OCR Text |
Show DRY FARMING AND STOCK RAISING HOMESTEADS, 1904-1934 505 In one of its blurbs appeared the following: "There is absolutely no question as to the fertility of the soil in Wyoming. It is rich, and will produce enormous yields as compared with farms of the Middle West."18 The meager results of homesteading in Wyoming may be seen in the number of new farms and ranches the census recorded. In 1900 the state had 6,095 farms and ranches and in 1910 before the Enlarged Homestead Act could have greatly changed the picture, there were 10,987. During the next 24 years 88,687 original homestead entries were filed of which slightly less than half went to patent. Yet the number of farms and ranches increased only to 15,748 in 1920, to 16,011 in 1930 and declined to 15,018 in 1940. From 88,687 original homesteads there came no more than 6,000 farms which is fair evidence that it took 14 original homesteads or seven final homesteads to make a farm or ranch in this once great cattlemen's commonwealth.19 Colorado's experience likewise offers an instructive commentary on the operation of the Enlarged Homestead Act. In a 318-page book, Free Homestead Lands of Colorado Described, published in 1915 by a someone who must have been closely identified with the real estate and land locator group, the Enlarged Homestead Act was described as providing many million acres of vacant public land "usually good, fertile and productive." The land was admittedly second choice since the better lands had already been taken yet it 18 Larson, History of Wyoming, pp. 362-63. 19 The total number of final homestead entries in Wyoming from 1871 to 1961 is 67,315. It must be remembered that the Union Pacific Railroad and the State of Wyoming together received 10 million acres in the state which they were anxious to sell and have developed. It would be useful to know how many of the 300,000 acres the Resettlement Administration purchased in five Wyoming counties and larger amounts in other Plains and Mountain states had been homesteaded under the 320-and 640-acre acts. Ibid., p. 445. "would be considered valuable in any country, a large portion of it being suitable for cultivation." Readers were told that the easiest money a farmer could make was out of the increase in the value of his land. "Settlers are growing wealthy" is the caption of one section which named eight persons who, after 5 to 8 years of work, were worth from $5,000 to $10,000. "Farmers are almost universally successful." The most dubious statement in the book is that "Ten acres of average Colorado land will support one cow the year round. On a 320 acre homestead, the settler can graze twenty-five head of stock, and have sufficient land for a kitchen garden and plenty to cultivate in fodder crops for the winter feeding." Then township by township were given capsule descriptions of the land which was said to be worth $5 to $10 an acre. This type of publicity brought to Colorado 77,480 people who filed homestead entries in the 10 years from 1910 through 1919; the number of farms increased in the decade by only 13,764 or 29 percent and the number of acres in farms increased by 80 percent. As had been predicted, the Enlarged Homestead Act and the Stock Raising Homestead Act were enabling or compelling ranchers to buy these small and uneconomic holdings.20 John Clay, historian of the range cattle industry, said in 1921: "the retreat of the dry farmer and 640 acre homesteader has begun. ... A few of the thrifty will stay, and will acquire some cheap land as it is foreclosed or sold for taxes." The statistics suggest that the retreat had not been delayed quite as long as Clay's statement indicates.21 20 George S. Clason, Free Homestead Lands of Colorado Described (Denver, 1915) , pp. 5 ff., 28. The data of original homesteads was compiled from the GLO Annual Reports and the census data is from the agricultural volumes of the Census for 1910 and 1920. 21 Larson, op. cit., p. 416. |