f farm
land, and this increases largely with the acquisition of Canada and
Louisiana. In 1750 there were a million, Douglas in his book estimated
that in 1760 there were 1,051,000, besides blacks and soldiers,--on that
basis in 1775 there will be 2 millions, and at the close of the 18th
Century, 4 millions. To attract foreigners, an Act of Parliament granted
English citizenship to every Protestant after seven years' residence, a
right that in England can only be obtained with great expense and
trouble by a special Act of Parliament. The Certificate of the
Provincial authorities costs only a few shillings and is good through
all England.

Near the coast and some miles beyond, all the Middle Colonies are
settled, and new improvements are extending deeper in the interior. In
Pennsylvania, where the Penn family own all the land, any one who wants
to improve the land, chooses a piece, pays the landlord for 100 acres 10
Pound Sterling local money, and binds himself to pay an annual rent of
half a penny for each acre,--he then becomes absolute owner, and the
little ground rent can never be increased. Sometimes the hunter builds a
wooden hut, and the nearest neighbors in the wilderness help cut the
timber, build the log hut, fill the crevices with mud, put on the roof
and put in windows and doors, and in return the owner pays them with a
gallon of brandy, and by a like good service in turn. Then he lays out
his garden and pasture and fields, cuts out the underbrush, tops the big
trees and strips the bark, so that he can sow and reap, the trees die
and hurt neither land nor crops. Many hunters have thus settled the
wilderness,--they are soon followed by poor Scotch or Irish who are
looking for homes,--these they find in this half improved
condition,--they buy from the hunters, get a patent from the
Proprietors, paying the usual charge. The hunter moves off into the
wilderness and goes to work again. The Scotch or Irishman completes the
half finished task, builds a better house of sawed timber, uses the old
log hut for a stable, later builds a house of brick and his timber house
is a good barn. Scotch and Irish often sell to the Germans, of whom from
90 to 100,000 live in Pennsylvania, and prefer to put all their earnings
into land and improvements. The Scotch or Irish are satisfied with a
fair profit, put the capital into another farm, leaving the Germans
owners of the old farms. In Pennsylvania there is no law to prevent
cutti