The aggregate disposal of public lands in acres for the year was 9,152,357.62 acres. so that the lands sold and disposed of realized a fraction over 24 cents an acre, including almost a half of the total amount received, which was for fees and miscellaneous services. The acreage money received, deducting those items, will hardly equal 13 cents per acre. Deducting the cost of survey and disposition the lands realized about 7 cents per acre net. The homestead is now the popular method of taking public lands, and the fees therefrom hardly pay the expense of survey and disposition. Cash sales of offered lands in the West have almost ceased, there being but a small portion of the public domain therein so offered. Pre-emptions and homestead commutations are the classes from which cash sales are mostly derived. In the near future, with the absorption of the arable lands, the cash revenues from public lands will be small and chiefly derived from mineral and desert lands, or from timber lands if sold in large blocks. The actual cash receipts for lands sold in 1879-'80 were but a fraction over one-half of the gross sum received. CASH SALES OF LANDS FOR TWENTY YEARS. The following statement shows the quantity of land sold for cash by the United States from June 30, 1860, to June 30, 1880, a period of twenty years. This embraces Cash entry means consummation of the pre-emption act or commutation of a homestead; purchase at auction or public sale at the district land offices, or afterward by paying at the district land offices the acreage, $1.25, or the proper amount for lands which have been offered at auction for sale and remain unsold. These are called "offered lands," and can be entered by any person in legal subdivisions at any land office in a district where such lands are. The lands in the five Southern public-land States can be entered in this way, as they have all been offered, and can only be taken at private sale or under the homestead act. ESTIMATED CHARACTER AND QUANTITY OF PUBLIC DOMAIN REMAINING JUNE 30, 1880. The remaining public domain, including Alaska, consists of (estimated) 1,163,946,438.12 acres; deducting Alaska, 369,529,600 acres, there remain 794,416,838.12 acres, surveyed and unsurveyed, lying and being in the land States and Territories. The timber lands are estimated at. The coal lands (estimated), to be increased by a large acreage by classifi cation and survey of at present unclassified and unsurveyed lands.. Lands containing known precious metal and other valuable mineral deposits-subject to a great increase by new discoveries, as there are large areas of the public domain still unexplored, which future exploration and survey will classify-are estimated at. Acres. 85,000,000,00 5,529, 970.00 64, 800, 000.00 The arable lands remaining in western land States and Territories over which the laws of the United States as to survey and disposition have been extended (estimated)... The lands in the Southern States- Surveyed, but probably occupied. 15, 180, 256 1,500,000 8,905, 385 Irrigable lands which can be taken under desert-land act, say one-twentieth of remainder (lands which may be irrigated from present water supply) The remainder, pasturage, grazing, desert, and all other lands are useless for agriculture by reason of altitude, lack of water or soil, and includes balance of lands likely to be segregated for private land grants, &c., still unsatisfied, and Indian and military reservations, and includes the unsurveyed area of Indian Territory, viz, 17,150,250 acres Acres. 17, 800, 000, 00 25, 585, 641, 00 30, 000, 000, 00 565, 701, 227. 12 These estimates are based upon tables from the General Land Office and from the testimony and estimates in the "Report of the Public Land Commission," February 24, 1880. ESTIMATE OF THE VALUE OF THE REMAINING PUBLIC DOMAIN, BASED ON PRESENT ACREAGE, FOR THE SEVERAL CLASSES. These lands, by sale, can produce in value to the United States- (If timber is sold and fee to land remains in the United States, a largely increased acreage to the public domain will remain.) Mineral lands, $2.50 and $5 per acre (medium, as shown by sales, $3.50 per acre) 64,800,000 acres ..... The arable lands, if sold, $1.25 per acre, 17,800,000 acres (if entered under present settlement laws they will produce nothing above cost of survey and selling or disposing.)...... The lands in the Southern States, if sold at $1.25 per acre, 25,585,641 The irrigable lands, at $1.25 per acre, 30,000,000 acres The mineral lands, coal and precious metal, embraced in this (yet undeveloped and undefined), and such portions as shall prove to be irrigable, together with the area of unsurveyed arable lands in Indian Territory deducted. The value of the remainder (grazing and pasturage lands) of this immense area is not placed at more than ten cents per $71,889, 610 212,500,000 226,800,000 22,250,000 31,982, 051 37,500,000 625, 000, 000 acre by competent persons. In the event of its sale in large tracts Less cost of surveying and disposition of the remainder of the public $40, 000, 000 00 Estimated total value under present laws, exclusive of Alaska............. The area at present held under various laws and yet to be paid for, and which will be covered into the Treasury of the United States, is estimated at...... Which added to the above would make the total value..... 1, 227, 921, 661 78,000,000 1, 149, 921, 661 $10,000,000 1, 159, 921, 661 It has required since 1785 to sell and dispose of a less quantity of the public land than the above estimates cover; besides, the agricultural lands are now about absorbed, and the movement westward in search of free government lands must soon cease. It will require a vastly greater period of time to dispose of the remaining public domain than the ninety-five years that were requisite to dispose of the lands sold prior to June 30, 1880. Mineral lands require long periods to develop, and timber lands require a market for their product. If the present laws as to sale and disposition continue in force no reasonable estimate of the time required to dispose of the remaining public lands can be made. Reorganization of the land system, as to sales and disposition, and an accounting of and definition of the character of the remaining public lands, are now required to secure proper results in the future. A thorough and exact examination of Alaska by competent persons is of moment, and is necessary for the purpose of giving the Government full details and information as to the mineral and other resources of that region. Private enterprise will best develop the possibility of reclaiming the desert lands of the public domain. The United States, in view of the results of the swamp-land grants, would best part title direct to the desert lands. If granted free of acreage in sufficient quantity, these lands may be developed by private interests. |