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 following 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 thousands 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 population. 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 examined. Each inquirer can read and determine for himself. The variety may be pronounced confusing. No 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 ing will be found to exist, no matter whether he contemplates engaging in agriculture or not. In endeavoring 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 information;-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 entertained. 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 information touching these lands and their productions, has been derived, in some instances, from correspondents on the spot. In others, as in Delaware and New Jersey, my account is mainly from personal inspection. I could reach them conveniently, and had the fullest opportunity for making a very thorough examination. I conversed with many per sons who had settled there from other States, saw their improvements, as well as their crops, and received candid replies to all inquiries as to how they liked their new locations, and how they were succeeding. The facts thus acquired are reported without 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. Europeans, in common with Americans, are familiar with the wonderfully liberal terms on which the Company 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 unpublished, 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. Multitudes of these are ignorant of our true condition, and need correct information. The majority are in search of land. Even our own citizens are deplorably ignorant of where to find the most eligible, and how to secure it. The facts contained in these 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 acknowledgment has been made. CONTENTS. Poverty no Hindrance-Government Lands-Free Farms— The Homestead Law-Its Friends and Enemies-Settlers in Wisconsin-Germans in the Union-Immigration—A PAGE Number of Free Farms-Population, Present and Future- What makes Land valuable-Prices balancing each other- |