there.

Is it any wonder that so many of the pioneers who had lived long enough
in the termite area to see what could happen to other lumber, chose
walnut, whenever they could get it, for structural work and for
weatherboard protection?

Safety of operation is still another matter for consideration. If I wish
to create an estate for my family or for my last years, how can I go
about it with the best chance for success? Shall I go prospecting for
precious metals? Thousands have failed at that job where but few have
succeeded. Shall it be manufacturing? Count up the failures. For each
success, at least ten go broke. Wall Street? The Wall Street journals
themselves give the statistics. More than 90 percent of all persistent
Wall Street gamblers lose money in the end. Farming? Much safer, but
most farmers who have made much money in the past have accomplished it
by way of an increase in the value of their land rather than through
their farming operations. This is the result of fluctuating prices. Bad
years often eat up the savings of good years. Then, too, the good farmer
is a busy man. The better the year the busier he is. Very little time
remains for side issues, such as the planting of trees.

As a matter of fact, as erosion of the soil progresses, as good,
productive land becomes more scarce, and as farm labor becomes more and
more difficult to employ, the attention of informed farm owners and
operators has been turning more and more to soil-building, perennial,
permanent and labor-saving crops. Of these, grass and tree crops are,
far and away, the most promising today.

In view of what I have found out during the last 20 years, I am quite
sure that, if I were starting now, I should expect to make farming a
major element in my estate building, but it would be mostly tree and
grass farming, not grain farming. I should need livestock, of course, to
make use of the grass. And I like livestock.

This is what I ask of life: First of all, I must enjoy my work. I do not
care to spend all my days in getting ready to live. My job must lie
along the road I like to travel. I do not care to work at a task so
burdensome, so time-consuming that I have no heart for the enjoyment of
living. At the same time, a big part of the plan must be to find a good,
safe way to build an estate. It must be feasible, practical, enjoyable.

I believe, in the light of my own recent experience, that if one is
properly situated, there is much to b