young men 
 of the advantages which result from energetic ac 
 tion, by buoying them over obstacles which they 
 ought to surmount alone. No one ever swam well 
 who placed his confidence in a cork jacket ; and if, 
 when breasting the sea of life, we cannot buoy 
 ourselves up, and try to force ourselves ahead by 
 dint of our own energies, we must 2:0 to the bot 
 tom." 
 
 " We must all learn," he adds, " to conquer cir 
 cumstances, thus becoming independent of fortune. 
 The men of athletic minds, who left their marks on 
 the age in which they lived, were all trained in a 
 rough school. They did not mount into their high 
 positions by the help of leverage. They leaped 
 
 14 
 
314 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 into chasms, grappled with the opposing rocks, 
 avoided avalanches, and when the goal was reached, 
 felt that but for the toil that strengthened them as 
 they strove, it could never have been attained." 
 
 The question whether it is better to have a small, 
 well-cultivated farm, or a large one poorly culti 
 vated, or not cultivated at all, and whether men 
 with small holdings are not usually most successful, 
 has often been discussed. It would be out of place 
 to reopen the debate here. But as the subject of 
 small farms is now before us, I quote from the 
 Country Gentleman the following remarks of Mr. O. 
 S. Leavitt, of Detroit, as bearing on the question 
 
 " The general broad proposition, without qualification, 
 that small farms are preferable to large ones, is a fallacy. 
 A great deal of nonsense has been written and spoken in 
 favor of it, and, in my judgment, no one error of opinion 
 is more wide-spread or more injurious. The real argu 
 ments, pro and con, lie within a very narrow compass. All 
 will admit that it requires a great deal of science, knowl 
 edge, industry, tact, and agricultural skill, to conduct even 
 a farm of 20 acres in the best manner, or in an excellent 
 manner. Very few farmers can do it. The cases are rare, in 
 deed, where a small farm or a large one either, is well managed. 
 I am not writing to flatter the farmers ; I would rather tell 
 the truth. Are all the small farms well managed ? Far from 
 it. Probably more large farms, in proportion, are well 
 managed than small ones. If a farmer is to do all his work 
 "himself, he of course should have a small farm ; but it is ab 
 surd to say that a man who thoroughly understands farming, 
 say one farmer out of a hundred, should do this. A good 
 farmer would greatly benefit the public, as well as himself, 
 
AND WHERE TO FIXD ONE. 315 
 
 by hiring as many unskilled farmers as he can superintend, 
 and let his light shine. In fact, so few farmers understand 
 their business, it would be better for them generally to hire 
 out to some good farmer until they can " learn how better 
 to conduct farming on their own account. 
 
 " Now, it requires more skill to conduct a small farm 
 profitably, than a large one. A greater variety of products 
 is required, all of which must be understood ; more care is 
 required, greater judgment is necessary, and even the very 
 drudgery must be mostly done by the owner himself. A 
 farmer of less agricultural skill, confining himself to such 
 branches as he best understands, with only ordinary judg 
 ment, hiring judiciously, <tc., will generally do better on a 
 large farm than a small one. But there are so many con 
 tingencies and conditions that may affect the result, it 
 is very difficult to lay down a proposition on the subject 
 sufficiently clear and guarded to be of general applica 
 tion. 
 
 " Then this is a day of agricultural machinery ; this, in 
 deed, constitutes a new epoch in the annals of agriculture. 
 The mowing and harvesting machines are of yesterday. 
 Can the twenty-acre farmer avail himself of these ? Can 
 he even supply himself with all the cheaper and smaller 
 improVements ditching machines, planters, drills, rollers, 
 horse hoes, clod crushers, potato diggers, horse powers, 
 threshers, &c.1 Nor can he generally avail himself as 
 well as the larger farmer, of those natural resources, often 
 so useful and so neglected, of running streams for irriga 
 tion, supplying water for stock, (fee., to say nothing of his 
 greatly increased expense for fences. 
 
 "The constant reader of the Country Gentleman is aware 
 that successful agriculture requires a wider range of knowl 
 edge, more extensive and varied attainments, than almost 
 any other pursuit. Indeed, but few men can succeed well 
 
316 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 in all its departments. The good dairyman or grazier may 
 be but an indifferent fruit grower ; a successful cultivator of 
 the cereals is seldom equally successful at sheep husbandry 
 or horticulture. The man who has been blessed with such 
 varied endowments, and is a genius of so high an order as 
 to succeed well in all these things, should indeed have a 
 large farm, giving employment to as many young men as 
 possible a model farm a normal-school farm. Such a 
 man should dispense wisdom and knowledge daily, both by 
 word and action, theory and practice, to great numbers of 
 his dependents, assistants, employes overlooking, superin 
 tending, directing everything a Columella in wisdom, a 
 Liebig in science, a Mechi in vigor and enterprise. We 
 see him, by the aid of his manager, gardener, nurseryman, 
 and fruit grower, architect and builder, machinist and 
 blacksmith, civil engineer, chaplain, professor of chemistry, 
 schoolmaster, farrier, surgeon, landscape gardener, &c., 
 practically educating his numerous laborers, so that they 
 may in due time be able to carry much of this weight of 
 wisdom into practical effect, and butter their bread upon 
 the countless millions of uncultivated lands now at the 
 West. 
 
 " But this may be called a mere fancy sketch an ex 
 travaganza. I shall be told that, in this country, no man 
 can succeed by thus attempting to carry on farming by 
 employing so many skilled, educated persons, as it would 
 be desirable he should do, at the high salaries they would 
 require, and that it would be necessary to have the wealth 
 of a Nabob. Well, if the farmer, having the requisite 
 amount of land, hasn t the means to hire them, let him 
 take them into partnership. If he has but the land, and is 
 the true country gentleman of education, experience, busi 
 ness talent and tact, he can easily draw around him the 
 landless, skilled, educated, and industrious persons, to take 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 317 
 
 charge of the various industrial departments of his estate 
 for a reasonable share of interest, and divide the profits 
 among the members. They could then, among them 
 selves, have a school good enough to render it entirely un 
 necessary to send their children abroad to be educated." 
 
318 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 CHAPTER XIY. 
 
 Why Land so often changes Owners Tenures and Estates in 
 England Absorption there and here Results of English 
 Husbandry The real Value of Land Stick to the Farm 
 Scarecrows Why Farming is Unprofitable Go where most 
 wanted. 
 
 IT has been assumed, throughout these pages, that 
 the masses in this country are desirous of becoming 
 owners of land. But among the curiosities of the 
 subject is an extraordinary propensity among a por 
 tion of them to get rid of it. This must have its 
 origin in the absorbing passion of Americans to 
 become traders and speculators rather than farmers. 
 Some writer, whose name is unknown to me, pro 
 nounces the American a type of a restless, adventur 
 ous, onward-going race of people. " He sends his 
 merchandise all over the earth; stocks every market; 
 makes wants that he may supply them ; covers New 
 Zealand with Southern cotton woven in Northern 
 looms ; sends clerks of stores to the Sandwich 
 Islands ; swaps with the Fejee cannibals; sends his 
 whale-ships among the polar icebergs, or to cruise 
 in other solitary seas, till the log-book tells the 
 tedious sameness of years, during which boys be 
 come men ; gives to the torrid zone the ice of our 
 Northern winters ; piles up the crystal squares of 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 319 
 
 Fresh Pond on the banks of the Hoogly ; gladdens 
 the sultry savannahs of the lazy South, and makes 
 life tolerable in the bungalow of an Indian jungle. 
 The lakes of iNew England thus awake to life by the 
 rivers of the East, and the antipodes of the earth 
 come in contact at this meeting of the waters. The 
 white canvas- of his ships is seen in every nook of 
 the ocean. Scarcely has the slightest information 
 come of some unknown and obscure corner of the 
 sea, when captains are consulting their charts, and 
 cargoes are taken in for speculation." An idea suc 
 cessfully inaugurated here, he reproduces wherever 
 civilization is established. He covers the West 
 India Islands with a net-work of railroads, astonishes 
 England with street conveniences of the same de- 
 
 O 
 
 scription, raises fleets of sunken frigates in the 
 harbor of Sevastopol, scents out new guano islands, 
 and gluts all Europe with mowers and reapers, 
 Yankee clocks, sewing machines, and baby -jumpers. 
 It is money he is seeking to acquire anything but 
 houses or lands. 
 
