St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1885-09-19
DOMAINS GIVEN AWAY
An Interesting Statement Of Public Lands
Disposed of in the Past
Nine Years.
Friends Of the Mississippi to Push the
Royal River Before the Next
Congress.
Relief That CIeveIand's Nonina-
tions VIII be Confirmed
Very Promptly.
Government Clerks May Go Home
to Vote--Senator Sabfn De-
niges of It--Waifs.
Some Interesting Land Figures.

Some Interesting Land Figures.
Special to the Globe.
WASHINGTON, Sept. 1s.-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 IrsIand is between 90, 900, 900 and 25,-
OOO, 0O0 acres, and that is almost
exactly the amount of public
domain disposed of in the years
1888 and 1885. 1t is greater than the
amount disposed of in 1882 and considerably
less than the amount disposed OF Ill 1884.
AS compared with the previous year the
disposals of public lands in the fiscal year
Just closed show decided falling Oft, but
there is a small increase over the enormous
figures for the year 1883. Inc dlS-
posaIs of public lands i'll 1854 were
affected by propositions to repeal the
pre-emption, timber culture and desert Iana
acts and 10 amend the ho9eStead act, ana
to forfeit some of the rail l6ad grants. The
fear that changes woul1 be made IN the
land law that would make it more difficult
to get possession of land for nothing I'M
PEELED everybody who was thinking OF
claiming any part Of the national estate TO DO
so at once Thus some Of the dlsposaiS
whrch would ordinarily have been made this
year were made last. The
TOTAL AMOUNT OF PUBLIC LANDS
disposed of in 1884 was run up to 24,000,-
600. or about 5000, 600 or 1000, 600 more
than in the preceding or succeeding year
1t is only by comparison with some We'll
known areas Of territory that we can get
anv idea of the way the national estate
-, info tho hands of
persons, mostly, of course, settlers
Dakota contains $4,000, 900 acres. OF this
81. 900. 900 acres, equal to the state of Hi
noS have been disposed of in the past nine
years. Taking in two years more the inyeS-
tigation 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 trife less than the area of
France or Germany and one-f0urth
as great as British India, with its 200, 000,-
600 inhabitants. The amount of land dis
posed of III the last eleven years is 200, 600
square miles, an area eighteen times as great
as Belgium, which SustainS over 5000, 600
inhabitants. The areas disposed of in some
other states given approximately during the
past nine years are as follows:
Wisconsin, over 5000, eco acres; Michigan,
nearly 3 500, 900: California, nearly $780, ,00G;
Kansas, Il, SOC, O00 Minnesota, over 5000, 600;
Nebraska, over Il, 900. 900; Oregon, over 3,G00,-
900, and Washington Territory, nearly 50, 000,-
coo acres; Alabama, nearly 3,OOC,0UO; Arkan-
saS. nearly 100000; Louisiana over 5000, 900;
Mississippi, II, 800, 600, and Florida 100000
acres.
Both last year and the year before
MORE LAND WAS DISPOSED OF
in Dakota than in any other territory, but
in 1885 the empire territory did not stand so
far ahead of her sisters as she did in 1884.
The figures appended shows that in the
last wear 4,5O0, 600 acres were disposed
of in Dakota, over million
and half in Nebraska, and over three mill
ion in Kansas. In California more land
was disposed of in 1885 than III 1884. In
Dakota the dispOSaIs for 1884 were nearly
three fold more than those of 1885. In
Kansas there was an enormous increase
from million and a third of
million in 1855. The dispOsals in
minnesota show falling off of LOCO, OOO
acres while there is an increase of 500, 900
acres in Nebraska. Of the 20,113, 663
acres of government land disposed of last
year, 7,415, ,SS5 acres were disposed Of under
the homestead act, 4, 1875, COS under the TIM
Der culture act, 3,558,914 acres were
taken as railroad selections, and
S,912, $50 acres were sold for cash. The
homestead entries show but a very small
falling off from 1884. The timber culture
entries also show but small elimination.
The cash sales show reduction Of 2, 800,
900 acres. For the government lands dis
posed OF there was received ST, CSC, LA and
for
THE INDIAN LANDS
sold 1898. 4S3. The land sold at cash sales
brought an average of S1.19 per acre and
the land disposed of at public sales brought
$4.41M per acre. The homestead entries in
1885 number 30, SIT, falling off of 4,168
from 1854 The timber culture entries show
an increase of 1000 in number;
mineral lands show a decrease of 344
entries and an increase of 5000 acres, and
there is a decrease of sixteen entries and
16, $50 acres III coal lands. The following
figures gives the aggregate number of acres
disposed of in each state and territory in
1855:
Alabama, a7O,9O1; Arizona, 2Ss,174;
Arkansas, 244,5S2; California, 1885,
T90; Colorado, 662,611; Dakota, 4,547,-
o49; Florida, 2S6,555; Idaho, $4,000
Iowa, 1869; Kansas, 3,O30S46; Louis
lana, 1S1,O43; Michigan, S9,5l1; Min
nesota, 624,319; Mississippi, 111,000;
Missouri, 291.277; Montana, 1,112, 140;
Nebraska, 3,69S,3S1; Nevada, 171.430;
1S4 s5S; Washington, 1,016, III: Wisconsin,
2lS,436; Wyoming, 552, ,967; total, 1O,113,663.
The aggregate given above includes frac-
tonS of acres in case of each state and ter
ritory omitted in the figures, but does not
include SS1, $50 acres of Indian lands sold.