[Homesteading] [Morris, Edmund]. How to Get a Farm, and Where to Find One. Showing that homesteads may be had by those desirous of securing them: With the public law on the subject of free homes, and suggestions from practical farmers; together with numerous successful experiences of others, who, beginning with little or nothing, have become the owners of ample farms by the author of "Ten Acres Enough."
New York: James Miller, 1864. First edition. 345 pages, plus eight pages of ads for book and goods of use to beginning farmers.
A self-help book for Easterners hoping to make it big out west, with a short section specific to the virtues of California: "California may well claim the palm for her horticultural products, and though all her fruits may not equal those of our more northern clime, they certainly surpass them in abundance and size."
The author of this book for aspiring homesteaders is best-known for his memoir of leaving the city to take up small-scale farming, Ten Acres Enough. That book has become a favorite among a new generation of back-to-the-landers and it is currently in print from two publishers (and a host of print-on-demand firms).
After the initial flush of success with that book, Morris authored this guide to profiting from the 1862 Homestead Act, which granted settlers 160 acres of federal land in exchange for improving it. The book describes the Homestead Act and offers advice for getting started, and then surveys the quality of available land throughout the United States, going state by state and region by region. Most of Morris's information comes from published sources. This book was also popular, going through at least four editions by 1872. Morris, it turns out, liked to hand out advice—he also wrote a book on oil speculation in 1865. An uncommon and interesting book.
A very good copy in the original publisher's cloth with some stains to the edges and fading to the gilt title on the spine. [9M]. (#E310)
$150
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