 The reverse of all this is witnessed in Europe. 
 " There," says another, "but more especially in Eng 
 land, landed property seldom changes hands. This 
 is partly in consequence of entails. But apart from 
 that, if a man owns a nouse or lot, in a town or 
 village, it will commonly remain in the hands of 
 children and children s children, while* here a man 
 will buy and sell the homestead a dozen times, or 
 at his death it passes into the hands of strangers, 
 almost as a matter of course. Why is this? A 
 multitude of causes operate to produce it, such as 
 
320 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 the equal distribution of property among children, 
 the prejudice in many quarters against making a 
 will, the rise and fall of fortunes, and the constant 
 changes in the value of real estate. But one cause 
 is probably more potential than all. Almost every 
 man who buys real estate, buys, builds, or improves, 
 not so much with a simple view to his own comfort, 
 as with an eye to what it will sell for when he has 
 done making his improvements. Many men build 
 very extensively, calculating upon this and this 
 alone. They are not architects, not builders, not 
 even capitalists ; but they build largely on credit, 
 simply to wait as tenants for a rise in price, and 
 then sell. Of course, the larger and more expensive 
 the house, the larger the hope and expectation of 
 gain. 
 
 "All such," he adds, " are mere speculators. Their 
 plans succeed often enough to encourage others who 
 fancy they have skill and taste to imitate. Many 
 of these aspirants for fortune lose thousands, but 
 their disasters are soon forgotten. Such men, says 
 some one, build houses far in advance of their real 
 means and situation in life, and cities improve and 
 towns spring up, beautiful to look upon, but too 
 often they are not the abode of content and hap 
 piness. They might be, if each man built an 
 humble home, just such as he could afford to hold 
 through all the vicissitudes of business such a home 
 
 O 
 
 as his widow could afford to own, free from debt, 
 and live in, without pecuniary care, after he was 
 gone such a home as any one of his children might 
 reasonably hope to be able to keep up, without in- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 321 
 
 convenience or ostentation. "We all see how families 
 scatter ; but this is one chief cause of the scattering 
 that men buy houses, or build them about as a 
 soldier builds his tent, for a night. Houses, farms, 
 and furniture, are bought on credit, kept on mort 
 gage, and sold at a loss or gain, as the case may be, 
 at five minutes notice, because it was a part of the 
 purchaser s original plan to hold the property only 
 for an advantageous opportunity of disposing of it." 
 The same writer thinks that, in " nine cases out 
 of ten, it is cheaper to buy than to build, because 
 dealing in houses and lands requires a skill and a 
 capital which the majority of men do not possess. 
 It is, moreover, far more comfortable, because it is 
 free from the cares and annoyances of being en 
 gaged in matters very complicated, aside from a 
 man s regular business, and because he can gener 
 ally select such a residence as suits his wants, and 
 means, and convenience. In Europe, the happiest 
 homes are those which, having been built for the 
 present convenience of the father, have been merely 
 altered so as to make them correspond with the 
 present condition of the son or grandson, or more 
 remote descendant, as the case may be greatly 
 changed by time, and mellowed and softened by its 
 graver tints, or decayed and nibbled into by its old 
 tooth, or enlarged piece by piece, and generation 
 by generation, irregularly it may be, but with a 
 strict eye to comfort and convenience, and corres 
 ponding with the growing wealth of an accumulat 
 ing and prudent family. In this country, we live 
 too fast in the first generation to have many such 
 
 14* 
 
322 
 
 houses as these homesteads built comfortably 
 within a man s income, in which he can and does 
 live more liberally than he cares to appear to live 
 houses in which, if times should change, he or his 
 children could live consistently and without mean 
 ness, on half his present expenditure. 
 
 " Another great reason why houses change hands 
 BO often, and are so little homes for those who pos 
 sess them, is the practice of living too hopefully into 
 the future, and without regard to future exigencies, 
 living with too much sail in proportion to ballast. 
 It is for every man to think what he desires in this 
 matter. Many do not desire homes in the sense 
 that I have described. They prefer to live on the 
 wing, and in a splendor above their real means. 
 With such it is better to rent, and quite absurd to 
 build. It is even worse it is mocking their children 
 to build a house so splendid that none of them will 
 be able to keep it up. Better the humblest cabin, 
 respected and loved as the dear old home of child 
 hood, the shelter of a father s gray hairs, the centre 
 of a hundred happy gatherings round a mother s 
 knees, the refuge uriinvaded by all enemies save the 
 last, and where even he is so serenely met and wel 
 comed as to be robbed of his sting, and to have his 
 enmity destroyed." 
 
 In England, the passion for owning land may be 
 said to be hereditary among all classes. With the 
 titled and rich, who are able to gratify it, it has 
 produced some remarkable results. The great land 
 holders are now comparatively few in number. I 
 have seen them variously computed at from 30,000 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 323 
 
 to 40,000, who hold landed property yielding an 
 annual rent of not less than $500, the number rap 
 idly diminishing as the annual rent increases. The 
 incomes of the wealthiest range from 100,000 to 
 1,500,000 per annum. A hundred years ago the 
 landholders of England were numbered at 230,000, 
 which number has ever since been rapidly dimin 
 ishing by the purchase of the lands belonging to the 
 thriftless and wasteful, by the more prudent and 
 wealthy. 
 
 The Marquis of Bredalbane rides from his house a 
 hundred miles in a straight line to the sea, on his 
 own property. The Duke of Sutherland owns the 
 entire county of that name, stretching across Scot 
 land from sea to sea. The Duke of Devonshire, be 
 sides his other estates, owns 96,000 acres in the 
 county of Derby. The Duke of Richmond has 
 40,000 acres at Goodwood, and 300,000 at Gordon 
 Castle. The Duke of Norfolk s park in Sussex, is 
 fifteen miles in circuit. An agriculturist recently 
 bought the island of Lewis, in the Hebrides, con 
 taining 500,000 acres. These vast domains are con 
 stantly growing larger. The great estates are ab 
 sorbing the smaller freeholds as opportunity offers. 
 The great landholders never sell. 
 
 Wherever slavery has cursed the soil of this coun 
 try by its presence, the same process of absorption 
 has been going on. Mr. Clay, of Alabama, gives 
 the following gloomy picture 
 
 " I can show you, with sorrow, in the older portions of 
 Alabama, and in my native county of Madison, the sad me- 
 
321 HOW TO GET A FATCM, 
 
 rnorials of the artless and exhausting culture of cotton. 
 Our small planters, after taking the cream off their lands, 
 unable to restore them by rest, manures, or otherwise, are 
 going further West and South, in search of other virgin 
 lands, which they may and will despoil and impoverish in 
 like manner. Our wealthier planters, with greater means 
 and no more skill, are buying out their poorer neighbors, 
 extending their plantations, and adding to their slave force. 
 The wealthy few, who are able to live on smaller profits, 
 and to give their blasted fields some rest, are thus pushing 
 off the many who are merely independent. Of the 
 $20,000,000 annually realized from the sales of the cotton 
 crop of Alabama, nearly all not expended in supporting the 
 producers is re-invested in land and negroes. Thus the 
 white population has decreased, and the slave increased al 
 most pari passu in several counties of our State. In 1825, 
 Madison County cast about 3,000 votes; now, she cannot 
 cast exceeding 2,300. In traversing that county one will 
 discover numerous farm houses, once the abode of intelli 
 gent and industrious freemen, now occupied by slaves, or 
 tenantless, deserted, and dilapidated ; he will observe 
 fields once fertile, now unfenced, abandoned, and covered 
 with those evil harbingers, foxtail and broomsedge ; he will 
 see the moss growing on the mouldering walls, of once 
 thrifty villages, and will find one only master grasps the 
 whole domain that once furnished happy homes for a dozen 
 white families. Indeed, a country in its infancy, where fifty 
 years ago scarce a forest tree had been felled by the axe of 
 the pioneer, is already exhibiting the painful signs of senil 
 ity and decay apparent in Virginia and the Carolina*." 
 
