The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1885-09-21
THE PUBLIC DOMAIN.
INTERESTING STATISTICS PERTAIN
ING TO UNCLE SANS ESTATE.
A Piece Equal In size to Ireland Sliced
on Each Year-TwO Hundred Thou
sand Square Miles Disposed of
in the Last Eleven Years

WASHINGTON CITY, Sept. 2l.-For the
past four years the United States has given
away OF sold off its public domain, and of
course this means almost entirely given
away one Ireland per annum The area Of
Ireland is between u, 00O, 900 and % 0OO, 900
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 iu 1851 and considerably
less than the amOuat disposed of IN
1884 As compared with the previous year
the dispo ,als of public lands in the fiscal
year just closed show a decided falling off,
but there i IA small increa, 70 over the enor-
nous figures for the year 1888. The disposals
of public lands in 1854 were effected by
propositions to repeal the pre- -emption, TIM
ber-culture and desert land acts, to amend
the homestead act and TO forfeit some OF
the railroad grants. The fear that
changes would he made in the
land law that would make it more
difficult to get posse ion OF land for
nothing impellei everybody who was think
ing of claiming any part Of the national
estate to do 80 at once. Thus soma OF the
dspos sals which would ordinarily have been
made tnis year were made last, and the
total amount of public lands disposed OF In
1854 was run up to $4,000, 900, or about g.
O000 or 7,O00B0O more than in the pre-
ceeding or succeeding year.
1t 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 con-
tains %, 900 001 acres. Of this, 50 0O1 900
acres equal 10 the state Of lllmoiN, have
| been di, posed of in the past nine years,
| Taking in two years more, the nvestiga-
lion will find that the amount Of public land
disposed of by the government in
eleven years is greater than the
area of Spain. but trias less han
| the area of France Or Germany, and
one-fourth as great as british India with its
200, 900, 900 inhabitants. The amount of
land disposed of in tbs last eleven years is
300 900 square miles, an area eighteen times
as great as Belgium, which sustains over
5, 900, 900 inhabitants The area disposed of
in some of the states, given approximately,
during the past nine years are as follows
| Wisconsin, over 5000 900 acres;
Michigan, nearly 2,5O0U00; California,
nearly 6,5O0,000; Kansas ia 500 900
Minnesota, over 5000 900; Nebraska, over
IS 000 900; Oregon, over 3,0O0,O00, and
W ashington territory, nearly 5000, 0Ot
acres; Alabama, nearly 5000, 900; Arkan
sas, nearly 3,000,000; Louisiana, ogel
8 900 900; Mississippi, l,500,OOO anG
florida, 2, SOC, 900 acres Both last year sne
the year before, more land was disposed o
IN Dakota than in any other state or terri
tory. but in 1855 the Empire territory did
not stand SO far ahead of her sisters as she
did in 1884
The table appended shows that in the las
year 500 900 acres we're disposed of in Da
kota, over s, 500, 900 in Nebraska, and ovel
3, ,0000 in Kansas In California NOR
land was disposed of in 1885 than in 1854
Iu Dakota the dispo,als for 1884 were nearl,
three fold those of 1855 In Kansas Their
was an enormous increase from 1880, 90
acres in 1854 to over 100000 il
1885 The disposalS in Minnesota shoy
a falling off of 1,0u0, 900 acres, whi lie thsr
is an increase of $780, 900 acres in Nebraska
OF the 20, Il2 663 acres of government lam
disposed OF la t year, e AIS. S55 acres wer
disposed Of under the homestead act 4, 755,
COS under the timber culture act 3, sos, 81
acres we're taken as railroad selections an
VIZ, 4OU acres were SOlu IOF ChSu Al
homestead entries show hut very small fall
ing off from 1884 The timber-cult
entries also show but a small diminution
The cash sales show a reduction Of 2,50J, 90
acres
For the government lands disposed c
there was received 81 CSC, ia and for th
Indian land sold S933 4s3 The land sold 3
cash sales brought an average Of Sll9 "
acre. and the land disposed of at publ
sales brought "a. Ala per acre. The homt
stead entries in 1855 numbered 50.S0
falling off OF 4 l6S from 1854.
The mber.culture entries show an in
crease of about 900 in number Miners
lands show a decrease Of 344 entries and a
increase of $500 acres, and there is a d.
~ crease f 10 entries and liz. 800 acres in COZ
lands The following table gives the aggr
gate number of acres disposed of in eac
state and territory in 1885: