451    THE WISCONSIN FARMER.



as attorney for a wealthy mining comp' -,
has promised us a communication on the -
ject of its agricultural resources, and we i ko
this occasion to notifiy him that we would be
glad to have some more favorable account
than the above, unless the Jfercusy really tells
the truth.



      Short Capters on Pradcbal Afftirs.
                 NUMBER 1.

           MAKIONG INVESTMENT&
  Since the times of high tide in 1866, when
money was so plenty that the chief trouble
was to know what to do with it, when the
price of a lot of wild land or of a city lot was
about the lost thing that was thought of; and
when even steady, plodding farmers caught
the infection, and at most extravagant figures,
purchased their own torment, and, too often,
ultimate pecuniary ruin, by enlarging the area
of their already too large farms, the people of
this western country have been grinding out
the penalty of their dizzy-headed folly and
reckless extravagance. But the bubble that
burst so unexpectedly in the grasp of so many
strivers after sudden wealth, is re-forming,
and the appearance now is that within the
next twelve months speculation will, again,
be the mania In all parts of the country. Al-
ready the disposition to indulge in luxuries
that can ill be afforded is apparent every-
where, and men who went down with the crash
of 1857 seem to have forgotten the lesson it
taught them and to have turned their backs
upon all the counsels of prudence and com-
mon sense.
  A word of caution to our readers touching
the matter of investments: These times ol
much money and ,n upward tendency o0
everything :iast commands money, will not
always last. As a nation, we are piling uI
an enormous debt, and we have hardly yet be,
gun to feel the burden it must necessarily im
pose upon the industry of the country. War
usually operate as stimulators of the energj



ef a people, and when they do not devastat4
the country on whose behalf they are carriec
on, thA, sometimes an in nur case. give to it



temporarily, the appearance of increased pros-
perity. But it must not be fogotten that a
protracted war is, after all, a weakener of
national strength for the time, and is never,
in any case a positive good except as it vindi-
cates and confirms a principle or prunes a
nation of some of its serious faults.



As it respects their property interests, the
people of the North have not yet begun to
feel the inevitable adverse effects of the war
now being waged for the preservation of



our Republic. The large increase of paper
circulation and the extraordinary call for
everything that can be produced or manufac-
tured have thus far inflated rather than crip-
pled the business of the victorious North.
  What we wish to enforce is the importance
of calmly and wisely looking this matter
squarely in the face, and of so shaping our
conduct and our plans as not to commit the
same folly in the future from which we have
suffered so much in the recent past.
  To farmers especially we would say, be
careful of your surplus funds. If not entire-
ly clear of debt of every kind, avail yourselves
of these flush and easy times to pay off the
last farthing. For the next twenty years you
will be expected to contribute something an-
nually towards the liquidation of the national
indebtedness, and you won't care to be ham.
pered and harrassed by debts of your own at
the same time.
  If already out of debt, and your industry
and thrift have brought you a little more than
is needed for current expenses, see to it that
every dollar is placed where it will most sure-
ly add to the comfort and advantage of your-
self and family and bring an increase of fairly
gathered gains in the future. These ends are
in no way so easily and pleasantly made se-
cure as in adding to the improvements of your
homes and farms. Draining and more thor-
ough cleaning up of cultivated fields; the
enriching of the soil by all the economical
means known to science and approved prac-



tice; the seeding down, for a short time of
such fields as demand rotation and rest from
I exhaustive croppine: the planting of fruit



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