 Among English owners " are many men of the 
 highest intellectual powers and attainments, of the 
 highest social position, and of the most refined cul- 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 325 
 
 tnre ; noblemen not only by right of geniture and 
 rank, but noble men in the noblest sense of the 
 word, who are carrying forward on their enormous 
 estates the most magnificent operations in the high 
 est culture of the soil, winning from their well fed 
 and well tilled acres the richest reward of the wisest 
 husbandry. One contemplates with amazement the 
 magnificence of their arrangements for irrigating 
 hundreds of acres, as may be seen on the estates of 
 the Duke of Portland ; the vast extent of their sys 
 tems of drainage and subsoiling, the enormous cap 
 ital invested in carrying on their agricultural pro 
 cesses and improvements, and the vast revenues by 
 which they are enabled to push forward their splen 
 did designs. It is fortunate for mankind that such 
 men devote their talents and their great resources 
 to an enterprise so important, and exert their pow 
 erful influence in the promotion of so great a cause 
 a cause which holds concentrated within itself 
 every inducement to allure the loftiests minds and 
 the fullest means to its support, as upon its success 
 humanity itself depends for the continuance of its 
 very existence." 
 
 It may be safely asserted that " but for the high 
 culture which the soil of England has received un 
 der such influences, and the consequent develop 
 ment of its exuberant riches, her population could 
 not have made the great strides that have carried it 
 from four and a half millions in 1600 to more than 
 twenty-five millions in 1862 ; nor could the nation 
 itself have attained that immense power and wealth 
 which make her now to stand foremost among the 
 
326 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 nations of the world, and the richest of human 
 aristocracies." 
 
 Thus, " under the influence of the culture created 
 by the action of such minds upon labor, we find a 
 yield of 50 to 80 bushels of wheat per acre in Eng 
 land, from 40 to 70 in France, and the productive 
 power of an acre of land in the well cultivated part 
 of Europe to be double what it was seventy-five 
 years ago. In proof of the influence of improved 
 tillage in England in enabling her to sustain her 
 own people with diminished reliance on importa 
 tions from foreign countries, I may here state the 
 important fact, that while in the first ten years of 
 the present century she imported foreign wheats at 
 the rate of eight quarts per annum for each person 
 in the realm, in the next ten years she imported but 
 six, in the next five years but four, and in the last 
 three years of these five, at the low rate of a single 
 pint, the soil of the kingdom supplying all the rest 
 consumed. More land had indeed been brought 
 under tillage, but every acre, old and new, having 
 been better tilled, had made a better yield." 
 
 Many of the foregoing facts and observations are 
 here reproduced from anonymous sources ; but it 
 may be said that everybody who has taken the 
 smallest pains to ascertain the facts, knows and tes 
 tifies that agriculture has advanced just in propor 
 tion as mind, mind as developed in men of intellect, 
 intelligence, education, and reflection, has given at 
 tention to it. The condition of English agriculture, 
 as an obvious and suggestive example, bears ample 
 testimony to the influence of mind upon progress. 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 327 
 
 When Americans acquire a similar fondness for ag 
 riculture, the possession of land will be as eagerly 
 desired by them. I admit that such a passion has 
 sensibly increased within twenty years ; but our 
 country is too vast in size, our population too lim 
 ited in numbers, and the wealth of the community 
 too small, for the present century to realize any ap 
 proximation to the intensity with which it animates 
 the popular heart in Europe. 
 The Philadelphia Ledger says : 
 
 " It has been remarked, by political economists, that the 
 sum per acre at which landed property is found to sell in 
 nearly all countries, and for long periods, proves that men 
 are glad to purchase it at a price at which they know be 
 forehand it will yield them less than the ordinary rate of 
 interest. In this country, men who could, on bond and 
 mortgage, easily get. six or seven per cent, will be glad 
 rather to purchase the same lot of land, even though they 
 can hardly thus make five ; and in England, where ordinary 
 interest is five per cent., they will purchase land where it 
 will not yield more than three. 
 
 " Various have been the methods taken to account for this 
 well-established fact. Some have attributed it to the tend 
 ency of landed property slowly and steadily to rise in value 
 as population becomes more dense, or roads and schools 
 become better, and the arts and habits of civilization more 
 complete. This may in part account for it, especially as 
 money has a tendency to depreciate in value very noticeably 
 in a long period. But after making every calculable al 
 lowance for that, the whole of this tendency in man to 
 become possessed of land at a less remunerative price is 
 not fully accounted for. The superior supposed security of- 
 
328 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 landed property has something to do with it. A man who 
 has a mortgage may find some fraudulent evasion of it, 
 some sale for taxes which has destroyed his title. Or by 
 the death of the proprietor lawsuits may be brought that 
 will nearly swallow up the value of the mortgage in secur 
 ing the claim, so that it has become an invariable rule 
 among capitalists not to invest even on mortgage where the 
 property is so far oif that the man interested cannot look 
 after it himself. But land, if you start with a clear title, 
 and pay the taxes, and are loyal and quiet, is safe, and rises 
 with all the improvement of society, to fall only with its 
 decay. 
 
 " But the real and most fundamental reason for the extra 
 value attached to land, it appears to us, is, that however 
 narrow its dimensions, the possession of every acre involves 
 rights, the extent of which is literally unbounded. Stakes 
 may be driven at the four corners of a lot, and the lines 
 marked out and fenced in, north, south, east, and west. 
 But there are at least two sides on which it has no bounds, 
 the height above and the depth below. No one knows the 
 values that are or may be connected with those unlimited 
 sides of every man s farm. * Build high, was a saying of 
 Stephen Girard, there is no ground rent above. No one 
 knows what commercial value may some day attach to a 
 good situation for drawing in unlimited supplies of oxygen 
 or nitrogen. The fresh air or the beautiful prospect even 
 now give their greatest real value to many a building-lot of 
 land, for the eye has an empire of its own. It can stretch 
 far and wide, and from the proper stand-point connects the 
 possessor of land with realms and a domain stretching out 
 beyond the farthest star into absolute infinity. Some day 
 we may navigate the air, at least the lower regions of it, 
 and what may be the value of those rights, now only used 
 J>y the tree tops and the birds, who shall say? The 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 329 
 
 shooting is even now of great pecuniary value in Eng 
 land. 
 
 " But it is not only above, but below that most appre 
 ciable value is likely to become increasingly connected with 
 the possession of land. All the wealth of minerals and 
 mines is thus obtained. To say, however, nothing of these 
 possibilities, how deep we may finally penetrate into the 
 bowels of the earth for water, or what may springs furnish 
 ing salt or oil afford, who shall say ? Already we suck, if 
 not honey out of the rock, at least oil out of the flinty 
 rock. We may before long tap the earth regularly for gas 
 or fuel t or still more directly for heat or motive power. 
 
 " There is, however, yet a third direction in which the 
 possession of land connects a family with the unlimited 
 it is theirs, till voluntarily parted with,/omvr. It is like a 
 spring ; it yields a present supply, and one that is undi- 
 minishing forever. The farms of England, that have been 
 worked for ages, yield on an average far more and not less 
 to the acre to-day than those of the State of Xew York or 
 Pennsylvania, that have been cleared but half a century. 
 The supply is perpetual. While the earth remaineth, seed 
 time and harvest shall not cease. 
 
 " Every spot of ground thus connects its possession with 
 the limitless on three sides, and it is this sublime alliance of 
 the mind of man with the unbounded and the infinite, 
 which gives to the possession of land such a peculiar value. 
 It enlarges the ideas more than any other earthly possession, 
 and leads out the soul into all that is grand and sublime." 
 
 After all that has been said touching the best 
 way to get a farm, and where to find one, it may 
 be added that almost everything depends upon the 
 man himself he must either know how, or he must 
 
330 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 learn how to manage it. It has been well said, that 
 tools do not make the workman, but the trained 
 skill and perseverance of the operator himself. It 
 is proverbial that bad workmen never yet had a 
 good tool. Some one asked Opie by what wonder 
 ful process he mixed his colors. " I mix them with 
 brains, sir," was his reply. 
 
