Rensselaer Republican, Volume 18, Number 3, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 24 September 1885 — THE PUBLIC DOMAIN. [ARTICLE]

THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.

An Area Eqnal to that of Ireland Disposed of Every Tear— -A Tabulated Statement. fWashlngton special. 1 ' For the past four years the United States has given away or sold off its public domain, and of course this means almost entirely given away, one Ireland per annum. The area of Ireland is between 20,000,000 and 25,000,000 aores, and that is almost exactly the amount of public domain disposed of in the years 1883 and 1885. It is greater than the amount disposed of in 1882 and considerably .less than the amount disposed of in 1884. As compared with the previous year the disposals of public lands in the fiscal year just closed show a decided falling off, but there is a small increase over the enormous figures for 1883. The disposals of public lands in 1884 were affected by propositions to repeal the pre-emption, timber-cnlture, and desert land acts, to amend the homestead act, and to forfeit some of the railroad grants. The fear that charges would be made in the land law that would make it more difficult to get possession of land for nothing impelled everybody who was thinking of claiming any part of the national estate to do so at once. Thus some of the disposals which would ordinarily have been made tips year were made last, and the total amount of public lands disposed of in 1884 was run up to twenty-four million, or about six" or seven million more than in the preceding or succeeding yeax_. It is only by comparison with some known areas of territory that one can get any idea of the way the national estate is passing into the hands of private persons, mostly, of course, settlers. Dakota contains 95,000,000 acres. Of this, 35,000,000 acres, equal to the State of Illinois, have been disposed of in the past nine years. Taking in two years more, the investigator will find that the amount of public land disposed of by the Government in eleven years is greater than the area of Spain, but a trifle less than the area of France or Germany, and one-fourth as great as British India with its 200,000,000 inhabitants. The amount of land disposed of in the last eleven years is 200,000 square miles, an area eighteen times as great as Belgium, which sustains over 5,000,000 inhabitants. The areas disposed of in some of the States, given approximately, during the past nine years are as follows: Wisconsin, over 3,000,000 acres; Michigan, nearly 2,500,000; California, nearly 6,500,000; Kansas, 14,500,000; Minnesota, over 9,000,000; Nebraska, over 13,000,000; Oregon, over 3,000,000, and Washington Territory, nearly 5,000,000 acres; Alabama, nearly 3,000,000; Arkansas, nearly 3,000,0Q0; Louisiana, over 3,000,000; Mississippi, 1*500,000, and Florida, 2,500,000 acres. Both lifet year and the year before, more land was disposed of in Dakota than in any other State or Territory, but in 1885 the Empire Territory did not stand so far ahead of her sisters as she did in 1884.

The table appended shows that in the last year four and a half million acres were disposed of in Dakota, over three millions and a half in Nebraska, and over three millions in Kansas. In California more land was disposed of in 1885 than in 1884. In Dakota the disposals for 1884 were nearly three-fold those of 1885. In Kansas there was an enormous increase from a million and a third acres in 1884 to over three millions in 1885. The disposals in Minnesota show a falling ofl of a million acres, while there is an increase of a half million acres in Nebraska. Of the 20,113,663 acres of Government land disposed of last year, 7,415,885 acres were disposed of nnder the homestead act, 4,755,005 under the timber-culture act, 3,558,914 acres were taken as railroad selections, and 3,912,450 acres were sold for cash. The homestead entries show but very small falling off from 1884. The timber-cnlture entries also show bnt a small diminution. The cash sales show a redaction of 2,500.000 acres. For the Government lands disposed of there was received $7,686,114. and for thj Indian lands sold $933,483. The land sold at cash sales brought an average of $1.19 per acre, and the land disposed of at public 6ales brought $4.41| per acre. The homestead entries in 1885 numbered 50,877, a falling off of 4,168 from 1884. The timber-culture entries show an increase of about 4,000 in number. Mineral lands show a decrease of 344 entries and an increase of 5,900 acres, and there is a decrease of sixteen entries and 116,360 acres in coal lands. The following table gives the aggregate number of acres disposed of in each State and Territory in 1884.85: Acres.] Acres. Alabama , 270,901 M isslssippi.... 11 1,000 Arizona 278,174 Missouri 291,277 Arkansas'... 7, . 244,682 Montana 1,112,140 California 1,295,909 Nebraska 3,698,381 Coorado 662,611iNevada........ 171,430 Dakota 4,547,749 New'Mexilio... 163,981 F10rida........ 282,516 Drer0n........ 788.287 1dah0....; 284,903 Utah 184,853 lowa. 11,659 Washington... 1,016,117 Kansas 3,030,846: Wisconsin..... 218,436 Louisiana..... 181,043’Wyoming. 552,967 Michigan 89,5111 Minnesota 624,3791 Total 20,113,663 The aggregate given above includes fractions of an acre in the case of each State and Territory omitted in the table, bnt does not include 881,850 acres of Indian lands sold.