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 possession 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 inconvenient, but still it was home. Every tree they planted became an investment for their own exclusive benefit. In every furrow they turned, some golden particles were discoverable at the bottom. Every spoonful of manure they bought or manufactured, 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,

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 extent 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 considered more salable. Thus the barter is kept moving 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

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 everyday suit, came in to look after a place of seventy acres which he had seen advertised. The advertisement 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 description, 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 appliances about the house sufficient to make a moderate 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, bartered 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 exchanged it. His business was to buy and sell, not to examine property or to keep it. Thus $700 was

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 independThis 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.

ence.

There is another class of city owners, not professional traders in property, who, having something which they were anxious to part with, have exchanged it for a farm, thinking thus to better themselves. But these soon discover that a farm so far off that one can rarely see it, is a great plague, and 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 rapidly 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.

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 possible 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 synonymous with continuance of an old and hateful grievance. Small means will be no hindrance against the application of a worthy man in these circumstances. Character will be the preponderating ingredient 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, whatever facilities were subsequently needed, were voluntarily supplied. Character and conduct secured them friends, and were absolute equivalents to capital. Kind words, moreover, were constantly spoken. Though cheap, yet they were valuable because inspiriting. Some men are naturally given to them; feeling that such utterance is like lighting another