Centre Democrat. [volume] (Bellefonte, Pa.) 1848-1989, 1882-08-10
Making q Z arm.

W pCo oIili cAloU III hhhh} oSSOlOho VI
the West, who make practice of
taking piece of new, raw land,
breaking it up, erecting few cheap
buildings, and then selling the farm
for the value of the improvements.
This practice is not one to be com
mended. Farmers working under such
faulty methods take all the toughest,
hardest work, and suffer most Of the
privations of pioneer farming, only
to go the same round of experience
over again through the remainder Of
their lives. TheSmoney value of an
improved farm may often be as much
as it costs to improve it; but such
farm will rarely sell for as much as
it is worth to hold. The fact that a
man has only one life to live makes
it worth his while, as far as possible,
for him to spend it as pleasantly as
possible. If man sets out to be
farmer it makes all the difference in
the world whether he farms it with
convenient and pleasant surroundings
and amid the comforts Of civilization,
or rough it on the frontier, beginning
to enjoy the comforts Of this world
only as he is about to leave it. This
is the stIong argument for making
homes in older States. The same
reasoning is, however, quite as con-
elusive in any locality for purchasing
the most highly improved land, which,
for home purposes, is always most
valuable in proportion to its cost.
Whatever improvement has been
made upon given farm, still good
farmer will always find room for
more. Usually the improvements
made after the first clearing OF land
pay better than those which, through
necessity, everybody is forced to
make. No farmer will leave his land
in an unchanged condition after oc-
cuping it q few years; while a good
farmer will always leave it in better
shape. How it shall be improved
must depend somewhat on his avail
able capital, as well as on his natural
skill and aptitude. With good man
agement, the Improvements that add
most to the value of farm need not
be very expensive. Granting that
the farm will pay its own expenses
and provide support for the farmer
and his family, he can do much Of
the work of improvement himself.
An example from real life illus
trates the manner in which this may
be accomplished. A young man just
twenty-one years of age purchased q
farm, paying $50 per acre. His first
work of Improvement was to plant
$50 peach trees, occupying about an
acre of ground. The third year after
planting he sold from this acre 100
bushels of peaches for as many dol
lars. In the five years succeeding he
sold from this same orchard upwards
of $500 worth of fruit This en-
couraged him, and he made Il second
peach orchard of thirty acres, five
acres Of ounce trees, and four OF
pears Of different varieties. His rule
was to make the farm crops pay all
expenses, and invest his fruit money
in new orchards. When he had the
farm eighteen years he had an assnr
red income of $4,000 to $4,000 year
from fruit alone. Then he had al
offer, which he regarded as goud
one, receiving S2l0 an acre lUr his
improved farm. The larger part ot
this advance in value he had earned
by improving his farm. His reason
for selling was that the farm was
larger than he wished to care for
and he regarded some of his selec.
tions of fruit trees as unfortunate
He now has a place of less than fifty
acres, of which ten acres are III
Duchess pears, seven acres in quin.
ces, and twelve in peaches, nearly all
early and late Crawfords. The trees
have only been set seven years, but
the farm would now sell for $500 per
acre, yet its owner regards it as
worth far more to hold.
Many other arguments will be sug-
gested even to the casual reader in
favor of making farm, in neigh
borhood adjacent to good local mar
kets, accessible to manufacturing
centres, where a daily demand exists
for milk, fresh butter, vegetables,
fruits and similar farm products,
from which the husbandman can ex-
tract profit far beyond that which
attends the growing of course grains
and live stock on the Western prair.
les. Good roads, fine educational
privilegs, established neighborood,
opportunities for social and friendly
intercourse, proximity to kindred and
ealy friends are all strong arguments
in favor of making a farm by i'm.
proving:the paternal acres or those in
close vicinity, instead of sacrificing
the best years of ones life to the
vain attempt of securing double the
araa of land and dnnhla the hanni