Typed as spelled and
written
Lena Stone Criswell
THE MARLIN DEMOCRAT
Eighteenth Year - Number 45
Marlin, Texas, Saturday, October 26, 1907
-----
LETTERS BY THE PEOPLE.
-----
Selection of a Farm.
To The Democrat:
This is a most important question to be
considered by any man who proposes to begin framing, or one who
expects to change his location. Perhaps he has been a renter
and expects to go into another district and become the owner of a
tract of land, it is much better, when possible, for a man to buy
but a small one and not pay cash down for it. The man who owns
his farm, though (-)illy improved and meagerly provided with
implements, is much happier than he who expends his forces on
another man's land. The thought that he must leave at the
owner's bidding, the improvements, association, the conveniences and
all that he has brought around him, perhaps just at the age and
condition when he is least able to encounter the fatigues and
embarrassment attending the moving and making of a new is an exer-
(sic) present trouble.
In the selection of a location, health is
the first thing to be sought; the quality of soil surrounding is an
after-consideration. Before making the purchase of a farm upon
which you expect to live you should ponder well all that is in any
way connected with it. Remember, you are selecting a home--a
spot where you will rear your children, expend your life forever and
pass from earth leaving the harvests you have sown to oters. (sic)
Always avoid a district known to be sickly
no matter how cheap the land may be. Determine in advance what
kind of farming you will follow and seek a soil to suit. But
if you are to engage in mixed farming, there are few counties where
suitable soil can not be found. It is true there is poor land
in almost, every county in Texas and rich land as hence care must be
observed or disappointment will follow; by all means if possible see
the land yourself upon which you would make a life settlement before
purchasing. Ascertain what are the present and prospective
facilities for furnishing a school education for your children, and
social enjoyments for your family, also regarding religious meetings
and privileges. They are important items in building up happy
homes. Look out for pure water on the land you buy both for
family and stock purposes. It is better to buy a farm much run
down and out of repair, provided you pay only its real value than to
purchase one with improvements which do not suit your purposes.
In other words, it is better to pay $40 an acre for a place that $40
more will make just what you want than 80 dollars for one that never
exactly suit you. Count your money, then invest only a portion
in land, reserving sufficient for improvements, tools for
cultivation.
Buy but few acres and pay for them if you
have but limited means rather than to go largely in debt and run the
risk of losing all. One small farm paid for is worth more than
a large one half paid for. Unless you are sure of your ability
to meet obligations, Debt, with ever growing interest, is the
nightmare of far too many farmers in this country. Forty acres
of land thoroughly and intelligently cultivated will put more money
in the owner's purse than two or three times that amount skimmed
over in a slovenly hurried manner. System and thoroughness in
all things apply most emphatically to farmers, and if the farm is
too large for the farmer and his means, many things have to be
neglected whereby the (sic) losses money. Therefore, it is
better to purchase a few acres at a time, bearing in mind that as
your means will allow land adjoining your farm can be purchased and
thus you will gradually but safely and surely enlarge your domain.
It there is a farm for sale where you would
like to live and raise your family, say 160 acres, get four of your
neighbors to go with you and buy it and quit renting land.
Forty acres of land in fifteen years more will be a large farm.
This is the old forty-niner talking to you. The most of you
have the money to make a payment; you can work it out in five years
and have a home.
J. R. KIRKPATRICK.
Chilton, Texas.
----------
Copyright permission granted to Theresa Carhart and her volunteers
for
printing by The Democrat, Marlin, Falls Co., Texas