 Having secured possession of a farm, let the 
 young man cling to it. JSTow, when land and its 
 products have been daily rising in price, with butter 
 at half a dollar, and hay at twenty-five dollars per 
 ton, be not led away from this honorable and inde 
 pendent occupation by the seductive glitter of some 
 apparently golden prospect in the distance some 
 chance in city life, where there may be less of bodily 
 toil, more of what the world calls honor, but less of 
 real comfort. On this subject Mr. Henry H. French 
 gives us an instructive caution : 
 
 " You are tempted to exchange the hard work of the 
 farm, to become a clerk in a city shop, to put off your 
 heavy boots and frock, and be a gentleman, behind the 
 counter ! You, by birth and education, intended for an up 
 right, independent, manly citizen, to call no man master, 
 and to be no man s servant, would become, at first, the 
 errand boy of the shop, to fetch and carry like a spaniel, 
 then the salesman, to fill the place which, at best, a girl 
 would fill much better to bow, and smile, and cringe, and 
 flatter to attend upon the wishes of every painted and 
 padded form of humanity to humbly suggest to rakes and 
 harlots, as well as to starched and ruffled respectability, 
 what color and fabric best becomes the form and complexion 
 of each and finally to become a trader, a worshipper of 
 
AXD -WHERE TO FDsD ONE. 331 
 
 mammon, compelled to look anxiously at prices current of 
 cotton and railroad stocks, in order to learn each morning 
 whether you are bankrupt or not, and in the end to fail, 
 and compromise with your creditors and your conscience, 
 and sigh for your native hills. 
 
 Or, perhaps, your party being in power, you would ob 
 tain a clerkship at Washington, and remove your little 
 family from the North, to a more genial climate, to live at 
 your ease, and grow rich on twelve hundred dollars a year ! 
 You give up your little farm, your New England privileges 
 of schools and churches, your independent and influential 
 membership of parish, and district, and town, and church, 
 the woods and playgrounds for your children, your friends, 
 and kindred, and home. Twelve hundred dollars is a large 
 sum to you, half the price of your farm, perhaps, twice the 
 amount of the minister s salary. With your habits of 
 economy and thrift, you can live on half the amount. Your 
 arrangements are to be made the homestead is sold, and 
 you are landless. After all, it is not so easy parting with 
 our household gods. The trees our hands have planted 
 take root in our hearts, the vines and roses, twined by our 
 own fingers, and those of our loved ones, over rustic arbors, 
 cling round us more closely than we thought. Your labor 
 has been mingled with the soil of every field. Tears are in 
 the eyes of your wife at every thought of departing, but 
 she trusts in your superior judgment, and no murmur 
 escapes her lips at your decision. 
 
 " You have left your home. At the end of a single year, 
 in the city of magnificent distances, you have bitter realiza 
 tions of the meaning of that phrase. It has proved, indeed, 
 to be full of magnificent distances for you, from happiness, 
 from independence, from advantages of every kind. For 
 the first time, you have felt how sore a thing it is for a 
 Northern freeman to be dependent, to labor at stated hours, 
 
332 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 at the bidding of a superior officer, to feel that the office 
 you fill, on which depends your very means of living for 
 yourself and family, is held at the arbitrary will of another, 
 who may, if he please, make a servile conformity of your 
 views with his own, on political, or what you may deem 
 moral questions, the condition by which you retain your 
 place. You who, at home, had never seen the man who 
 dared claim to be your superior, are forced to submit to 
 the iron rule of caste, to send your card to the secretary, 
 whom you once knew, perhaps, as an equal, and wait an 
 hour with the colored servant in the hall, to be told at last 
 to call another day to be slipped over, or shaken oft by 
 the member whom you helped to elect, and who now had 
 no further use for you, and consume your energies in en 
 deavoring to keep the toe of your boot from proximity with 
 that part of his person where his honor holds its seat to 
 be assessed to support party presses whose principles you 
 may despise. In short, you have sold your birthright for a 
 mess of pottage. 
 
 " But the half is not yet told, for even the mess of pot 
 tage is not sufficient for your wants. Your salary is at 
 starvation point. You must pay two hundred dollars for a 
 house, with two parlors, and a basement for servants, with 
 out a cellar, without a closet, without a pump or aqueduct, 
 without a sink, or clothes yard, or garden. Your wife, with 
 the aid of a servant, cannot do the work so easily as she 
 did it alone when at the North. All the water comes in 
 buckets from the city pump a dozen rods off; the slops are 
 poured into the street,, your clothing is crammed into 
 wardrobes, your supplies must be procured daily at market, 
 in contemptible quantities in short, everything, except the 
 parlors, which are for show, and to make you seem re 
 spectable, must be richly carpeted and curtained, every 
 thing is adapted to the idea that labor is degrading, and 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 333 
 
 that the comfort and convenience of those who perform it 
 is not worth consulting. The thrift, the energy, and com 
 fort of Northern households is unknown in this latitude.* 
 
 " Look now at the prices of necessary articles of food. 
 On your farm, however small, your cellar was always filled 
 with an unlimited supply of such vegetables as you desired, 
 and barrels of beef and pork of your own slaughtering. 
 Your granary had always as much of corn and rye, and 
 perhaps of wheat, as you chose to use. Your cows at all 
 times gave you milk and butter in abundance, and your 
 garden and orchard supplied fruits for yourself and the 
 children without stint. Now you buy a peck of potatoes 
 for three shillings, beef at sixteen cents a pound, turkeys 
 at from a dollar and a quarter to two dollars each, chick 
 ens with the shells scarcely off their heads, not larger 
 than robins, at twenty-five cents each, butter at thirty- one 
 cents, and milk at eight. Instead of enjoying the abun 
 dance of the earth, as you have been accustomed to do, 
 you begin to associate the idea of dollars and cents with 
 the food on your table ; you are compelled to vex yourself 
 with economizing in the details of living, and to feel your 
 soul gradually narrowing in, to a conformity with narrow 
 circumstances. You find yourself a poorer man than while 
 upon your hard Northern farm, poorer in your animal 
 means of living, poorer in comparison with those around 
 you, poorer in independence, in prospects for yourself and 
 family, poorer in everything." 
 
 This leaving the farm for a fortune is deplored in 
 grapkic terms by the author, " Doesticks," who 
 avers that 
 
 * This was written in 1854. Ten years have revolutionized, 
 redeemed, and purified Washington. 
 
334 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 " Young men in the West, when they get too lazy to 
 plough, drive oxen, and dig potatoes, invariably either go to 
 study law, physic, or divinity, or emigrate to New York to 
 make their fortunes. Hence the inundation of two-and- 
 sixpenny pettifoggers, the abundant crop of innocent, ju 
 venile-looking M. D.s, and the army of weak-eyed preachers, 
 whose original simplicity is too deep-rooted to be ever 
 overgrown by the cares of after life. The portion of our 
 country known as the West, sends forth every year scores 
 of these misguided innocents, who, had they stayed at 
 home, might have grown up into tolerable farmers, or even 
 been cultivated into respectable mechanics, but who, being 
 thrown into the whirl of city life, degenerate into puny 
 clerks, with not half enough salary to pay for their patent- 
 leather boots. 
 
