84 BULLETIN 1295, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
vacated, for it would have been a serious disadvantage if abandoned 
homesteads were too much in evidence when prospects were shown 
the territory. This motive also accounts in large part for the efforts 
made by the company to help the settlers establish themselves on the 
land. At least a few satisfied persons were needed to maintain a 
good local atmosphere. 
The difficulty the firm must have encountered in making a few 
settlers hold on to their undertakings is indicated by the following 
description of conditions in an adjacent township where soil and 
topography are essentially similar, but where settlement had been 
spontaneous rather than promoted by an active land-selling agency. 
There are more abandoned clearings in this township than there is land 
now being cultivated. Much land is being sold, our courthouse records gave 
us that, more transfers and recording and abstracting than in a big Corn Belt 
county by far. Lots of people moving in and out again. But a man is a 
plain fool who tries to carve a farm out of the woods when he can buy going 
farms for no more and sometimes less than the current price of wild land as 
sold by the big operators. And they all find that out. So almost without 
exception they shift to cleared land or get out.* 
It should be noted further that the demonstration farm conducted 
by this concern was essentially a means of imposing on the credulous, 
for it was developed on this light sandy land by bringing in manure 
by the carload. 
Furthermore, the selection of settlers was not made primarily for 
the purpose of putting on the land those most likely to succeed. 
Important considerations had been the amount of cash the settler 
had, his prospect of getting more, and whether he was of a quarrel- 
some disposition likely to make trouble after the realization of his 
unfortunate purchase dawned upon him. Indeed, only half the 
settlers visited had ever previously earned a living on farms either as 
farm operators or as farm laborers, although a few others had lived 
on farms as children. 
The service department with its agricultural advisors appears to 
have been designed partly as a selling point, partly to help maintain 
enough people on the land to make a good showing to prospects, and 
partly to help to allay discontent and hostility toward the company. 
This is indicated by the instructions to members of the settlers’ wel- 
fare department. In «ddition to pointing out to them the impor- 
tance of being able to give the settler good advice on matters of 
planning and constructing buildings, clearing land, selecting and 
making crops, and caring for livestock, the service representatives 
were told to look out for the “ knockers” and to try to keep them in 
a cheerful frame of mind, to help the settlers out with a day’s work 
now and then, and to bring the settlers to town occasionally in the 
company’s cars, but under no circumstances to incur any financial 
obligations to them or make any temporary advances of money. In 
other words, if any settlers were going to follow their purchase up 
to the point of actually moving on the land, the firm wanted them 
to move on under the most favorable circumstances, because it was 
not to the interest of the concern to have many dissatisfied settlers 
on the tract. 
Only a small proportion of the purchasers ever reached the stage 
of moving onto their lands. Of those who did, some undoubtedly 
managed to stick, largely by virtue of considerable outside work 
* Excerpt from a letter of one of the field men. 
