The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1889-07-09
FARM VALUES IN THE EAST.

The Philadelphia Press, of June
18th, says: One OF the revelations of
the census next year will probably be
the showing that the public domain is
nearly exhausted. The settlements of
new lands during the present decade
have greatly surpassed those made in
any oIher ten years. Ii these lands
were all placed in one solid body they
would comprise an area larger than
France or Germany, and twice az large
as Great Britain and Ireland. In the
eight years preceding the lst of last
january about l24,OOO,OOO acres
were settled under the homestead and
timber culture laws, and this year
and half of 1890 will doubtless add
enough to bring the total up to l5O,-
600, 1000.
Here is an empire in itself, which,
in 1880, was almost unproductive.
The most of this newly occupied land
lies in the great Northwestern States
and Territories, Dakota showing the
largest number of settlers and the
largest area of land taken up. The
knowledge that the arabic lands of
the public domain are approaching ex-
haustion was doubtless one of the
leading causes which contributed to
the recent rush to Oklahoma. There
are it is true, millions of acres in the
Rocky Mountain region and on the
Pacific Coast still unoccupied, but
much of it is arid, fit for nothing but
pasture or cultivatable only by irriga-
ton. The Indian reservations COM
prise perhaps, lOO,OOO,OOO acres, but
if these were all opened now they
would not appease the land hunger of
the country for more than five years.
The inevitable result of this exhaus-
ton of the public domain in the far
West must be rise of farm values
in the East. When lands can be no
longer obtained for the mere cost of
surveying them, Eastern farmers will
be less eager to sell their holdings for
song and emigrate westward, as
they have been doing for generation
past. 1t must also result in bringing
into the market the large tracts of un-
occupied land still remaining In the
older States. The extent of these is
much greater than is generally known.
Leaving out the States east of the AL
legheny Mountains, there are probab-
ly 100000 900 acres of available land
in the region bounded on the east by
those mountains, on the south by the
Ohio river, and on the west by the
western limit of Minnesota and Ne.
braska. The Southern States have
also nearly as much more.
All of this land that is cultivatable
will have an increased value when it
is once known that fertile farms are
no longer attainable in the trans Mis-
sissippi States and Territories. It will
react also upon the lands already in
cultivation. They are nearer the great
markets of the East and can be titled
to much more profit than the rich
prairies of the West, the product of
which must be taxed for the cost of
the carriage which is to bring it with
in reach of the consumer AS the |
Western States and Territories be-
come more densely populated they are
certain also to demand a larger
share of their own crops for home
consumption and have less to send |
elsewhere. This will compel the
older States to rely more and more
upon crops raised within their own
limits. All these causes are certain |
to result during the next ten years in
steady and permanent rise in the
value of farm lands in the Eastern
States.