 " It is a curious fact, that two-thirds of the young men 
 from the country, their first year in the metropolis, do not 
 receive as a remuneration for their valuable services, a sum 
 sufficient to keep them in theatre tickets. If a committee 
 of their employers should be detailed to investigate the 
 hidden pecuniary fountain whence these young men obtain 
 the funds many of them lavish so freely, the said committee 
 would be considerably astonished to find out how much 
 more champagne and oysters the New York merchants pay 
 for than the most knowing of them are aware of; and their 
 wives would be astounded to learn how many bracelets and 
 diamond pins had been presented to ladies of the theatre 
 and ballet, and bought with their husbands money. And 
 many a country mother would mourn to hear that her 
 darling had, in the first six months of his city life, learned 
 to practice more vices than she had ever heard of, and 
 among his other attainments, had acquired the elegant city 
 accomplishment of spending his employer s money as freely 
 as if it were his own." 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 335 
 
 I grant that change of occupation is sometimes 
 desirable and prudent, sometimes even necessary. 
 When driven to it by pecuniary calamity, it should 
 be made courageously, and with utter contempt of 
 the jibes or sneers of others. I know the world is 
 full of scarecrows but why is it that they are al 
 ways black ? Go into the newly planted cornfields, 
 and you wall see the unfolding blade protected by 
 effigies as woeful as if clad in the cast off inexpress 
 ibles of a rebel regiment. Old hats and older coats, 
 mounted painfully on crooked sticks, or waving to 
 and fro in the wind, suspended from patriarchal 
 apple-trees, these are scarecrows but what sim 
 pletons the crows must be for being thus easily 
 frightened off from a living. Yet one need not go 
 so far as even the nearest cornfield for a counter 
 part. There is a scarecrow of some kind in every 
 house, domesticated at every fireside, nestling in 
 every bosom. Old hats and worn out inexpressi 
 bles may serve to frighten crows, and we may smile 
 at their simplicity in thus being kept at bay ; but 
 who among us, no matter how straitened or de 
 pressed, that does not find the prospect of reassum- 
 ing even his own cast off toggery to be the unsus 
 pected scarecrow of his own heart ? Pride, per 
 sonal, foolish, utterly groundless, is the great 
 national scarecrow. Too many of us are slaves to 
 appearances, mere walking advertisements of the 
 milliner or tailor. Strangely enough, one leaves his 
 brown stone mansion and takes to boarding, with 
 out compunction ; but the thought of earning bread 
 by apparently mean employment, is absolutely kill- 
 
336 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 ing, though it be honester than any previous one. 
 This reveals the household scarecrow, for wife and 
 family protest it were better to starve ! We ridi 
 cule the crow for his simplicity, but are we any 
 wiser ? 
 
 I know how habit clutches at the heart how 
 gambling, rum, tobacco, both rule and stultify and 
 that this pride tyrannizes with a despotism infinitely 
 more galling, because the whole family become its 
 victims. Yet no heroism can be greater, no good 
 sense more positive, than that which so strengthens 
 a man into breaking its bonds, grappling with the 
 emergency, be it what it may, and kicking his own 
 particular scarecrow to the dogs. 
 
 "Right Side Up," traced legibly on a shingle 
 which had been planed smooth to enable the artist 
 to display his skill, met my eye one morning at a 
 crowded steamboat landing in New York, soon af 
 ter the rebellion burst upon the country. It stood 
 upon a table covered by a clean white cloth, 
 whereon was bounteous store of peanuts, ginger 
 bread, and pretzels, intermixed with oranges and 
 penny confectioneries for which all urchins seem to 
 have been born with an undying relish. As the 
 day was windy and the street alive with carriages 
 and other vehicles, these delicacies were frosted 
 with dust. Tubs containing bottles of root beer 
 stood shadily under the table, but the imprisoned 
 effervescence must have been hot in spite of the 
 water that surrounded them. These things I barely 
 noticed it was the shingle that attracted my atten 
 tion. Could this be one of the signs of the times ? 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 337 
 
 It seemed to mean something, hence I paused to 
 look and consider, never noticing the man who re 
 joiced in being proprietor of this diversified exhi 
 bition. But though not observing him, it seems 
 that he had noticed me. 
 
 " Right side up, sir, and mean to keep so," he ex 
 claimed, rising from his seat, coming to where I 
 stood, and extending his hand. My astonishment 
 was really very great, but he exhibited none. His 
 emotion appeared to be that of satisfaction, open, 
 manly, heart-felt. I had known him as the expert 
 foreman of a great machine shop, overlooking sev 
 eral hundred hands, and making twenty dollars a 
 week ; but at a glance I conjectured how the matter 
 stood. 
 
 " Why, how is this ?" I asked. 
 
 " Swallowed my pride three months ago," he re 
 sponded. "Work was dead, employers broke, 
 nothing to do, had a wife and family, only fifty 
 dollars in pocket, and with twenty of it set up this 
 table. It sounds like coming down, and it was hard 
 to undergo this publicity, but look at my hands, 
 they are clean, and I am not ashamed to look any 
 man in the face. My pride has left me gone to 
 trouble some one else. Wife and daughters make 
 the cakes and beer, keep up the table, and the 
 table keeps up us. How does it strike an old ac 
 quaintance like you, or have you any thing better 
 on hand ?" 
 
 Here it all was in a nutshell, just as I had some 
 how conjectured. I looked upon the man as a hero 
 he was a hero. Depend upon it that all such 
 15 
 
338 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 were not crowded into Pickens or Sumter ; for there 
 is a moral heroism which as effectually challenges 
 the admiration of good men as that which personal 
 daring wins at the cannon s mouth. Did he not 
 confess to the scarecrow, and had he not ousted it ? 
 Here was evidence of the truly independent, self- 
 relying grit, which, in some form or other, ought to 
 be exhibited in time of sore calamity. 
 
 " You have done well," I answered. " You have 
 made a double conquest pride and bad luck. But 
 this will lead you to better things. There are many 
 stepping-stones to fortune, and this may be yours. 
 I honor you for your courage." 
 
 Poor, brave fellow! These must have been 
 among the few words of cheering sympathy he had 
 heard, for his lip quivered, his eye became moist, and 
 he did not trust himself to reply. His heart was 
 bigger than I had ever dreamed of. 
 
 The possession of what one may really call a 
 home, is among the unspeakable blessings of this 
 life. The man who cannot prize it must have some 
 radical deficiency in his organization. Mr. Beecher 
 refers to such a possession in one of his characteris 
 tic paragraphs. He says 
 
 "But what a poor, shivering, restless, rapping sprite is 
 "without a body, that is a living man without A HOUSE. He 
 cannot take root. A man at a hotel is like a grapevine in 
 a flower-pot, movable, carried round from place to place 
 docked at the root and short at the top! There is no 
 where that a man can get real root-room, and spread out 
 his branches till they touch the morning and the evening, 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 339 
 
 but in his own house. If I could, I should be glad to live 
 in the house that my ancestors had lived in from the days 
 of the flood. That cannot be ; for in ascending the line of 
 ancestry I find the people but not the houses, and it is 
 more than suspected that some of them never owned one ! 
 My father s house ! It is like a picture rubbed out. The 
 frame and canvas are there, but strangers have possessed 
 it. The room where I was born, where my mother rocked 
 my cradle and sang as angels do where she died, where 
 all my boyish frolics began and life spread out its golden 
 dream they are all overlaid by other histories. We 
 planted pleasant things in the old house, but the Assyrians 
 came in and settled down upon them." 
 
 But some one has said that nine-tenths of our 
 farmers find farming unprofitable that is, paying 
 but a very small percentage on the capital invested 
 in land, stock, tools, &c. On this subject the editor 
 of the Country Gentleman has crowded a mass of 
 interesting information into a nutshell, much of 
 which I reproduce as appropriate to the discussion. 
 He says that hundreds of farmers who own from a 
 hundred and fifty to three hundred acres of good 
 land, tolerably well stocked, find themselves barely 
 able to prove that they are as well off to-day as 
 they were a year ago ; and many declare that the 
 laborer, who has nothing but his hands to get a liv 
 ing, lays up more money in a year than they with 
 all their broad acres and flocks of cattle and sheep. 
 If this be true, and doubtless it is so in many in 
 stances, a farm managed as a large share of our 
 farms are managed, would be a clog to a young 
 man with a small family, who is endeavoring to 
 
340 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 lay up something for those rainy days which are 
 sure to fall to the lot of many of us in our journey 
 through life. 
 
 It is not high-priced labor, nor unpropitious sea 
 sons, nor because produce brings a low price, that 
 makes farming unprofitable. Every laborer is 
 worthy of his hire ; the harvests are bountiful ; con 
 sumers are increasing so rapidly as to keep provis 
 ions up to prices that ought to be satisfactory to 
 producers ; yet the question as to why farming is 
 unprofitable continues to be asked. It is just as 
 regularly answered, but does not seem to stay so. 
 
