Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1882-09-29
Cheap Lands In the Future,


Public Lands, just issued, contains the
statement that the total amount of arabic
lands still remaining subject to occu-
pancy under the Homestead and Pre-
emption acts is barely sufficient to meet
the demands of settlers for year or two
to come. OF course there will be con-
siderable amount of public land left, but
the quality will be very poor. Most of
it will be billy. rocky and broken, and
covered with trees of little value. A
large proportion of it will be in the
Southern States. There will also be
considerable swamp land that will be
useless for general agricultural purposes
until it is drained, and to drain it will
require the expenditure of large capital.
All this land has been passed over by
persons seeking homes. Much of it has
been in the market upward of forty
years. and where this is the case the price
il nominal. Whatever there was Of
value on it in the form of trees has been
removed by settlers in the vicinity. 1t
will be necessary to clear it before it can
be planted to crops. Owing to the num-
Der Of stumps and stones it will contain,
it will be necessary to work the land
with hand implements. There will also
be large amount of land open to settle
ment in the great arid plains, but it will
not be available for general agricultural
purposes. That which is so situated
that it can be irrigated with compare
lively little expense has already been
taken up. The remainder will only be
valuable for grazing purposes. and q
quarter section Of it viii not furnish .
sufficiently large range to enable the
possessor OF It to get living by keeping
stock. There will also be some mod
erately good land in Oregon and Wash
ington Territory.
Several years will pass before all the
land owned by the various railroad COM
panies will be disposed Of. but with the
recent rapid advance of farming land i
h fair to presume that its price will in
crease from yesr to year. There is also
considerable land owned by agricultural
colleges and included in school sections.
1t b also likely that several Indian 70.
servati0ns will be offered for sale, but a.
these lands are ordinarily disposed Of
for cash to the highest bidder II Is prob.
able that they will fall into the hands Of
spectators, who will hold them for a
rise. There will then be no good land
to DO obtained BY moving onto it, By
paying 81. Is per acre for it, or by setting
out few timber trees. The proposition
to render arid land productive BY means
of irrigsting with water procured from
artesian wells is visionary, and will
prove to b very costly, If not entirely
impracticable. It is evident that an end
will soon come to obtaining farming
land for nominal or even low price.
The scarcity of any article acts to in
crease its value. As soon as land can no
longer be obtained under the provisions
OF the homestead and presumption acts
the era of land speculation will begin.
Our people arc largely educated in agri-
cultural pursuits and will not soon
abandon them for other industries. II
all the sons Of farmers do not become
farmers themselves, there will be other
sons OF persons who are engaged in
other pursuits who will desire to take
their places. A very large proportion
OF the foreigners who come to this
country are farmers or persons who ex-
pect to become such. They are attracted
to the country by the inducement of land
that they can buy and own. They are
coming in unprecedented numbers. A
large number of capitalists are now turn
ing their attention to EARNINGS as a bust.
ness. and they desire to conduct their
operations on an extensive scale.
1t Is obvious that persons seeking
homes will soon 60 in new directions to
find them. The tide of settlers win no
longer flow steadily toward the West.
Some will take up with the poorer lands
in the prairie regions of the West that
were rejected BY the earlier settlers;
some will locate in Texas, where the
public lands belong to the State, and
where the area is very large; many will
follow the example of their ancestors n
the East. and clear the forests in Mich.
gan and Indiana, and still others will