AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



chases; the other the accommodation of indi- 

 viduals now inhabiting the western country, or 

 who may hereafter emigrate thither. The for- 

 mer, as an operation of finance, claims primary 

 attention; the latter is important, as it relates to 

 the satisfaction of the inhabitants of the western 

 country. It is desirable, and does not appear im- 

 practicable, to conciliate both. Purchasers may 

 be contemplated in three classes : moneyed indi- 

 viduals and companies who will buy to sell again ; 

 associations of persons who intend to make set- 

 tlements themselves; single persons or families, 

 now resident in the western country or who may 

 emigrate thither hereafter. The two first will be 

 frequently blended, and will always want consid- 

 erable tracts. The last will generally purchase 

 small quantities. Hence a plan for the sale of 

 the western lands, while it may have due regard 

 for the last, should be calculated to obtain all the 

 advantages which may be derived from the two 

 first classes/' 1 



The government was slow in formulating the 

 plan which finally became most significant in the 

 conversion of the public domain into a nation of 

 farms. The American statesmen of the Eight- 

 eenth Century looked upon the western lands "as 

 an asset to be cashed at once for payment of cur- 

 rent expenses of government and extinguishment 



1 See The Public Domain, by Donaldson, p. 198. 

 200 



