ed lies on the line of a railroad which gives equal terms
to way freight and to through freight, you will fare nearly as well.
Railroads control agricultural development. Sparsely settled regions
always practice extensive cultivation, raising light crops on big
farms, because only such crops can be grown as can be raised on
large areas by machinery, and are not perishable. Staples like corn,
wheat, pork, and beef are transported at low prices for long
distances by the railroads. This forces the settlers in newly opened
portions of the country to sell in a market created by the
railroads, in competition with what is produced within the areas of
intensive cultivation, that is, with access to adjacent markets.

So we find the bonanza wheat farms of California, the Dakotas, and
the Canadian Northwest, the pampas of the Argentine, the Steppes of
Russia, and the Indian uplands devoted to wheat raising; in the
United States corn belt, fields of from five to twenty thousand
acres are still not uncommon. Conversely, intensive cultivation is
most advanced in China, where a dense population forced the people
long ago to bring into use every foot of tillable soil that is left
open to them.

Near the towns of the United States a few market gardeners supply
such vegetables as the people do not raise for themselves. The
states along the Atlantic seaboard have all the facilities for
successful intensive cultivation--a dense population and idle,
cultivable land. In choosing a location, the home crofter should
well consider his experience, and try to enter a community where he
can engage in analogous pursuits. Dairy regions never have enough
men who understand cattle and horses; fruit-growing districts always
need experienced pickers; market garden regions need men who
understand rotating crops and making hotbeds, transplanting, etc.

If you have a little money, you can probably do best by buying and
draining some swamp land, which is the most productive of all, as it
contains the washings of the upland for centuries. Swamp land can
usually be cleared and drained for from thirty to forty dollars per
acre. It can be bought very cheap and when ready to cultivate will
have increased many times in value.

The next best is the "abandoned" or worn-out farm. Proper methods of
cultivation will bring it back to more than its original fertility.
The Eastern states from Maine to Virginia abound with them at from
five to twenty-five dollars per