Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1872-02-02

set'ietnent of the lands. The AIississippi rail-
- IIIu 1'lteTwards absorbed by the Chicago Rock
i anu faclnc), and the Minnesota Central
nlilo'u I,vycelFed not one-hall of their original
grants. Many of the roads rive, -, ~ IT,
tdple nave out recently received their lands
consequently the amount of sales il smell com,
ptied WIN INC totai OF their respective grants
Only three or four of the older Grants bave soId
anything like great nroDortio,, &c - 20 -. ~ 'I
The Illinois Central, January 1871 had soIi
five-siXths OF their grant for nearly CO., o0o ma
should the remaining one-siXth sell at the same
average per acre as during the last two ,1oors
the total sales, interest potlncluded will eoI;,.
to the company about S30,000 0OO n snm eoaI
to the aggregate capital originally invested in
the ENTERPRISE. The Hannibal and St. .J9senb
and burlington and Missouri River railroadS
have sold the greater proportion of their grants
IL Is rule that the average selling price per acre
increases yearly, certainly if there is anything
IKE uniformity in the nature Of the grant The
reason assigned for this is that the alternate
sections belonging to the government are gener-
ally settled first, thereby enhancing the value of
the adjacent lands owned by the railroad.
WIN respect 10 the graut of the Northern Pa
cihc railroad and its prospective value-con-
Rress granted to tins company L. 800 acres of
land to each mile of road, commeuciur on AXE
Superior, and extending TO the eastern bound-
airy line of Dakota, aud 25,010 acres ner mile
from that line to the Pacific coast Tbi, GRANT
was TO aid in the construction of a raiIroad
from Lake Superior to Puget Sound and tha vi
5S,0O0,OO0 acres or 10000 square niles of land an
extent equal to New York and Indiana together
or eleven and half times Massachusetts The
route of this road commencing in Minnesota. on
the shores of Lake Superior, passes through the
timbered lands west of that lake, and over the
region of praTies, lakes and groves in western
Minnesota; thence it crosses the wonderful val
ley OF the Red river OF the north, and strikes
out over the gently undulatinE and fertile
prairies of Dakota, and crossing the Missouri
river Mt the month pf tbp 81
the beautiful valley OF the Yellowstone in near.
ly straight line; ascending this valley and
passing through belts OF timber and rich rolling
lands, ii goes through The Basemau pass of the
Belt mountains into the central basin of Mnu-
tana, and crosses The fertile valleys of the Gal
latin, Madison and Jefferson forks of the upper
Missouri; going up the valleys of the lat
ter at Divide creek, it runs through
Deer Lodge pass ut an altitude under
5000 feet above sea level and dcscends the wes-
tern slope by the valleys of Deer Lodge creek,
Hell Gale river and Clark's fork to Lake Pen d
Creile, where it crosses the great grass plain of
The Columbia to Wallula; thence it follows the
Columbia river through the CASCADE mountains
to the Pacific coast. The climate of this great
land grant belt across the continent is bracnm
and unusually healthful being free from all pc
cullar diseases. The soil, as a whole, is of cx-
cellent quality, producing large crops of wheat
rye, oats and barley; vegetables yield without
parallel in the history of horticulture in Amer
tiyated, yield the same as in the New England
states. The nutritious grasses, growing wild on
the eastern and western slopes of the Rocky
mountains and in the valleys afford Sustenance
for cattle the year round, the climate being so
mild as not to neccSsitate shelter for stock in
the winter A large portion of this grant is
covered with forests OF an immclse growth, the
like of which cannot be found on this continent.
Fine building stone is found in almost every
variety and ineXhaustibc in quantity. The
mineral wealth of this region seems as yet to be
hardly explored; at the present time no portion
of our country yields greater amount Of the
precious metals than that through which this
road will run, Immense coal deposits are found
underlying a great portion of the grant The
committee on the Pacific railroad, in the United
States senate, in their report February 10, 1869,
say: Every element OF wealth, every condition
Of social growth and prosperity, exists in super
abundance and beyond exhaustion in the re-
giGn " ing between Like Superior and Pugct
sound For this immense country, railroads
can do more than they have done for Illinois"
Now if we compute the ultimate value of this
grant of the Northern Pacific railroad at 81 per
acre, the average Of the land grant sales in the
foregoing table, it will amount to 81 100000;
il at only So per acre, ii amounts to S200,000,
900; ii at S307 per acre, the lowest OF all the
grants, it will amount to Sl7S,0 900. This
latter sum is more than twice the estimated
cost OF the road rs set forth by the most com
petent engineers. These prospective results
seem astounding, yet it strikes US as not unrea-
sonable TO believe that the financial results Of
this grant shall even exceed the highest of these
estimates, inasmuch as its resources are so i'm
mensc and will be developed with so great Ia
clllty by the railroad, which Will be the shorter
and more easily operated of our Pacific roads.
Boston 1dreHiSer.