_SELECTION AND PURCHASE OF FARMS_
In selecting a farm, many things should be considered. One purchaser may
lay stress on the quality or productivity of the land, another on its
location as to market, another as to the outlook or scenery, and another
as to the society in the immediate locality. Some would be unhappy if
far removed from city or town, while others delight in many broad acres
far removed from the busy crowd. All these different phases of the
subject, with many others, should be considered before the purchase is
made. It is seldom that a farm can be secured which fulfils all
desirable conditions; therefore, such choice should be made as will most
fully meet the desires and tastes of the purchaser.
Some farms are purchased with little or no thought of their producing a
livelihood, while others are selected largely for the purpose of
securing profits in their cultivation, and others are bought because
they are expected to furnish safe and profitable investments. It is
evident that no specific or even general rule can be formulated which
will be applicable to all purchasers, since tastes, training, needs and
desires of the purchaser vary widely; nevertheless, a discussion of the
subject may be profitable. Those who secure their income and profits by
agriculture alone should lay stress on four things; viz., healthfulness,
environment, quality of land, and water supply.
Without health, life often becomes a burden; therefore, climatic
conditions, soil and surroundings, so far as they relate to physical and
mental vigor, should be considered first. But health and vigor are not
all, for if the moral, intellectual and social conditions of the people
in the neighborhood are undesirable, the children may take the road
which leads towards semi-barbarism. This road is open to all, in city
and country, but parents should avoid thrusting their children into it.
Church, and social congenial and God-fearing associates should be
accessible to the growing family. Children are and must be active,
physically and mentally, if they are to grow straight; and if provisions
are not made for directing their energies into proper channels, they are
likely to find improper ones. Wherever the farmer sows not a full
abundance of good seeds, weeds are certain to spring up. The farm must
provide a fair and liberal income, because want brings lack of true
pride, breeds carelessness, even hatred of others, filches self-respect
and courage. Therefore, if profits are desired, good land, land of wide
agricultural capabilities, should be selected. The greater variety of
crops the land is capable of producing and the more varieties the farmer
raises, provided he does not exceed his mental and executive
capabilities, the better will be his education and training.
Frequently the purchaser has too little means, and feels that he must
secure cheap lands, which too often are situated far from the railway
markets and centers of activity. In such a case, he places himself
outside the activities of the towns, which are extremely helpful to him
if he be wise enough to choose the good and refuse the evil which they
offer. Of course, much depends on the good sense of the parents and the
inheritance and training of the children as to how much they will imbibe
of that which is good and how much they will refuse of that which is
evil. Children cannot be placed entirely beyond evil influences, but
they can be prevented from becoming too familiar with them.
“Vice is a monster of so frightful mien,
As, to be hated, needs but to be seen;
Yet seen too oft, familiar with her face,
We first endure, then pity, then embrace.”
Already something has been said with regard to an abundant supply of
water, but it may not be out of place to emphasize the necessity of
securing healthful water for household purposes. Modern science has
revealed the fact that a large number of diseases are introduced into
the system by means of drinking water (see Chapter XII). All drinking
water may be boiled; it may be said that it should be, for in too many
cases water that appears limpid and pure, drawn from sources which have
every appearance of being uncontaminated, is not only dangerous but
sometimes deadly. Careful physicians recommend that all water be
filtered, but so many of the filters are imperfect and are so badly
neglected that there is no certainty that filtered water is entirely
safe; therefore, it may be said that the only safe way is to boil all
drinking water. As the streams and soil become more and more
contaminated by unsanitary conditions, it is only in rare cases that
safe water can be secured naturally. When wells or streams become low,
or when streams are quickly flushed by heavy rains, invariably there is
danger that the water which they contain may be impure. Care should be
taken to provide an abundance of water, and that used for household
purposes should be treated in such manner as will make it entirely
healthful.
Having discussed the subject from four leading standpoints, those of
less importance may be taken up. It is usually not wise to purchase a
farm, however well it may fulfil the requirements of healthfulness,
desirable environment and productivity, if the lands by which it is
surrounded are poor, since man, in one respect, is like the tree toad,
which partakes largely of the color of the thing to which it adheres.
The French have a proverb which runs in this wise: “Tell me where you
live, and I will tell you your name.” Translated into modern thought, it
would read: “Tell me your environment, and I will tell you your
character.”
Beauty of natural scenery may not be entirely ignored, although utility,
the dollar, must be kept prominently in view. One can afford to
economize in the living expenses in many ways not dreamed of by those
who load the farm table with a superabundance of good things, if it be
necessary to do so, to secure beautiful surroundings. It may be only a
question of choice between a moderate subsistence and a reposeful
environment, or an overloaded table with uninspiring surroundings.
Natural as well as artificial beauty and pleasurable environment have
their values. A certain lot on one street sells for $1,000, another one
on the same street for $500. They are both within easy reach of the
business center, on the same street-car line, of the same size, and have
the same elevation. Why the difference in price? Because of environment.
