. The story of American democracy, political and industrial . he ten years preceding but with much less perilGrowth of from Indians. Three distinct waves of settlementthe West were noticeable, as for long after on opened small clearings, which, after a fewyears, were bought out and enlarged by pioneer farmers, who,in turn, soon followed the backwoods hunters farther west,selling out their first homes to a more permanent set of farmerswith more capital. The backwoodsmen were usually squatters. Thefarmers secured title from the Federal government. GROWTH OF THE WEST 367 Af
. The story of American democracy, political and industrial . he ten years preceding but with much less perilGrowth of from Indians. Three distinct waves of settlementthe West were noticeable, as for long after on opened small clearings, which, after a fewyears, were bought out and enlarged by pioneer farmers, who,in turn, soon followed the backwoods hunters farther west,selling out their first homes to a more permanent set of farmerswith more capital. The backwoodsmen were usually squatters. Thefarmers secured title from the Federal government. GROWTH OF THE WEST 367 After 1800, land could be bought in 160-acre lots at twodollars an acre. And only one fourth of this had to be paiddown : the rest could be paid over a period of four The credityears, out of the profits of the crops. In the system forten years before 1800, less than a million acres lands,of public land had been sold to settlers by the I800-I820government; but, in the next twenty years, sales averaged amillion acres a year, and the lines of would-be purchasers. A CoNESTOGA Wagon. An early form of prairie schooner used in emigrationfrom the coast districts to the Ohio after Pennsylvania bixilt her roads. before Western land offices suggested the phrase, doing aland-oflBce business. Between 1800 and 1810, Ohio grew ninefold, — from45,000 to 406,000; while 24,000 people pressed on into thesouthern districts of Indiana, and half that many penetratedeven into southern Illinois. Even the older communitiessouth of the Ohio, — Kentucky and Tennessee, — doubledtheir numbers, rising to two thirds of a million. In 1811,1200 flatboats passed the rapids of the Ohio with cargoes ofbacon, beef, and flour, bound down river. The West hadfound a way, also, to market large parts of its corn on the 368 JEFFERSONS ADMINISTRATION hoof. Each fall, immense droves of cattle and hogs(4000 razor-backs in one drove) were driven over thewagon roads to the eastern cities, finding subsistence as theymoved
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