 Instances are continually reported of men who 
 have maintained families on the product of ten, fif 
 teen, or twenty acres of land, which, when they be 
 gan, was no better than the average. They have 
 lived respectably, given their children a good edu 
 cation, and saved money. Ireland contains forty 
 thousand farmers who occupy spots ranging from 
 only one to two acres each. In France the subdi 
 vision of land into small parcels is equally exten 
 sive. Yet the occupants all live, and regard the 
 being dispossessed of their small holdings as the 
 misfortune of their lives. Why, then, cannot Amer 
 icans who own two hundred or a thousand acres, 
 make farming profitable ? There is a controlling 
 reason which has been repeatedly set forth they 
 plant too much, spreading their limited quantity of 
 manure over too large a surface, thus impoverish 
 ing the land and wasting their labor. Eighty 
 bushels of corn, and other grains in proportion, may 
 be raised on one acre of land much easier than on 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 34:1 
 
 two, and where land is so cultivated as to produce 
 such crops it is constantly improving. When not 
 so cultivated it is constantly depreciating. 
 
 Take, as an illustration, the case of two adjoining 
 farms, that of A containing 150 acres, and that of 
 B only 40. A has 40 acres of meadow, on which 
 he cuts an annual average of 35 tons of hay, while 
 B has only 15 acres of meadow, yielding him 2| 
 tons per acre, or 37 \ in all. A plants 6 or 8 acres 
 of corn every year, which yield him about 30 
 bushels to the acre, and his other field crops are in 
 proportion, with proportionate results. On the 
 other hand, B plants but 2 or 3 acres of corn, but 
 he gathers from 75 to 80 bushels per acre, and is 
 able to do all his work himself. A pays out $150 
 a year for help. He complains of hard times, of 
 the scarcity of money, and talks of moving West, 
 not because there is more money there, but because 
 he can obtain more land. He seems unable to com 
 prehend that he already has more than he is man 
 aging properly. 
 
 ~No such longings assail B. His little freehold is 
 too precious in his eyes to be alienated he is satis 
 fied that no change could be for the better. His 
 farm is constantly improving in value, while the 
 other is annually decreasing. The latter is worked 
 by a skinner , the former by & farmer. The skinner 
 ploughs and plants indiscriminately. Around his 
 barns the manure heaps lie unused from year to 
 year. He reads no agricultural books, takes no ag 
 ricultural paper, sells all his best stock, and is thus 
 compelled to keep that which is so worthless as to 
 
34:2 HOW TO GET A FARM, 
 
 be unsalable. But B suffers no particle of ma 
 nure to remain unused, and ploughs only such land 
 as he can thoroughly enrich. He sells his poorest 
 stock and keeps only the best. He takes the best 
 agricultural periodicals, and though he may read in 
 them the most glowing accounts of distant lands at 
 low prices, yet his affections are too firmly anchored 
 in his little homestead for them to excite in him a 
 single wish to leave it. It is not the farming that 
 is unprofitable, but the management. 
 
 This recital revives once more the often mooted 
 question of the comparative advantage of large or 
 small farms. It cannot be denied that very large 
 ones have been so managed by competent men as to 
 yield enormous profits, while annually becoming 
 more valuable. A single California farmer has har 
 vested a crop of 400,000 bushels of potatoes, while 
 a neighbor s crop amounted to 250,000 bushels. 
 Another, at Los Angeles, with a vineyard of 35 
 acres, makes 35,000 gallons of wine annually. The 
 wheat crop of that region reaches as high as 60 to 
 70 bushels per acre. The district around Sacra 
 mento is a vast wheat and barley field. Cattle re 
 quire no housing as in the Atlantic States, but keep 
 themselves the year round on the pastures. 
 
 In that State farming seems to be the sure road to 
 fortune the larger the well-managed farm the 
 more rapid the accumulation. It will surprise 
 readers in the East to hear of the immense fruit 
 orchards in California, which so far surpass any 
 thing in the Atlantic States as to make our attempts 
 in this way seem exceedingly small. The following, 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 343 
 
 from the California Farmer, is ail accurate account 
 of the product of the orchard of Mr. G. C. Briggs, 
 of Marysville : 
 
 " I send you," says Mr. Briggs to 
 ber of pounds of fruit as kept in m 
 annexed the price. We have sold i 
 
 Fruits. No. Pounds. 
 Cherries .... - - 3 fifift 
 
 the editor, " the num- 
 y daily record. I have 
 is follows : 
 
 Price. Amount. 
 Cents. 
 
 60 $2,208 
 20 11,680 
 30 6,636 
 8 61,088 
 8 7,472 
 13 29,250 
 15 1,695 
 20 945 
 20 1,260 
 8 2,760 
 
 Appricots 
 
 58400 
 
 Plums 
 
 22,120 
 
 Peaches 
 
 763600 
 
 Nectarines . . 
 
 93 400 
 
 
 225,000 
 
 Pears 
 
 11 300 
 
 Quinces 
 
 4 720 
 
 Fiffs . 
 
 6 300 
 
 Grapes . 
 
 34 500 
 
 
 
 12,223,020 $124,993" 
 
 Estimating it in bushels, it amounts to more than 
 twenty thousand bushels. California well may 
 claim the palm for her horticultural products, and 
 though all her fruits may not equal those of our 
 more northern clime, they certainly surpass them in 
 abundance and size. 
 
 In our "Western States there are farmers cultivat 
 ing immense tracts of land with evident profit. 
 There are farms of 10,000 acres, yielding 90,000 
 bushels of corn alone, with thousands of bushels of 
 wheat, besides fattening great droves of hogs and cat 
 tle. But these facts are too well known to make a 
 recapitulation necessary. These must be profitable 
 undertakings, or their owners would abandon them. 
 
34:4 HOW TO GET A FAKM, 
 
 " Commerce and manufactures," says another authority, 
 "must ever be secondary to the cultivation of the soil. 
 The latter is not only the most important of all human in 
 dustrial pursuits, but is the only real source of wealth. 
 Commerce produces nothing its office being merely the 
 barter of commodities. Whether this barter takes place 
 between one country and another, or between individuals 
 of the same country, it is but an exchange of equivalents. 
 It is therefore to be regarded as a mere medium for the 
 distribution or circulation of wealth, and not as in any way 
 contributing to its existence or production. Then, as to 
 manufactures, there is no matter produced which did not 
 previously exist, their office being only to convert material 
 previously existing into forms of greater utility and con 
 venience. At first sight, mining may appear to have a 
 greater claim to the production of wealth, but it does not, 
 in reality, produce anything which did not before exist. 
 Every pound of iron, silver, gold, or coal, existed in the 
 bowels of the earth long before it was taken from them. 
 Increase of matter proceeds from agriculture alone. The 
 surplus of this over cost of production constitutes the only 
 increase of real wealth or capital. Yet however true this 
 may be, it must be remembered that commerce by the ex 
 change of commodities, and manufactures by giving to the 
 productions of agriculture a more useful form, are greatly 
 conducive to the aggrandizement of nations, and to the 
 convenience and comfort of their population." 
 
 The reader is probably going somewhere. He 
 may possibly have various offers of employment 
 or occupation, and find it difficult to decide between 
 them. There is one rule which, in all such cases, 
 will generally be found a safe one to follow go 
 where he is most wanted. It may not be that a man 
 
AND WHERE TO FIND ONE. 345 
 
 should always go where most clamored after, or 
 even where most liberally paid, though either of 
 these things affords an indication of where he ought 
 to locate. In the foregoing pages, a shrewd and 
 persevering man cannot fail to discover where he is 
 most wanted as well as the ways and means, how 
 and where, to plant his stakes. If at a loss to de 
 cide, such hesitation cannot spring from lack of op 
 portunities, but from their abundance. It is here 
 apparent that everywhere around him there are 
 openings that lie waiting to be appropriated. No 
 other country in the world presents a similar spec 
 tacle. Throughout Europe, land is at a premium, 
 and labor at a discount. Here the contrary is the 
 rule labor commands the premium, and land is 
 held at the discount. Though slowly acquiring 
 some of this foreign passion for the ownership of 
 land, yet centuries must elapse before the American 
 people become generally imbued with it. Of those 
 who now hunger after freeholds, too many are mere 
 speculators. But recent legislation has placed be 
 yond their grasp the largest portion of the public 
 domain. It remains for the actual settler to crowd 
 them altogether from the arena. 
 
