He was not really respected as a farmer back home: he was a hobbyist, a truck farmer, with no real acreage, just some ducks (that every fall raped one another in a brutal fashion we never got used to), a dog, a tractor, a Web site (a Web site, for Christ's sake!), and two decorative, brockle-headed cows of dubious dairiness.
Though it might seem ludicrous to spend as much money on a virtual island that you could otherwise use to purchase real acreage in the physical world, the buyer in this case could actually be quite financially savvy.
A private consultant, John Schnittker, said the department's reduction in corn yields was "almost unprecedented" and added that the stocks to use ratio was "pretty low, putting real pressure on acreage and yield next year".
Nobody is ignoring them, least of all stores with acreage of real estate and magazines with acreage of advertising space.
The National Investment Company, known by its French initials, SNI, is said to control Morocco's biggest bank, insurance company, dairy and cooking-oil firms, as well as a large acreage of real estate and is now often castigated for its anti-competitive practices.
It lacks real purpose: all that empty acreage for such a game, like using a soup tureen in which to boil an egg.
It's my hope that this blog, a piece of real estate with less finite acreage than the published newspaper, and with a more casual tone, will allow me to report back on some of those visits.
With its rolling hills, lakes and rivers, it is attracting Texans eager to escape city life, and out-of-state buyers who can buy more acreage for less, real estate agents say, than they might pay in other states.
"We had a substantial increase in acreage," George says.
Down the road, my friend had a pond and a real stream, as well as more acreage.
Oceanfront properties like these, real estate agents say, are more desirable than acreage along a lake or prairie.
