FUNDAMENTAL CONDITIONS 25 



the southeastern part of Minnesota, the eastern fringe of 

 Nebraska and Kansas, and continued down through western 

 Arkansas and Texas. By 1880 this line had advanced in the 

 Northwest to include the Dakotas and nearly all of Nebraska 

 and Kansas, while the partially settled areas of Minnesota and 

 Iowa were filled out and extended. In the Southwest, the 

 Texan frontier was advanced and the density of settlement in 

 Arkansas and eastern Texas considerably increased. 1 



A comparison of the population statistics of 1860, 1870, and 

 1880 shows a remarkable growth in the whole western area. 

 The population of the prairie states the North Central division 

 according to the census increased from nine million in 1860 

 to thirteen million in 1870 and seventeen million in 1880 an 

 increase during the twenty years of ninety-one per cent. The 

 four frontier states and territories of this section, Minnesota, 

 Dakota, Kansas, and Nebraska, increased from three hundred 

 thousand in 1860 to nearly a million in 1870 and to nearly two 

 and a half million in 1880. The Southwest had not recovered 

 sufficiently from the war to expand much by 1870 but the popu- 

 lation of Texas and Arkansas leaped from a million three hun- 

 dred thousand in 1870 to nearly two and a half million in 1880. 

 In the states of the Pacific slope, the first rush of settlement 

 was over, but a gradual increase was kept up and many of the 

 settlers were drawn from mining to agricultural pursuits. 



That the greater part of this new population of the West 

 devoted itself to agriculture can be seen by examining the 

 statistics of improved farm lands as given in the table 2 on 

 the following page. 



Two factors made possible this great agricultural expansion: 

 the land was more accessible and more easily obtained than 

 ever before; and there was a surplus of industrial population 

 ready to take possession. In 1862, Congress adopted a new 

 principle in the disposition of the public lands by enacting the 



1 See maps illustrating density of population in United States Census, 1890, 

 Population, pt. i ; Sparks, National Development, ch. ii. 



2 Arranged from tables in United States Census, 1880, volume on Agriculture, 

 xviii. See also United States Commissioner of Agriculture, Reports, 1869, p. 17, 

 on westward progress of wheat-growing. 