 15* 
 
 THE END. 
 
JAMES MILLER, 
 
 , Dublisber, airtr $mprter t 
 
 522 BROADWAY, NEW YORK, 
 
 OPPOSITE THE 6T. NICHOLAS HOTEL, 
 
 Has for sale a very complete and extensive stock of 
 
 ENGLISH AND AMERICAN BOOKS, 
 
 IN THE VARIOUS DEPARTMENTS OF LITERATURE ; 
 
 INCLUDING 
 8TANDAED EDITIONS OF THE BEST AUTHORS IN 
 
 HISTORY, BIOGRAPHY, BELLES-LETTRES, ETC. 
 
 FINELY BOUND IN MOROCCO, CALF, ETC., FOR 
 
 DRAWING-ROOM LIBRARIES; 
 
 J.IKHWISE ORNAMENTED AND RICHLY EMBELLISHED BOOKS 
 OF PLATES FOR THE CENTRE-TABLE. 
 
 %* Particular attention given to orders from Public and 
 Private Libraries. 
 
 ENGLISH AND AMERICAN PERIODICALS 
 
 supplied and served carefully and faithfully to Subscribers 
 throughout the city, or sent by mail to the country. Orders 
 from any part of the world, with a remittance or reference 
 for payment in New York, will be promptly attended to. 
 
 IMPORTATION OF ALL BOOKS & PERIODICALS 
 for which he may receive orders, a small commission only 
 being charged for the business. The same attention given 
 to an order for a single copy as for a quantity. 
 
 BOOK BINDING IN ALL ITS BRANCHES. 
 
CHELTENHAM NURSERIES, 
 
 The subscribers offer for sale a choice selection of Fruit and 
 Ornamental Trees, Plants and Shrubs, at their Nurseries on 
 Oak Lane, near the Station of North Pennsylvania Railroad, 
 three miles east of Germantown, and to which they would caD 
 the particular attention of the Farmer, Gardener,, and Planter. 
 Gatalogues on application. 
 
 HAINES & HACKER, 
 Cheltenham P. 0., Montgomery Co., Pa, 
 
 MILLER S NEW YORK AS IT IS ; 
 
 OR, 
 
 STKANGEK S GUIDE BOOK 
 To the cities of New York, Brooklyn, and adjacent places. 
 
 Comprising notices of every object of interest to Strangers, in 
 cluding Public Buildings, Churches, Hotels, Places of Amuse 
 ment, Literary Institutions, &c.. &c. With Map of the City and 
 Hudson River to Albany, and numerous Engravings. 
 
 PRICE, 75 CENTS. 
 Mailed free to any address, on receipt of price. 
 
 JAMES MILLER, Publisher, 
 
 522 Broadway, New York. 
 
 STRAWBERRIES MD BLACKBERRIES. 
 
 Having a large quantity of the best varie 
 ties of 
 
 Strawberries and Lawton Blackberries, 
 
 I will supply them in lots, on a credit of two 
 years, without interest, for satisfactory notes. 
 Particulars on Application. 
 EDMUND MORRIS, 
 
 Burlington, J\. J- 
 
From the Press of 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO. 
 
 I. 
 MAYHEWS HORSE MANAGEMENT. 
 
 The Illustrated Horse Management, containing descriptive remarks upon Anatomy, 
 Medicine, .Shoeing, Teeth, Food, Vices, Stables ; likewise a plain account of the situa 
 tion, nature, and value of the various points ; together with Comments on Grooms, 
 
 Dealers, Breeders, Breakers, and Trainers ; also on Carriages and Harness. Embel 
 lished with more than 400 engravings from original designs nacle expressly for this 
 work. By EDWARD MAYHEW, M. R. C. V. S., author ef " The Illustrated Horse 
 Doctor," and other works. 1 vol. 8vo. $3.50. 
 
 From the New York Tribune, 
 
 Whoever owns a horse, whoever intends to buy one, whoever has the keeping of one, 
 whoever derives either pleasure or profit from the horse-kind, should have the informa 
 tion to be obtained from this book. 
 
 H. 
 MAYHEW S HORSE DOCTOR. 
 
 The Illustrated Horse Doctor -, with more than 400 pictorial representations of the various 
 diseases to which the equine race is subjected ; together with the latest mode of treat 
 ment, and all the requisite prescriptions written in plain English. By EDW. MAYHEW, 
 M. R. C. V. S. 1 vol. 8vo. $3.50. 
 
 From the London Globe. 
 
 Kvery gentleman who possesses or cares for horses would do well to keep this book in 
 his hous e. Mr. Mayhew s treatment of the worst diseases to which horses are liable i 
 very clearly laid down, and the method of keeping horses well and to a prolonged old 
 age is that of nature, of common sense. 
 
 III. 
 
 IMPORTANT FOR EVERY SOLDIER. 
 
 Customs of Service for Non-commissioned Officers and Sol 
 diers, as derived from Law and Regulations, and Practiced in the Army of the Uni 
 ted States. Being a Hand-Book for the Rank and File of the Army, showing what are 
 their Rights and Duties ; how to obtain the former and perform the latter, and there 
 by enabling them to seek promotion and distinction in the service of their country. 
 By Brig.-General AUGUST V. KADTZ, U. S. A. 18mo. $1.25. 
 
 IV. 
 MARKS PENINSULAR CAMPAIGN. 
 
 Tiie Peninsular Campaign in Virginia: or, Incidents and Scenes on the Battle Fields and 
 in Richmond. Illustrated with numerous engravings. Bv Rv. J. J. MARKS, D. D., 
 Ohaplain of the 63d Pennsylvania Regiment. 12mo. $1.50. 
 
 v. ^ 
 
 WICKERSHAM S SCHOOL ECONOMY. 
 
 A Treatise on the Preparation, Organization, Employments. Government, and Authori 
 ties of Schools. By JAMES PYLK WICKERSHA.M, A". M., Principal of the Pennsylva 
 nia State Normal School at Millersville. 12mo. $1.25. 
 
 From the Literary Gazette. 
 
 No one can read a page of the volume without receiving the impression that it is the 
 offspring of earnest devotion to the highest interests of Education, viewed as an an based 
 upon *he observation of facts and the apprehension of principles. Its perusal by teach 
 ers, school officers, and parents, will effect a great deal of good, and the author" should 
 by all means give us the additional volumes which iie intrmates are ii. preparation. He 
 has entered upon a good field in the department of Literature, and he is admirably calcu 
 lated to till it. 
 
 J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO., Publishers, Phila, 
 
BOOKS FOR FARMERS. 
 
 The subscriber has constantly on hand all Standard 
 Works on 
 AGRICULTURE, HORTICULTURE, 
 
 LANDSCAPE GARDENING-, 
 CATTLE AND THEIR DISEASES, 
 
 THE HORSE, THE STABLE, 
 
 To which he would invite attention. 
 
 Persons living at a distance, can have any book sent 
 to them by forwarding the advertised price. 
 
 JAMES MILLER, Publisher, 
 
 522 Broadway, N. Y. 
 
 BUY THE BEST ! THE PREMIUM 
 
 THRESHING MACHINE! 
 
 The RAILWAY HORSE-POWER, which has repeatedly taken the First Pre 
 mium at the New York State Fair, and has never failed to do to over aJl 
 Us eompetitors wherever exhibited by us ill competition with others, running with low 
 elevation and slow travel of team 
 
 Combined Threshers and Cleaners, Threshers, Separators, Fanning Mills, Wood Saws, 
 Ac., all of the best in market, THE THRESHER AND CLEANER received the />/>< 
 premiwn at the Ohio State Fair, 1863, runs easy, separates the grain clean from the 
 straw, cleans quite equal to the best of Fanning Mills, leaving the grain fit for mill or 
 market. 
 
