Public Lands

in North America, lands held by the government to await private ownership. Oddly enough, parks and government reservations-lands reserved for public ownership-are not included ordinarily in a list of public lands. In Australia and other English-speaking countries, public lands are known as crown lands and the transfer of title to private owners is termed alienation.

First and last, the United States government has had the custody and disposal of a vast domain. The first of these lands were acquired through cession by the original thirteen states to the general government of such territory as lay westward from the present limits of these states. New York led the way; Georgia completed the transfer in 1802. In this manner some 488,000 square miles were confided to the government to be held in trust and disposed of for the general good. The acquisition of Florida, Louisiana, the Southwest, Oregon, Alaska, and insular possessions has made the government of the United States the greatest landholder on the globe, the United Kingdom excepted. The rapidity and, we may say, the recklessness with which these lands have passed into private ownership, while entirely characteristic of the American people, will some day become the subject of deep regret. The government has had, first of all, the Indian tribes to reckon with. The chapter of our national history that deals with the extinguishment of Indian titles is not a record of good faith and fair treatment. Not less than 100,000,000 acres have been set aside solemnly as reservations for the natives, but as settlers have crowded in these lands have for the most part been filched from the Indians by civilization and thrown open to settlement.

The first thought of Congress was the sale of lands to pay off Revolutionary debts. Ohio lands were sold in large blocks to syndicates at one dollar per acre, and later at two-thirds of that price. Large sales were made to a New England company and to a New Jersey company. The purchasers sold to settlers, at a profit of course. Cincinnati and other Ohio River towns stand on lands sold to syndicates. In 1796 the price was raised to two dollars an acre, but this figure was so high that it stopped sales. In 1800 the public treasury took in but $443 from the sale of land, and a credit system of one-fourth down and the balance in three years was authorized to increase sales. In 1801 the sales of Ohio lands reached 1,484,047 acres. Credit was abolished in 1820, but it took ten years to clear up the old accounts.

In the meantime sentiment took shape in favor of small sales to actual settlers. The present system of survey was set in operation in 1785. Jefferson favored rectangular surveys, and Monroe suggested the township six miles square and its subdivision into sections and smaller squares of forty acres each. By this simple device, the legal description of the forty acres known as the southeast quarter of the southeast quarter of section twenty-six, of township one hundred-eleven north, range twenty-seven, west of the fifth principal meridian, refers to and can refer to but one tract of land in North America. In 1820 a policy was inaugurated of selling lands in eighty-acre lots for $100 each. By 1840 about 76,000,000 acres had been sold at this price.

During 1837 the first preemption act was passed and three times amended. Under this act six months' residence and $1.25 or $2.50 per acre, according to distance from a railway, secured title. This act was repealed in 1891. In 1862 the homestead act was passed. This act enabled the actual settler to secure title by five years' continuous residence. By paying preemption prices the settler could commute or shorten the terms of required residence, at first to six months and later to fourteen months. The homestead law proved the best that has been devised. It drew thousands of families of industrious and desirable citizens from Europe. In addition to sales and homesteads, the government has given away an enormous acreage. Revolutionary soldiers were allotted lands; 60,000,000 acres were granted to the Mexican War veterans; grants were made to aid in building the Cumberland and other roads; 4,000,000 acres were granted to aid in constructing canals; in 1850 the swamp and overflowed lands were presented to the various states to aid in building roads and digging ditches. Beginning in 1850 the government has granted about 155,000,000 acres to aid in building railroads. The states admitted prior to 1850 received one section out of each thirty-six for school purposes; the states admitted after that date have had sections sixteen and thirty-six out of each town for the same purpose. In addition to 70,000,000 acres of these school sections the general government has granted about 25,000,000 acres to the several states to encourage agricultural education. Nor is this all; 9,000,000 acres have been granted to the semi-arid states for irrigation under the Carey Act, and in 1902 Congress set aside the future proceeds from land sales in seventeen states and eight territories as a revolving irrigation fund.

The remnant of our public lands, a few hundred millions of acres, is managed by the general land office at Washington and over a hundred local land offices distributed for the convenience of settlers from Florida to Alaska. As a matter of fact, five of them are east of the Mississippi: namely, New Orleans; Duluth; Wausau, Wisconsin; Gainesville, Florida; and Montgomery, Alabama.

There are various methods of obtaining public lands: 1. Homestead lands. Agricultural land. Limit, 160 acres or, in semi-arid sections, 320 acres. Terms, five years' residence. Particulars should be learned from the appropriate local land offices. 2. Town sites. Sold at public auction or afterward at $10 an acre. 3. Mineral lands sold. Prices vary from $2.50 an acre for placer rights to $5-for a mining claim of not to exceed 1,500 by 600 feet. 4. Stone and timber claims. Lands unfit for agriculture sold on affidavit at $2.50 per acre. 5. Coal lands. Sold at $10 to $20. Limit 160 acres, or 320 acres to a company. The latter, if not less than four persons, may annex a section after not less than $5,000 has been spent in development. 6. Saline lands. At auction and subsequently at $1.25 an acre. 7. Desert lands. Limit 640 acres. Twenty-five cents an acre filing fee and $1 per acre on proving up; conditional upon irrigating within three years.

The land yet offered the public, for we say the public when we mean the individual, is not all of the best. Much of it lacks water. Some is swamp and yet other tracts are mountainous.

It is not quite so true of farms as of fish that the rest are as good as those already taken; but there is still a considerable amount of valuable public land. About one-third of it is surveyed and immediately available. The receipts of the General Land Office are not far from $12,000,000 a year. Nineteen million acres were entered during the last fiscal year. The area open to entry July 1, 1909, was:

Total . . . . . 731,354,081

The cash receipts of the General Land Office during the year 1909 were:

Total receipts . . . . . $11,900,249