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AND

WHERE TO FIND ONE.

SHOWING THAT

HOMESTEADS MAY BE HAD BY THOSE DE-
SIROUS OF SECURING THEM:

WITH

THE PUBLIC LAW ON THE SUBJECT OF FREE HOMES,
AND SUGGESTIONS FROM PRACTICAL FARMERS;

TOGETHER WITH

NUMEROUS SUCCESSFUL EXPERIENCES OF OTHERS, WHO, THOUGH
BEGINNING WITH LITTLE OR NOTHING, HAVE BE-

COME THE OWNERS OF AMPLE FARMS.

BY THE AUTHOR OF

"TEN ACRES ENOUGH."

"

New York:

PUBLISHED BY JAMES MILLER,

(SUCCESSOR TO C. 8. FRANCIS & CO.)

522 BROADWAY.

*1864.

9441
ME

Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1864,

BY JAMES MILLER,

In the Clerk's Office of the District Court of the United States for the Southern District of New York,

'RENNIE, SHEA & LINDSAY, STEREOTYPERS AND ELECTROTYPERS 81, 83 & 85 Centre-street, NEW YORK.

ANDERSON & RAMSAY,
Printers,

28 Frankfort Street, N. Y.

UNIV CALIFORNS

PREFACE.

THE rich man needs no such work as this. His ample purse will enable him to purchase land whereever his fancy may lead, paying for other men's improvements, and lavishly expending his means on He has his idols in common with the

new ones.

poor man.

The first thought of the former is to improve and embellish; that of the latter is simply to acquire.

The now wealthy man was at one time actuated by a similar impulse. Henceforth his ambition is to spend. As the poor are always with us, there is a constantly existing crowd whose aspirations are identical with those which he once entertained. Many of them are equally deserving with their successful predecessors. Many of them have no thought of achieving fortune by commerce, trade, or manufactures, or the national vice of office-seeking. Their attention is directed exclusively to agriculture, and the acquisition of land. They have either been brought up as farmers, or a passion has been born with them to become such, or disappoint

288117

ment elsewhere has turned their thoughts in the same direction.

In all these cases, they are aiming for a common goal-the securing of a farm. Multitudes succeed in their object, while other multitudes fail-some from ignorance, some from incurable incapacity, others from misdirection. The man who digs for gold at random will invariably become poor, while he to whom the precise spot has been pointed out wherein the precious deposit lies concealed, will, with a fraction of the same industry, become rich. To be successful in any thing, effort must be directed by intelligence. Fortunes may be stumbled on occasionally, but stumbling will be found to be a very precarious dependence.

So far as misdirection may be a cause of failure, it can to some extent be avoided. My object is to show how such result may be prevented, by suggesting practical methods for insuring success-some original, some derived from the ripe experience of others. I write with no reference to mere land speculation, such as induces men to purchase to-day for the sole object of selling at a higher price tomorrow, the new buyer selling a week later to a still newer one, while neither has, in the interval, expended a dollar in improvements. I treat almost exclusively of gradual increase of value, and only incidentally of sudden enhancement. Incidents of

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

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