Bedford inquirer. [volume] (Bedford, Pa.) 1857-1884, 1870-03-04
farm, 6artlfn s ollsrhold.
From the New ! ork Tribune.
WHAT I KNOW or FARMING.
uI--Where to Tarm.
nr HonAoE aREFLEr.


is easily produced; there it sells low, and
sometimes cannot be sold at all. shall live
and die right here; bot we're 10 remove
again, Il would not be toward tha West"
This IS but one side of q truth, and give
it for whatever it may be worth. usd my
father plunged into the primitive forest in his
twenty 9Th rather than his forty ffih year.
he would doubtless have become more recon
ciied to pioneer life than be ever did. I
would advise no one over forty years of age
to undertake, with scanty means, to dig a
farm out of the dense forest, where great
trees must be cut down and cut up, rolled in,
to log heaps and bnrued to ashes where they
grew. Where half the timber can be sold
for enough TO pay the cost Of cutting, the case
is different; but | know right well that dig
ging farm out of the high woods is, to any
but man Of weal'R, o slow, hard task. Max
ing one out Of naked prairie five to ten miles
from timber, is less difficult, but not much.
He who can locate where he has good timber
on one side and rich prairie on the other is
fortunate, and may hope, If bis health be
spared, 10 surround himselfwith every need
ed comfort within ten years. Still the pion-
GERS life is a rugged one, especially for wo
men and children; and I should advise any
man who is worth $1,000 and has family,
10 buy out an improvement (Which, in most
cases, badly needs improving on the outskirts
Of civilization. rather than plunge into the
parhless forest or push out upon the uubro-
ken prairie. rejoice that our Public Lands
are free to actual settlers; I believe that ma
ny are thereby enabled to make for them
selves homes whoolherwise would have moth
ing to leave their children: yet l much prefer
location within the boundaries of ciyiliza
ton to one clearly beyond them. There is a
class Of drinking, hunting, frolicking, rarely
working, frontiersmen, who seem to have
been created on purpose to erect log cabins
and break paths in advance Of different class
of settlers, who regularly come IN to buy
them out and start them along after few
years. should here prefer 10 follow rather
than lead. II Co operation shall ever be sue
cessfuIly applied to the settlement Of wild
lunds, trust it may be otherwise
He who has farm already, and is content
with It, has no reason to ask, ''Whither shall
go" and he may rest assured that thorough
ly good farming viii pay as well in New Eng
land as in Kansas or in Minnesota ! advise
no man who has q good farm anywhere, aud
is able to keep il, to sell and migrate.
know men who make money by growing food
within twenty miles Of this City quite as fast
as they could in the West. If You have mo.
ney to buy and work it, aad know how to
make the most Of it, believe you may find
land really as cheap, all things considered, in
Vermont as in Wisconsin or Arkansas.
And yet I believe in migration believe
that there are thousands in the Eastern and
Middle States who would improve their cir
cumstances and prospects by migrating to the
cheaper lands and broader opportunities Of
the West and South. For, il the first place.
most men are by migration rendered more
energetic and aspiring thrown among strang-
ers they feel the necessity Of exertion as they
never felt it before, Needing almost every.
thing, and obliged to rely wholly on them.
selves, they work in their new homes as they
never did in their old; aud the consequences
are soon visible all round them
"a stern chase is a long chase. say the
sailorsi and he who buys farm mainly on
credit, intending to pay los It out of its pro
ceeds, finds interest, taxes, sickness, bad
seasons, hail. frost, droulh tornadoes, floods.
&c, &c, derangiog his calculations and i'm
peding his progress, until he is often upelied
to give up in despair. There are men who
can surmount every obstacle aad def7 dis
couragement-these need no advice; bnt there
are thousands whr baving little means and
large families, can grow into a good farm
more easily a-u fag more surely than they can
ray for it; and these may wisely seek homes
whore population Is yet scarce and land is
consequently cheap. Doubtless, some mi
CRATE who might better have iorborne; vet
the instinct which draws our race toward sun.
set is nevertheless true one. The East will
not be depopulated; but the West will grow
more rapidly in the course Of the next twenty
years than ever in tbs past. The Railroads
which have brought Kansas and Minnesota
within three days and California within a
week ofus, have rendered this inevitable.
Bar the South also invites immigration as
she never did till now. Her lands are still
very cheap; she is better timbered, in the
average, than the West; her climate invites;
her unopened mines and unused water mower
cail loudly for enterprise, labor and skill. 1t
IS absurd to insist that her soil is exhausted
when not oue.third OF It has ever vet been
pio~ed' ] do not advise solitary migration
10 tho South. because she needs schools.
rosds, bridges, mills, &c, &c. which the
solitary en- migrant can neither provide nor
vel! do without; and have no assurance tha:
me- IT obliged to work out for present bread,
would hnd those ready to employ aud willing
20 pay him; but let hundred Northern far.
@ers and mechanics worth 81, GOO to So. .00o
each combine to select Through chosen
agents. and buy ten or twenty thousand acres
IN some Southern State. embracing hin and
vale, timber and tilIage, water.power and
minerals, and divide il equitably among them
selves, after laying 1t out with roads. a park
v!tage plat, sites for churches, schools. &c.
and ! am confident that they can thus make
pleasant homes more cheaply and speedily
there than almost anywhere else.
Good farming land, improved or unim.
proved is this day cheaper iu the United
States, all things considered. ,ban in apv
other country cheaper than it can long re
man. 20 many are intent on short cuts to
riches that the soil is generally neglected,
and may be bought amazingly cheap in parts
of Connecticut as well as in Iowa or Nebras-
aa, When I was last in Illinois. I rode for
some hours beside a gray-eoated farmer Of
some sixty years who told ne this: II came
mere thirty years ago, and took up, at S1l per
acre. good tract Of Iaud, mainly in timber.
am nov selling off the timber st 500 per
acre. reser7iog the land. That seems to
me a good operaton-not so quick as q corner