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I. Agriculture

The immense extent of land, forming part of the United States, as yet uninhabited and uncultivated, is held to be national property, at the disposal of Congress and the executive of the Republic. The public lands of the United States which are still undisposed of lie in 19 States and 8 Territories. The public lands are divided into two great classes. The one class have a dollar and a quarter an acre designated as the minimum price, and the other two dollars and a half an acre, the latter being the alternate sections, reserved by the United States in land grants to railroads, etc. Titles to these lands may be acquired by private entry or location under the homestead, pre-emption, and timber-culture laws; or, as to some classes, by purchase for cash. The homestead laws give the right to 160 acres of a-dollar-and-a-quarter lands, or to 80 acres of two-dollars-and-a-half lands, to any citizen or applicant for citizenship over twenty-one who will actually settle upon and cultivate the land. The title is perfected by the issue of a patent after five years of actual settlement. The only charges in the case of homestead entries are fees and commissions. Another large class of free entries of public lands is that provided for under the Timber-Culture Acts of 1873-78. The purpose of these laws is to promote the growth of forest trees on the public lands. They give the right to any settler who has cultivated for two years as much as 'five acres in trees to an 80-acre homestead, or, if ten acres, to a homestead of 160 acres, and a free patent for his land is given him at the end of three years instead of five. In the middle of 1890 there were 1,815,504,147 acres of public lands in the States and Territories, of which 986,084,675 had been surveyed. Of the total area of the United States, 1,400,000 square miles, or 896,000,000 acres, were unoccupied at the census of 1880. Upwards of 88 million acres of land are settled under the Homestead and Timber-Culture Acts. In 1890 there were 5,531,678 acres taken up under the Homestead Act, and (in 1889) 3,735,305 under the Timber-Culture Act. In 1888, 5,317,906 acres were sold for cash, and the total number of acres of public lands disposed of during that year was 30,116,684, the money received being $13,547.137. Of the public lands in 1890, 369,529,600 acres were in Alaska unsurveyed. It is provided by law that two sections, of 640 acres of land, in each "township," are reserved for common schools, so that the spread of education may go together with colonization.

The power of Congress over the public territory is exclusive and universal except so far as restrained by stipulations in the original cessions.

At the census of 1880 there were 536,081,835 acres taken up in farms, being less than

30 per cent. of the total area, excluding Alaska and the Indian Territory; in 1870 the farm acreage was 407,735,041. Of this area 284,771,042 acres, or a little more than one-half, was returned as improved. The following table shows the number of farms of different sizes in 1870 and 1880:- Acres.

Under 3 acres 3 and under IO " IO 20 " 20 50. " 5° 100 " 100 500. " 500 1,000 and over..

Total