309] The Condition of the Western Farmer. 31 



centives were for the farmer to invest upon his farm any sur- 

 plus he might have, instead of consuming it in a less directly 

 productive manner. The great difficulty of getting credit 

 at the time furthered such investment, for capital was sorely 

 needed upon the farms, and practically the only way for the 

 farmer to put it there was by carefully avoiding all expendi- 

 tures for living that were not absolutely necessary, and so 

 saving the necessary amount, or what part of it he could. 

 This form of investment, in turn, gave a certain degree of 

 prosperity ; and it may well be that the man who could main- 

 tain his footing under the circumstances which we have 

 described, would not be able to prevent loss at the present 

 day, when the conditions are so different; for a much higher 

 standard of living must to-day be maintained, and it is now 

 comparatively easy to fall into the habit of borrowing until 

 all hope of retrieving one's fortunes is gone. This difference 

 may to some extent account for the fact, which we shall see 

 later, that fewer of the farmers were ruined in the early years 

 by what we may call the prevalent agricultural conditions, 

 than have, in recent years, failed in a similar manner. 



The matters that we have mentioned present some of the 

 salient features of the economic conditions that surrounded 

 the first settlers. Bearing these facts in mind, let us now 

 proceed to consider with more or less detail the financial con- 

 dition of the farmers during the first few years after the set- 

 tlement of the township was begun; and from that we can 

 pass to a more hasty sketch of the changes from year to 

 year until the present time. 



The number who took claims or bought railroad land dur- 

 ing 1872, and who followed up the taking of their claims by 

 actual residence, was sixty-one; but probably many of these 

 were only nominally residents until the following year. In 

 1873 tne number of residents increased to seventy-three, 

 thirteen new men coming in and one man leaving. Of the 

 newcomers nine entered government land; three contracted 

 for the purchase of railroad land, and one purchased his 

 land of a non-resident holder of railroad contracts. The 



