72 The Condition of the Western Farmer. [350 



c. Improvements on Land in Harrison Township. 



In accordance with the plan of this part of the paper, the 

 next thing to consider is the value of improvements on the 

 various farms, and under the head of improvements we in- 

 clude here buildings, fences, fruit trees, if any, draining, etc., 

 but not the cost of breaking the land, that being a necessary 

 preliminary for all the land before it goes into cultivation. 

 Table XXL gives a map 1 of the township proper, with figures 

 representing the estimated value of improvements on each 

 tract of farming land. An asterisk means that the land 

 has no improvements upon it in the sense above, though 

 it may be broken and under regular cultivation either by an 

 owner non-resident of the township or by a renter. The 

 figures given are for values in dollars at the present day, not 

 for cost of construction, and are of course estimates based 

 partly on examination of the buildings themselves and partly 

 on the statement of the occupant or some one of his neighbors. 

 Owing to the scanty opportunities for learning the facts, the 

 figures can by no means be considered as exact, and many 

 errors have no doubt crept in; but an effort was made to 

 approximate actual values as nearly as might be, and the 

 figures given are thought in the main to be sufficiently 

 accurate for the purposes of this paper. Table XXII. gives 

 a similar outline map showing the mortgages on the same 

 tracts of land. Here a circle represents unincurnbered 

 land. This table is introduced here for purposes of compar- 

 ison, in preference to bringing it in under the heading of 

 real estate mortgages previously considered. By turning 

 from one table to the other we can readily see how nearly 

 the mortgage on any one tract of land corresponds to the 

 amount expended on it for improvements. The letters " G," 



1 In this and the following map the heavy lines indicate section 

 boundaries, and serve at the same time as the limiting lines of 

 farms. Whenever one farm includes land on each side of the sec- 

 tion boundary, the heavy line is replaced by a dotted line, to indi- 

 cate that fact. The light solid lines are in all cases the limiting 

 lines of farms. 



