But There Is A Great Deal Of Money To
Be Made By Judicious Investments In Land.
Buying large tracts of land
I believe to be the least profitable speculation, unless indeed the
purchaser knows exactly what he is buying, and is on hand at the
public sale to get the benefit of a second choice.
I say second
choice, because the preemptor has had the first choice long ago, and
it may be before the land was surveyed. What I would recommend to
speculators is to purchase in some good town sites. Buy in two or
three, and if one or two happen to prove failures, the profits on the
other will enable you to bear the loss. I know of a man who invested
$6000 at St. Paul six years ago. He has sold over $80,000 worth of the
land, and has as much more left. This is but an ordinary instance. The
advantage of buying lots in a town arises from the rapid rise of the
value of the land, the ready market, and withal the moderate prices at
which they can be procured during the early part of its history.
To such persons as have a desire to come West, and are not inclined to
be farmers, and who have not capital enough to engage in mercantile
business, there is sufficient employment. A new country always opens
avenues of successful business for every industrious man and woman;
more kinds even than I could well enumerate. Every branch of mechanics
needs workmen of all grades; from the boy who planes the rough boards
to the head workman. Teaming affords good employment for young men the
year round. The same may be said of the saw-mills. A great deal of
building is going on constantly; and those who have good trades get
$2.50 per day. I am speaking, of course, of the territory in general.
One of the most profitable kinds of miscellaneous business is
surveying. This art requires the services of large numbers; not only
to survey the public lands, but town sites and the lands of private
individuals. Labor is very high everywhere in the West, whether done
by men, women, or children; even the boys, not fourteen years old,
who clean the knives and forks on the steamboats, get $20 a month and
are found. But the best of it all is, that when a man earns a few
dollars he can easily invest it in a piece of land, and double his
money in three months, perhaps in one month. One of the merchant
princes of Boston, the late Col. T. H. Perkins, published a notice in
a Boston paper in 1789, he being then 25, that he would soon embark on
board the ship Astrea for Canton, and that if any one desired to
commit an "adventure" to him, they might be assured of his exertions
for their interests. The practice of sending " adventures" "beyond the
seas" is not so common as it was once; and instead thereof men invest
their funds in western prizes.
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