The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1867-07-25
Buy Land.

some portion of the earth's surface
larger or smaller according to his means
We would incite no one to run into debt,
nor to invest money otherwise instead of
paying his debts-but we would have
every one become freeholder with the
first thousand dollars he can command
that does not belong to some one else.
This world will grow wiser, better, hap
pier, as mankind more generally become
owners of land.
We do not insist that investments in
land are always profitable that they will
pay SO large an interest as others may.
No property will pay legal interest I'm
less wisely, thrifty managed. But land
is cheaper in ours than in almost any
other civilized country; and there are
millions of acres which can be bought
at prices which will, under good man
agement, yield an interest of ten per
cent. Yet the general truth remains that
if money is to be invested with view
to income alone, and no interest, skill,
or effort is to be added to it, it may best
be loaned on interest or used to buy
Government stocks or bonds. Property
investments do not, in the average, yield
net income Of five per cent
But lands are certain to rise in value
There is not half SO much good land yet
unoccupied in our country as is generally
supposed, and the area is daily diminish
ing; the immigration is large and steady,
and the population of our country in
creasing at the rate of at least One Mil
lion per annum. Machinery and labor
saving Inventions are steadily increasing
the area that definite amount of labor
can cultivate. Grazing is absorbing
millions of acres formerly devoted to
Grain and Roots. Millions of acres of
rocky, sterile hills now cultivated ought
to be laid down to forest forthwith. One
fourth of the land within a hundred
miles of this City might proftably be
given up to the growth of timber. In
the Great West, the western limit Of
profitable cultivation has already been
approached; so that there is scarcely all
arabic soil between the frontier settle
ments of Arkansas, Kansas and Nebras-
ka, and the valley of the Sacramento.
And, though immense areas of good land
remain unimproved this side of the Mis-
souri,, they are being rapidly taken up
and put to use. We met farmer in
Eastern Illinois, last winter who took
up his land at s 25 per acre thirty three
years ago. and is now selling merely the
timber from it to settlers on the adjacent
prairies at 800 per acre. This is but
sample of what is doing throughout the
West. There are millions of acres of
timber yet to be bought for 81 to S. per
acre which will sell for 500 Or over per
acre within twenty five years.
Never before on earth was it SO easy
for the poor to get land as it is in this
country to-day. Any young single man
, who will do faithful work for fair wages
can save in year enough to pay FOR at
least eighty acres of Public Land; the
Government charge for which is but
500, while it may be bought with Agri-
cultural land warrants for $50 to $50.
And he that is too poor or shiftless to
earn this amount may settle upon any
Government land subject to private en-
try and earn deed by merly staying on
it; paying SO fees to acquire q title to
160 acres. Is not that cheap enough
Land is as cheap to day, all things
considered, in New York or New Eng
land as in Minnesota or Arkansas. We
know farmers near this city who bought
their lands at 500 to $3.50 per acre,
spent as much more in putting them into
condition, and are now clearing $50 to
S1OO per annum from so much as they
cultivate. The farmer who is rich in
children and poor in every thing else may
wisely migrate to a region where Corn
and Meat are grown far cheaper than
among our granite rocks but New Jer-
sey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, the Carroll
mas, Texas, &C., abound in lands that a
good farmer may buy for less than his
net profit on three years skiIlf /,
thorough cultivation. And the land it.
self will be worth far more after it has
| thus paid for itself than before.
Let every one pitch his tent where he
will-East, West, North, South we
4 favor no particular location, but recog
nize good in each and all. If you dread
cold, go South; if you enjoy bracing
/ North Western, Minnesota stands ready
/ to accommodate you. We judge her the
| best Wheat State in the Union, and
scarcely behind any other for the pro
duction of wool For corn, pork, Illinoi.
and Iowa are hard to beat. The grape
grows in every State, but is more at hom'
in the South, where silk and tea will il