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Show 402 HISTORY OF PUBLIC LAND LAW DEVELOPMENT Farms and Homesteads in the 1860's State Number of Farms Added Number of Homestead Entries Illinois__________ 57,493 7 Missouri_________ 55,536 13,235 Iowa____________ 55,129 7,337 Michigan________ 33,364 12,221 Wisconsin_______ 33,634 10,379 Indiana_________ 29,463 2 Minnesota_______ 28,319 25,573 Kansas__________ 27,802 13,178 Nebraska________ 9,512 16,037 Total_________ 330,252 97,969 Compiled from GLO Reports and Historical Statistics. The accompanying table is included to show that the majority of new farms were not being created by homesteaders on public land. A far larger number of people were making farms on land that had long since passed out of Federal hands and was being sold by railroads, states, and above all by the speculator-investors who had purchased large quantities of land before the Panic of 1857. Indubitably, the filing of so many homestead entries during the war and the years immediately afterwards is a noteworthy accomplishment, but its importance pales in comparison with the number of new farms created. Evidently more people preferred to establish farms on high-priced land nearer transportation and markets. In the 1870's, 1,348,985 new farms were created and there were 318,572 homestead entries; in the eighties there were 555,734 new farms and 477,052 homestead entries. Before taking up a detailed examination of the actual operation of the homestead law, reference should be made to the fact that the number of homesteads filed correlates fairly well with the fluctuations of the business cycle and of immigration from abroad, falling when business was depressed and immigration declined, and ris- ing when business improved and immigration reached new highs. However, note in the table the lack of correlation in 1878 and 1879. Number of Immigrants and of Original Homestead Entries Homestead Year Immigrants Entries 1863 176,282 8,223 1864 193,418 9,405 1865 248,120 8,924 1866 318,568 15,355 1867 315,722 16,957 1868 138,840 23,746 1869 352,768 25,628 1870 487,203 33,972 1871 321,350 39,768 1872 404,806 38,742 1873 459,803 31,561 1874 313,339 29,126 1875 227,498 20,668 1876 169,986 25,104 1877 141,857 18,075 1878 138,469 35,630 1879 177,826 41,005 1880 457,257 47,293 1881 669,341 36,999 1882 788,992 45,331 1883 603,322 56,565 1884 518,592 55,045 1885 295,346 50,877 1886 334,203 61,638 1887 490,109 52,028 1888 646,889 46,236 1889 444,427 32,089 1890 455,302 40,244 Compiled from GLO Reports and Historical Statistics. How did the Homestead Act actually work as part of a land system which still permitted unlimited purchasing in many areas? Did settlers or speculators get the worthwhile land? And if they succeeded in entering land, what proportion of the en-trymen gained patents and retained their land thereafter? In answering these questions we have only a few intensive studies of limited areas to rely on. |