THE LAND 13 



tremendous industrial development after the Civil War. The 

 direct results of industrial development were, first, the rise of 

 commercial farming to feed the cities, and, second, the exploi' 

 tation of a new kind of resource, the minerals that lay under the 

 soil. The southern planter and later the wheat farmer and corn' 

 hog raiser were commercial farmers; that is to say, they grew 

 crops to sell. Food, clothing, and the other necessities, which 

 the early farmers produced themselves, the commercial farmers 

 bought. Their great interest was a crop to be sold for a profit. 

 Before the time of commercial farming, the main idea of the 

 farmer was to be self-supporting. He grew as much as he 

 needed, bought as little as possible. The perfect farm from this 

 point of view was that which completely supported the farmer 

 and his family. From the commercial farmer's point of view, the 

 perfect farm was that which produced the largest cash crop. 



After the Civil War, the federal government tried in various 

 ways to aid the commercial farmers who were just beginning 

 at that time to grow numerous. At first, it was thought free 

 land was the solution, and in a series of Homestead Acts the 

 federal government gave away 275,400,000 acres of land. 10 

 Some of those who got this land grew rich. A great many others 

 failed. Someone once said of these homestead laws that they 

 were simply a wager "the government bet a quarter section 

 of land that a man could not live on it for five consecutive 

 years." 11 The government won the bet more often than was 

 good for the settlers. The chief reason for this was that much 

 of the land offered by the Homestead Act was useful mainly for 

 gracing. It was too dry for crop land, and 160 acres was not 

 enough for a man to earn a living as a rancher. 



By 1890 the largest part of the profitable farm land had been 

 taken up by the settlers. Agriculture had gone through a series 



10 Parkins and Whitaker, Our "Natural Resources and Their Conservation, 

 John Wiley tf Sons, Inc., New York, 1936, p. 23. 



11 Benjamin H. Hibbard, History of the Public Land Policies, The Macmillan 

 Company, New York, 1924, p. 395. 