 JBgr- For Price and Description send for Circulars, and satisfy yourself before pur 
 chasing. H. & M. HAHJDEft, 
 
 Cobleskill, Schoharie Co., N. Y. 
 
AGRICULTURAL BOOKS 
 
 PUBLISHED BY 
 
 ROUTLEDGE, WARNE & ROUTLEDGE, 
 
 129 Grand Street, New York. 
 
 THE FARMER S CALENDAR. By ABTHTJR Yorao. 
 
 Describing the buMness necessary to be performed on various kinds of Farms during 
 every month in the year. Entirely rewritten to the present date, by JOHN C. MOR 
 TON. Editor of the " Cyclopaedia of Agriculture," &c. With numerous illustrations. 
 Svo, half bound. Price, $5.00. 
 
 THE HORSE IN THE STABLE AND THE FIELD: 
 
 His Varieties, Management in Health and Disease, tc., <fcc. Bv STOSEHEXGE. Illus 
 trated by 170 engravings. Svo, half bound, Price, 57.00. 
 
 A MANUAL OF BRITISH RURAL SPORTS : Comprising 
 
 Shooting, Hunting, Coursing, Fishing, Ac., &c., with all the various Rural Games 
 and Amusements of Great Britain. By STOXEHESGE. Very numerous engravings. 
 Foolscap, 8vo, half bound. Price, $4.00. 
 
 THE SHOT-GUN AND SPORTING-RIFLE: and the 
 
 Dogs, Ponies, Ferrets, Ac., used with them in the various kinds of Sporting. By 
 STOXEHENGE. Illustrated by numerous engravings. 12mo, half bound. Price, $4.00. 
 
 RHAM S DICTIONARY OF THE FARM. Revised and 
 
 re-edited bvW. <k H. RAY>BIRD. A new edition, with many illustrations. Svo, half 
 bound. Price. Sl.75. 
 
 HOW TO FARM PROFITABLY. By Alderman MECHI. 
 
 \ i.ew edition, much enlarged, with illustrations. Foolscap, Svo, half bound. Price, 
 51.50. 
 
 *% One of the most practical and useful books that can possibly be put into the hands 
 of a practical Agriculturist. 
 
 THE HORSE. By WM. You ATT. A new edition, revised and 
 
 re-edited, with observations on Breeding Cavalry Horses, by CECIL, author of "The 
 Stud Farm," <fec., &c. With illustrations. Foolscap, Svo, half bound. Price, 51.00. 
 
 OUR GARDEN FRIENDS AND FOES. By Rev. J. G. 
 
 WOOD, author of "The Illustrated Natural History." With 200 illustrations. 12aio 
 cloth. Price, 53.00. 
 
 ILLUSTRATED BOOK OF DOMESTIC POULTRY. By 
 
 MARTIX DOYLE. With colored plates. 8vo, half bound. Price, S J.i3. 
 
 Illustrated Hand Cooks for the Country. 
 
 THE SHEEP : Our Domestic Breeds and their Treatment. Price, 40 cts. 
 
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 Price, 40 cts. 
 
 THE PIG : How to Choose. Breed, Rear, Keep, and Cure it. Price, 40 cts. 
 CATTLE : Their Breeds, Management, and Diseases. To which is added THE D A.IRY. 
 
 Price, 60 cts. 
 
 THE HORSE : Its History, Management, and Treatment. Price, 40 cts. 
 BEES : Their Habits. Management, and Treatment. Price, 40 cts. 
 SMALL FARMS, and how thev ought to be Managed. Price, 40 cts. 
 THE KITCHEN GARDEN. Price, 40 cts. 
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 AGRICULTURAL CHEMISTRY : A Familiar Explanation of the Chemical Principles 
 
 involved in the operations of the Farm. Price, 60 cts. 
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 RURAL ECONOMY: Being useful information on Cow-keeping, Sheep, Pigs, &c., Ac 
 
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 : A Treasury of useful information on Farm and Garden Produce 
 
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 NEW YORK (Edmund Baldwin, Agt), 129 Grand St, 
 LONDON, Broadway, Ludgate Hill. 
 
LUMBER AND LOG- BOOK. 
 
 SCKIBNEITS READY RECKONER, for measuring all kinds of saw logs, 
 boards, planks, cubical contents of square and round wood, &c., comprised in a 
 number ot tables, to which are added tables by the month, board or rent by the 
 week or day, &c., &c. Scarcely is it possible to add to the recommendations ot 
 the above book, more than to give its title page, as every one engaged in buying 
 and selling, measuring or inspecting lumber, will at once appreciate the work. 
 This is the most complete and reliable book ever published on this subject. Over 
 three hundred thousand copies have been sold, and the demand is constant and 
 increasing. 
 
 Farmers, lumber merchants, and business men, will find it very useful. Price. 
 30 cents, post-paid. Peddlers and dealers can make money selling the book. 
 
 Published and for sale, wholesale and retail, by 
 
 GEORGE W. FISHER, Rochester, N. Y. 
 
 Fruit, Evergreen, Ornamental, and Shade Trees; 
 Hedge Plants, &c. 
 
 The subscribers have thirty acres of nursery, entirely devoted 
 to the above purposes ; and having a large trade with Land Asso 
 ciations and new settlements, to which they can refer, can advise 
 from experience, with their correspondents, as to 
 
 WHAT IS BEST TO PLANT. 
 
 A personal inspection of the stock or correspondence solicited. 
 
 MEEHAN & WANDELL, 
 
 Germantown Nurseries, 
 Germantown, near Philadelphia. 
 
 JOSHUA COWPLAND, 
 
 MANUFACTURER AND DEALER IN 
 
 LOOKING GLASSES, 
 
 PICTURE FRAMES, 
 
 AND LARGE OVAL GILT MIRRORS, 
 No. 53 South Fourth Street, Philadelphia. 
 
 DR. FINE, 
 
 (PRACTICAL DENTIST FOR THE LAST TWENTY TEARS) 
 219 Vine Street (below Third), Philadelphia, 
 
 Inserts the most beautiful TEETH of the age, and all of the latest 
 improvements, mounted on fine Gold, Platina, Silver, Vulcanite, 
 Coralite, Amber, Continuous Gum, and Mineral Plates, at prices 
 for neat and substantial work, more reasonable than any Dentist 
 in this City or State. 
 
 Teeth Plugged to last for life. Artificial Teeth repaired to 
 suit. 
 
 No pain in extracting. All work warranted to fit. References, 
 beat families. 
 
CHOICE FRDIT IP ORNAMENTAL TREES. 
 
 EDW. J. EVANS &, CO., 
 
 Respectfully invite the attention of Parties purchasing and im 
 proving Lands, or making Homes for themselves, to their supe 
 rior stock of 
 
 SELECT TREES: 
 
 Embracing a choice assortment of Standard and Dwari 
 Fruit Trees, of all kinds ; Grapes and Small Fruits, 
 in quantity ; a large and fine stock of Decidu 
 ous Trees, for Street and Lawn planting ; 
 Evergreens of choice kinds 5 hardy 
 Flowering Shrubs and Vines ; 
 
 Roses, Bedding Plants, &c. 
 Catalogues mailed to applicants. Especial inducements to Clubs. 
 
 Address, EDW. J. EVANS & CO., 
 
 York, Penn. 
 
 Relief from the Cares of City Life, 
 
 A.CRES 
 
 A PRACTICAL TREATISE FOR THE MILLION 
 
 SHOWING HOW A VERY SMALL FARM MAT BE MADE TO SUP 
 PORT A VERY LARGE FAMILY. 
 
 With full and minute Instructions as to the best mode of Cul 
 tivating the Smaller Fruits, such as 
 
 Strawberries, Raspberries, Blackberries, etc., 
 
 Also, What Capital is needed ; Where the Man of Small Means 
 should Locate to Secure the most Profit ; How he should go to 
 Work, and what he can do when Beginning in a Small Way. 
 
 One Volume, 12mo. Cloth, $1.50. 
 
 Copies mailed on receipt of Price. Sold by all Booksellers in 
 the United States. 
 
 JAMES MILLER, Publisher, 
 
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NEW YORK AND PHILADELPHIA 
 
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