369] The Condition of the Western Farmer. 91 



after that date 480 acres. One or more of these causes will 

 explain the fact, frequently observed, of several successive 

 entries upon the same tract of land. 



The progress of the paper shows the importance of 

 classifying all the settlers into those who took land from the 

 government, those who purchased of the railroad company, 

 and those who purchased of other former owners. It has 

 not been found necessary to make further classification of 

 those who took government land, according to the kind of 

 claim which they chose, because no pre-emptions taken by 

 resident farmers were paid up, and whether a home- 

 stead or a timber claim was taken the land was equally a gift 

 from the government to the taker. The reason why a dis- 

 tinction is drawn between purchasers from the railroad com- 

 pany and other purchasers is because of the difference of the 

 terms of sale in the two cases. For the sake of simplicity 

 the few purchasers of school land are, except when given a 

 special heading, included under the third class above, i. e., 

 the purchasers from other than the railroad company. 



There are included under the name of takers of govern- 

 ment land all those who made entries direct from the govern- 

 ment, even though they had paid former holders to relinquish 

 claim upon the lands in order that they, the newcomers, 

 might take it; and this plan is adopted because the newcomer 

 had to carry out all the government requirements just as if 

 he were one of the earliest settlers. On the other hand, those 

 who bought from other settlers contracts for the sale of rail- 

 road land are included with the purchasers from former 

 owners rather than with the purchasers from the railroad 

 company, because the burden to which they subjected them- 

 selves was exactly the same as it would have been if they had 

 purchased lands to" which the title was already complete. 



B. COMPARISON OF THE FIGURES OF THIS PAPER WITH 



THOSE SHOWN BY THE CENSUS OF 1890. 



The United States Census figures for the state of Nebraska 

 show that of all taxed acres, 58.13 per cent were mortgaged; 