A seat in the dress circle at the theater costs a dollar, one in the
peanut gallery ten cents. The play can be seen as well with a glass in
the cheap seat as in the more expensive one. Then environment has value,
as well as land and buildings.
The value of the farm may be greatly modified by the improvements upon
it. It is well to ask, Is the house well located? May it not have to be
virtually rebuilt before it is at all satisfactory? Will it be necessary
to move and repair barns before they are at all suited to their
purposes? The improvements may be too extended for the needs of the
purchaser. Some farms are overloaded with buildings (Fig. 4); some have
badly arranged, unsightly buildings, too good to destroy and too ugly
and unhandy for either economy or pleasure. Farm buildings are not a
direct source of income and are expensive to keep in repair; therefore,
there would better be a slight deficiency of them than an ill arranged
surplus. All other permanent improvements, such as orchards,
plantations, fences, and the like, should be carefully considered. A
good bearing orchard of only a few acres may serve to furnish enough
profit each year to liquidate taxes and interest charges. The orchard
may be cheaper at $500 per acre than the balance of the farm is at $75
per acre, or it may be only an incumbrance of good land. Is the farm
naturally or artificially drained? If not, will $35 per acre have to be
spent in thorough draining before the land is really satisfactory? If
not drained, will it bring constant disappointment? Fences, lanes and
the necessity for them, the amount and location of inferior land as
pasture land, the kind of weeds about the farm, as well as the amount,
kind and location of timber, should be considered.
[Illustration: Fig. 4. Too many buildings for eighty acres of land.]
Land devoted to market-gardening should be near the market town where
the perishable products are to be sold. Vegetables should reach the
market early in their season in a fresh and presentable condition and
cheaply, if satisfactory profits are desired. Then land which can be
tilled early (warm or sandy land), though it may contain a comparatively
small amount of natural plant-food, will be more satisfactory than rich,
cold land situated farther from the market. An acre of poor, sandy land
near the market may be worth, to the gardener, three or four times as
much as an acre of the more distant fertile upland.
Near the town, manures, which are so necessary to force many
market-garden products, can be procured cheaply and in abundance. The
added distance of even one or two miles from the switch or shipping
station may have an important effect on profits. Land situated far from
market may well be devoted to stock-raising and such other products as
may be marketed infrequently or at leisure. As yet, agricultural methods
in America are so new that they have not adjusted themselves to the
growing cities, nor have specialized crops found their appropriate
localities. Too often are seen truck farms located half a score of
miles from the city, and the meat-producing farms within sight of it. As
the country becomes older, the varied activities in agriculture will fit
themselves into their appropriate localities, as they have already done
in many parts of Europe. The dairyman of the Channel islands has long
since learned that the piebald cattle of the poulders are not suited to
his wants, and the boer of the lowland knows that the meek-eyed,
thin-skinned Jersey is not best adapted to his cold, windy country and
wet pastures.
Cost of tillage should be considered when valuing land. When produced on
friable land, crops may be secured at much less cost than on tenacious
clay. On the other hand, while sandy soils are the most easily
cultivated, they are ever demanding more plant-food, and hence are not
well adapted to grass or general agriculture, as the expense of keeping
them productive is usually so great as to preclude profits.
Except in special cases, as in truck farming, it is cheaper to purchase
natural plant-food in the soil than artificial fertility. One acre of
land may have potential plant-food sufficient under superior tillage for
one hundred crops, while another unaided will yield but half as many,
and yet the two pieces of land are often priced at the same figure. In
other words, land of high productive power is usually cheaper than land
of low productive power. A good farm may be cheaper at $50 per acre than
a poor one as a gift.
Last, but not least, is the road to the farm. Every free-born American
demands a public highway in front of his house; if farms are small there
must then be a highway about every mile, or, at most, every two miles.
This leads to cutting up the country into enlarged checkerboards, to a
multiplication of highways so great that none of them can be kept
passably good without overtaxing the land which adjoins them. On account
of the contour of the land over which they pass, some roads are
extremely difficult and are well described by the man who, when asked
how far it was from a certain town to another one, answered: “Thirty
miles, and it’s up hill both ways.” As I write this I look out upon a
washed clay road which stretches up and on towards the horizon for six
weary miles, so steep that the team must maintain a walk for the whole
distance in ascending or descending. What is land worth at the other end
of this road, as compared with that which lies six miles away in the
other direction, along a smooth, level pike? Every grown farm boy should
have a good horse and a good road upon which to drive, if he be worthy
of such a noble animal as the horse. When he starts for himself let him
locate on a good road. There are always enough persons who are not
thankful for advice, especially if it be in a book, who are looking for
cheap land at the end of the hilly road.
Many farms are purchased by young men just starting out in life before
judgment has been developed by experience, while men of mature years
take in the whole problem, or rather series of problems, easily and at
once. The novice would do well to make a list of the topics enumerated
above, and add to them such others as appeal to his tastes or conditions
and then study them, one at a time; in fact, there is nothing left for
the young man to do but to make out a score-card upon which he records
his judgment in numbers as he investigates each phase of the difficult
problem of selecting a farm.