On habits and manners

It costs about $5 per acre to draw out manure and enrich a field so as to bring its crop of corn from five barrels up to eight per acre. Thus the three barrels are the product of only $5 of working capital. How many barrels would the same five dollars have yielded, clear of expense, if put into land ? Not more than one. The fact is, that many farmers are " land poor," because they have not clearly understood that land alone is of no more use than gold to a starving sailor on a raft. The money made by farmers is not in proportion to the size of their farms, but in proportion as they have working capital, and know how to use it. And if our beginner does not own a foot of land for ten years after he has commenced to farm for himself, he will be better off, provided be and his wife know enough not to spend their working capital for things which can be done without. If, however, the young farmer finds that he is fond of attending auctions, or discovers that either he or his wife have a habit of buying things because they are "nice," or because they are "cheap,'' or for any other reason than absolute necessity, then his only chance to escape shipwreck may be to run in debt for a farm. Debt is a hard master ; but it will stop him, if anything will, from fooling away his money. It is a sad fact that not one man in ten can rely upon himself and his family to refuse always to buy that which they could somehow manage to do without. Therefore it is often safer to put money into land, lest it take wings and escape. In buying a farm, the next thing in importance after healthful location, is the natural productiveness of the soil. That this should be considered before price, is evident. Land rich enough without manure to bring eight barrels of corn, pays the farmer over two dollars per day for his labor. While on land which brings only four barrels, the farmer is paid scarcely one dollar per day. The rich land is cheap at thirty dollars per acre, because each acre, after paying the cost of cultivation, yields more profit than the interest on thirty dollars. While the poor land pays no interest, and would be dear as a gift, unless the farmer has means to enrich it. Rich land, in a productive state, is often too highpriced for a poor man. But the richest lands are often unproductive from want of drainage, simply, and can be bought at a real bargain. The young farmer should be awake to seize such chances of getting rich land cheap. Some of the most successful farmers have found their fortunes in just that way. A very simple levelling apparatus may be made as follows: Take a fence board eight inches wide and sixteen feet long ; plane one edge, so as to be straight ; nail a leg three feet long at each end of the board; set the board on its legs, straight side up. A carpenter's level on top of the board will tell you how much the lowest leg needs to be raised. Raise it till the straight edge is level, and measure with a pocket rule the height of the leg from the ground. This height is the difference of level between the ends. Make a note of it, and move the apparatus sixteen feet