no difficulty in securing such land as you want with location and
price to suit you; but I think that you should know in advance that
older men than you have purchased farms hereabout with very similar
intentions, but with the ultimate result that they have lost more,
financially, than we who are native to the soil; for, while we were
once well-to-do and are now poor, we still own our land,
impoverished as it is. However, the farm still furnishes us a
comfortable living, supplemented, to be sure, with some income from
other sources.

"I am very willing to give as much information as I can regarding
our lands and the agricultural conditions and common practices,
although I fear that this knowledge will discourage you from making
any investments in our worn-out farms. If you still decide to make
the trial, I surely hope you will be successful, for we need such an
object lesson above all else.

"I assume that you will wish to locate near a town of considerable
size, in order that you can haul manures from town, and perhaps some
feed also; and have a good market for your milk and other products."

"No, Sir," said Percy, "I should prefer not to engage in dairying,
and I do not wish to make use of fertilizer made from my neighbors'
crops. We have some object lessons of that kind in my own state; and
I have no doubt that some can be found in this state who feed all
they produce on their own land and perhaps even larger amounts of
feed purchased from their neighbors, or hauled from town, and who,
in addition to using all of the farm fertilizer thus produced, haul
considerable amounts of such materials from the livery stables in
town. With much hard work, with a good market for the products of