CHAPTER IV 



THE IMMIGRANT IN AGRICULTURE 

 IMMIGRATION IN AGRICULTURE * 



JOHN OLSEN 



AT the beginning of the nineteenth century the United States 

 found itself in possession of vast undeveloped resources, which 

 were tremendously increased by successful purchases and an- 

 nexations in the course of the century. To secure the rapid de- 

 velopment of these resources the government not only threw 

 them open to unrestricted development by private enterprise 

 but even encouraged such development by public assistance. As 

 a result of such a policy public lands of apparently unlimited 

 extent and enormous fertility were offered to any one at a 

 nominal expense. Later the land acts were multiplied so that 

 any individual could obtain 480 acres of virgin territory. Fur- 

 thermore this policy of encouraging private enterprise led to 

 the extension of the means of communication so that these not 

 only accompanied but in many cases preceded the growth of 

 the settlement. Thus access to the splendid public demesne was 

 assured. 



The temptation to enter premises so promising could not be 

 suppressed by the unfavorable attitude at first assumed by for- 

 eign governments. Consequently a steady stream of immigrants 

 commenced flowing into this country. Even though separated 

 by political boundaries the English, Scotch, Welsh, and Irish 

 still felt that the states were peculiarly their own. Soon the 

 wanderlust of the Germans, the Danes, the Swedes, and the Nor- 

 wegians led the^n to the same destination. There were also some 

 Swiss and Dutch and a few from southern and eastern Europe 

 in this first wave which we shall designate the Old Immigration. 



i Adapted from a paper prepared by a graduate student in the Editor's 

 Class in the University of Minnesota, summer 1917. 



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