SETTLEMENT AND COLONIZATION IN GREAT LAKES STATES 25 
dispose of it through inability to hold it or the undesirability of 
holding. (5) Poor land frequently has to be bought along with good 
land; and when the good land is all sold, the company in many 
cases will start selling its poorer lands. Or the good land in the 
region is mostly in farms and the company prefers to sell its 
poor lands rather than move. This applies to a slight extent to 
Project VI. . 
Settlers prosper most at first on the moderately light soils. Such 
soils are easier to clear than the heavier soils, and their plant foods 
are more available, so that crops do better at the start. But unless 
some constructive type of agriculture that maintains the fertility 
of the soil is developed, the prosperity will soon vanish. It may last 
long enough, however, to see the company through. 
At the other extreme are heavy clay soils which are hard to clear 
and slow to adapt themselves to crops, and which in the end may 
not be so well suited to northern farming as warmer and somewhat 
lighter soils. Project XV had land of this type. 
Obviously the companies with land between these two extremes 
are most fortunate. The heavy sandy loam and silt loam soils are 
the best soils for colonization purposes. All but a few of the 
projects were selling land with soils mostly of these types, but their 
land was by no means all equally good. Some was not well-drained; 
some was very stony; some was rough and rolling; some had only 
an inch of humus on the surface. 
i CHOICE OF SETTLERS 
A land company can very largely determine by its sales methods, 
advertising, terms of sale, and credit arrangements the kinds of 
prospects who will come seeking land; and then by some system of 
selecting prospects, it can weed out most of the undesirables among 
those who become interested. The technique involved is discussed 
later. 
A company may elect to make its appeal mainly to native 
American farmers with considerable capital; it may direct its selling 
campaign toward persons of foreign birth who have been in this 
country for some time; or it may look toward native-born Americans 
. engaged in city occupations. The last class includes some “ back-to- 
the-landers,” who have been brought up on farms but have subse- 
quently migrated to the city; and it usually includes some “ forward- 
to-the-landers,” persons who have never lived on a farm, but who 
would like to try their hands at farming. 
All the settlers were asked why they had become settlers in the 
cut-over region. Some of them gave two or three reasons. Follow- 
ing is a Summary of their answers, the figures in parentheses indicat- 
ing the number who gave each class of reasons: 
1. “ Wanted a farm of my own” (121). This is the characteristic answer of 
the tenant and of the “back-to-the-lander” who was not getting ahead in his 
previous occupation; also of some classes of foreign born. 
2. “Land rents (or prices) were too high where I formerly lived” (40). 
A frequent answer given by farmers’ sons and former tenants. 
3. “ Wanted better land’ (59). This answer represents mostly the farmers 
deserting the semiarid regions west of the Missouri River, the sandy lands of 
central Wisconsin and Michigan, the depleted soils of the East, and stony, 
hilly lands anywhere in the North Central States. nt 
4, “ Wanted a home of my own” (46). This is the characteristic answer of 
the city wage earner who had not been saving any money. 
