alers might
equally be criticized for not warning the settlers of the difficulties
before they buy the land.

The land dealers ought to know the market facilities, the extent of capital
and credit required for success on a particular piece of land and in a
particular locality. As a matter of fact, dealers of the type under
discussion do not warn the settlers. They give advice of an optimistic
character and they apply to the settler the Darwinian theory of survival of
the fittest. A number of these land dealers said to the writer:

Well, it is up to the settler himself, either to succeed or to
fail. If he fails, he has himself alone to blame, and he must give
place to the settler who is able to succeed. There is no room for
weaklings on my land or anywhere else in this world.

The results which follow in the wake of such land-settlement policies
are described in the following extract from the letter of a county
agent. He writes from a locality where many of the settlers are immigrants:

In some parts of this country ... the statistics show that there is
a complete change in the farmers every seven years. That means that
several farmers are coming and going all the time. Several farmers
are paying out taxes and interest on something they will never
own.... As to the land companies doing things for the settler, in
the most part they take care of the new man for a time, but I
notice that they close them out, too, if taxes and interest are not
kept up pretty well.

A similar condition is described in the letter below from a county agent
in the same state:

The land companies in this county are not putting forth any special
effort to make it easier for the new settlers to succeed. As far as
I know, all the land companies in this county are reliable. They
live up to their agreements with the settlers. However, I can also
vouch for the statement that many of our farms, with very little
clearing, are continuously changing hands.

The importance of advice and warning from the land company to the
settler, and the deplorable infrequency with which it is given, are
spoken of in this statement by a county agent:

So far the ... settler's only means of protection has been the
county agent. From the county agent the settler gets the true
condition of the land, climate, and possibilities in general, of
the particular re