are governed by the conditions, as I have stated. There is, however, no good reason why every farmer in America should not own the soil he cultivates. Land can be bought for a ridiculously low price, and upon the most accommodating terms, in nearly every State in the Union. Government land may be purchased for about 5s. an acre. Slight improvements upon farms enhance their value out of proportion with the labor and capital expended upon them; but these, in every stage of cultivation, may be purchased at a small price per acre everywhere, except in the neighbourhood of large cities and towns. Moreover, excellent land may be bought from railway companies in nearly all the States and Territories. In Great Britain, and indeed throughout Europe, railways are built where there is every reason to believe that the traffic in passengers, minerals, and merchandise, requires the line and warrants the venture. In America, lines are built through regions far removed from civilization and the busy haunts of men to open out the country. Enterprising railway companies are subsidised and encouraged by the Government. Millions of acres of rich territory, bordering upon the lines of railways, are handed over to these corporations. Colonization schemes are promoted, the land is sold at a low price and upon easy terms, settlements are formed, agriculture and other industries are commenced, towns are built, and a traffic is created. Let me here caution the emigrant against a prevailing error which retards success, and sometimes renders prosperity impossible. Don't spend all your money in buying land! I have warned many against this mistake; but I know intelligent farmers who have ruined themselves through falling into the error. When you gaze upon the broad rolling prairies, and the luxuriant "low hills," waving with rich pasture, or smiling with flowers and foliage, and the proprietorship of it is offered to you for a few shillings per acre, the temptation to buy an immense tract of country is great, I admit. But remember that you have oxen, and horses, and milch cows, and sheep, and pigs, and fowls to buy; that you have cultivators, ploughs, harrows, hoes, axes, tools, chains, cradles and reapers, scythes and mowers, wagons and grindstones to buy; that seed for your crops cost money; that cattle, and horses, and harness cost money; that you must build a cabin for yourself, and a shelter for your cattle against rains and snows, or cold Western winters; and that you can expect no great reward for your labors, from Government land, until the second harvest season is past. Don't cripple your enterprise by buying more land than your capital warrants! The cost of agricultural implements, and articles absolutely necessary in a new settler's outfit, vary in different districts. The further you are removed from large towns, where these things are manufactured, or sold in large quantities, the more you will have to pay for them. A good wagon will cost you about $125, or £25, 13s. 8d.; a plough, $25, or £5, 2s. 9d. I will allow another $50, or £10, 5s. 5d., for cradles, scythes, axes, shovels, forks, rakes, chains, tools, etc., etc. A small frame house of four rooms will require an outlay of about $200, or £41, 2s. A log cabin will cost little beyond the labor. If a number of families emigrate together, and settle upon adjoining tracts of land, the men can unite in building the first rustic houses of the colony, and both time and money may thus be saved. There is also a great charm in having your friends in the old home as adjoining farmers in the new. Your nearest neighbors-those who may have preceded you to the district-will be ever ready with words of advice and cheer, as well as a helping hand. Don't be discouraged at the result of your first year's work. Things will look brighter after each succeeding harvest. I have remarked in a former chapter that people work harder in America than in Europe. A portion of the evidence given before the Royal Commission on Agriculture, by the two experts who visited the United States and Canada to procure authentic information upon that section of the Parliamentary inquiry, goes to show how far my general statement applies to the Western farmer. Mr. C. S. Read, M.P., speaking of the natural advantages and the hours of labor in American agriculture, testified as follows: : "Question by the President.-Have they enormous advantages of climate ? -Enormous. "And what are they?-First of all the character of the season is well to be depended upon when the time for harvest comes. I take it it is generally fine weather for them, and the character of the ground (I am speaking now of the part of the country which we speak of in our Report), that enormous valley of the Mississippi, and its tributary streams, is really one great stoneless plain, upon which you can work a plough that it would be madness to attempt to put into the land in England except upon fen land. We never saw in the grain-growing district horses tugging hard against the collar on account of the rise of the land, and the draught of the plough appeared to be very equable, and in a long row of twenty ploughs the horses seem to be all in a row, showing that the land was of one nature, and they keep at the same distance, and the men are able to ride upon the plough seated, and they seem to get rid of friction in a much larger degree than is the case with the English plough. "Question by the President.-What are these ploughs-three-horse ploughs? -Yes; three horses or mules is a common power to apply, and four horses, too; and then they have the single-furrow plough with a seat, which is called the 'sulky,' and they have a double plough, a two-furrow plough, which also has a seat, and which goes by the name of the 'Gang' plough; 'Cassidy's' plough, which is said to be most in favour. It has a pair of high wheels, three feet six inches high, and is supported by a pole which is attached to the yoke of the oxen, or to the horses' collars; the man is able by levers at the side to adjust the depth at any time. In place of having on the land side that long plate of iron which causes a great amount of friction, there is an angle wheel which runs in its place along the angle of the solid land, and keeps the plough in position. Then the ground is of such a nature that no coulter is used. As in the fen district and in Holland, a revolving disc cuts through the thick old vegetation of the prairie apparently very easy, and with a 'Gang' plough they get over something like three and a half acres per day. "Question by the President.-How many hours per day do they work?— We have given that in the Report. The hours of daylight I should say are very favourable to the American. The hours during which the laborers can work in the Middle States are, generally speaking, from six o'clock; and they work in the winter time up to half-past four o'clock, and in the summer they work from the time that they can see till the period when it is too dark to work any longer. On the large farms, when they go out to work, they so arrange the ploughing that the plough shall commence with the furrow near home, and take them out to the scene of action, which may be a mile off, and they plough there for a certain number of hours, say until after twelve, and then they bring back with them another furrow, so as not to lose any of the time in going out and coming back. That can be done upon the large farms, and, generally speaking, on the recently reclaimed land where there is no fencing. I saw a single man in charge of two of those double gang ploughs; that is to say, he was turning four furrows by himself. He had got two mules and a stallion horse in his own plough, and the latter was rather a troublesome fellow, and he had three mules in the other plough: and I saw him start. He left his own team and jumped on to the seat of the first plough, got it into the furrow and started, and then turned back and got to his own team, and followed as quick as he could. The shot of that man's work was a mile long, and I waited until he got to the end, and saw him jump off within forty or fifty yards of the end of the shot, and get upon the leading plough, which he turned at the end, and then he ran across to his own plough, and so got back again. When I left he had certainly made fair work. That was not the first break of the land; the land had been broken in the spring, and had been sown with linseed, a fair crop, and another portion with buckwheat, and he was turning it over for the second time to sow it with wheat next spring." I consider it an excellent plan for healthy, active emigrants, of moderate means, to hire out to farmers during the first harvest after their arrival in America. This will enable them to gain practical knowledge and experience of farming, in the section where they intend to settle, as well as receive valuable hints and information from those who have gone through the experience upon which they are about to embark. Farm hands are in great demand both South and West, as well as on the Pacific Coast, during the harvest. Men and women, able to work, can often enter into an engagement at the Labor Bureau, Castle Garden, New York, and at other American ports, to go to the very State or Territory of their choice, to work upon farms, or at skilled labor, during the summer months, and take service in household duties. The following table, compiled from the Report of the Commissioner of Agriculture, Washington, gives the average wages prevailing in different parts of the country in April, 1880: |