24 The Condition of the Western Farmer. [302 



be used for pasturage except on the very^ banks of the small 

 streams. But this condition has been materially changed 

 by the settlement of the country and the increase of timber. 

 How little justification in fact these early predictions had will 

 be seen with the progress of this paper. 



All the land thus far occupied had been " government 

 land/' 1 and, indeed, before 1870 there had been only three 

 sales of "railroad land" in the county. During 1872, how- 

 ever, practically all the available "government land" in the 

 county was entered, and though after that time here and there 

 an entry on an abandoned piece of land was made, neverthe- 

 less one who wished thereafter to settle in Hall county had to 

 depend either on " railroad land " or on purchasing from 

 older settlers. Since then the county has continuously in- 

 creased in population and has had its fair share of prosperity. 

 It has suffered from the grasshoppers, felt the impetus of years 

 of good crops and the discouragement of years of crop failure, 

 and has come out, it must be owned, with its fair share of 

 mortgages. The population was, according to the census of 

 1890, 16,513, of whom 8454 were residents of city or villages, 

 the remaining 8059 being residents of farms. With this we 

 can dismiss the consideration of the county as such; for all 

 that is important in the economic history of the farming 

 classes after this time will be brought out as fully as possible 

 in the following more detailed account treating of Harrison 

 township. 



ECONOMIC HISTORY OF HARRISON TOWNSHIP. 



The boundaries of Harrison Township (or Precinct, as it 

 was called before the county adopted township organization) 

 coincide exactly with, those of the congressional township 

 known as township eleven, range eleven, west of the sixth 

 principal meridian, and thus it contains very nearly thirty-six 



1 For this and other terms used in a rather technical sense through- 

 out this paper, as well as for a brief account of the ways in which 

 a settler could acquire title to the different classes of lands we are 

 to consider, see Appendix A. 



