54 



The Condition of the Western Farmer. [332 



total acreage of government, railroad, and school lands in 

 regard to which our investigations will be made. 1 



VII. ACREAGE OF VARIOUS CLASSES OF LANDS. 



1). The Quality of the Lands. 



Through the kindness of a mortgage company doing 

 business in Hall county, the writer has been enabled to obtain 

 the ratings which this company makes of the quality cf 

 the lands in Harrison township, ratings which we may feel 

 confident are as nearly correct as it is possible to get them. 

 The ratings are on the scale of 10, which number repre- 

 sents the very best land obtainable in the county, and they 

 grade from that point down. Land represented by 7 would 

 be of a very poor quality. Taking the average grade for 

 each quarter section, we find in Harrison township eighty- 

 two quarters ranked as 10; twenty-nine ranked as 9 or 

 9+; twenty-seven ranked as 8 or 8+; and six ranked as 7 

 or 7+. The best land is found along the southern and 

 western borders of the town. In fact there is hardly any 

 land in the two rows of sections along the southern and 

 the two along the western border which is not rated at 

 10. In the northeastern part of the township the land is 

 poorer, a little of it being very poor, and it is here that 



1 In order to avoid complication, each congressional section of 

 land is treated as if it contained exactly 640 acres, though in those 

 sections which lie long the northern and western boundaries of the 

 township, the true size varies from 631.42 acres to 647.70 acres. 

 These differences offset each other, and the totals given in the 

 table vary only very slightly from the total true acreage of the 

 township. 



