PUBLIC LANDS OF THE UNITED STATES. Area Surveyed and Unsurveyed. (Prepared by the General Land Office.) Statement showing the number of acres of public lands surveyed in the following land States and Territories up to June 30, 1897, during the past fiscal year, and the total of the public lands surveyed up to June 30, 1898; also the total area of the public domain remaining unsurveyed within the *This area appears to have been counted in former reports, and is therefore not added in this. The completion of surveys in the Indian Territory is being carried forward by the Geological Survey, but the amount of surveys executed and number of acres remaining unsurveyed have not been furnished this office. This estimate is of a very general nature and affords no index to the disposable volume of land remaining, nor the amount available for agricultural purposes. It includes Indian and other public reservations, unsurveyed private land claims, as well as surveyed private land claims in the districts of Arizona, California, Colorado, and New Mexico; the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections reserved for common schools; unsurveyed lands embraced in railroad, swamp-land, and other grants; the great mountain areas; the areas of unsurveyed rivers and lakes, and large areas wholly unproductive and unavailable for ordinary purposes. Vacant Public Lands, with Area Reserved and Appropriated. State or Territory. Alabama.. Arizona. Arkansas.. California... -Area Unapprop'd & Unreserved→ Total. propriated. Area. 32,049,387 32,658,000 54,369,023 72,792,500 33,543,500 99,361,083 Colorado. 35,273,705 4,434,846 39,708,551 66,390,650 1,757,275 19,840 33,487,385 35,264,500 Idaho.... 11,268,786 32,939,163 44,207,949 1,939,869 Indiana....... 19,575,040 19,575,040 Iowa.... 35,228,800 35,228,800 50,334,242 52,383,000 65,018 755,545 Minnesota. 3,246,498 2,473,828 Mississippi. 29,301,050 29,685,000 Missouri. 43,796,000 71,607,616 11,424,213 Nebraska. 10,548,450 10,548,450 5,983,409 2,994,482 70,336,500 New Mexico... 42,960,793 13,917,042 56,877,835 6,029,448 15,289,722 78,197,005 North Dakota. 11,717,278 21.277,764 44,902,987 2,860 7,007,222 7,207,160 10,539,281 24,753,663 61,626,218 South Dakota.. 10,890,284 34,121,786 43,937,896 5,383,467 3,258,637 52,580,000 Washington... 13,442,582 11,131,345 18.110,157 42.684,084 Wisconsin... 413,799 413,799 365,353 Wyoming... 42,946,054 6,135,209 49,081,263 8,171,043 This aggregate is exclusive of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, in which, if any public land remains, it consists of a few small isolated tracts. Alaska, which contains about 577,390 square miles, or 369,529,600 acres of land, mostly unserveyed and unappropriated, is also excluded. Statement of Number of Acres Entered Annually Under the Homestead and Timber Culture Acts from July 1, 1866, to Year Ending June 30. 1866. Origina! Original June 30, 1897, Inclusive. 4,496,855 1,902,038 1889 6,029,230 2,551,069 5,267,385 2,775,503 1890. 3,531,678 1,787,403 2,169,484 1891. 5,040,393 969,006 1,763,799 1892. 2,546,686 1893. 3,110,930 1894. 4,084,464 1895. 1874. 3,489,570 851,226 1885. 7,415,886 4,755,006 1896. 9,145,136 5,391,309 1897. 599,918 1887. 7,594,350 4,224,397 1898. Lands patented by the United States up to June 30, 1896: To States for wagon roads, 1,945,045.25 acres; to States for canal purposes, 4,433,073.06 acres; to States and corporations for railroad purposes, 81,962,628.22 acres; under river improvement grants, 1,406,210.80 acres; total, 89,746,957.33 acres. In the absence of any means of getting complete information as to the present condition of the manufacturing industries, the census of 1890 must be accepted as affording the only available data. In compiling the last census, new methods of inquiry were employed in collecting the returns, with the result of showing increases, as compared with the census of 1880, which the facts do not warrant. Besides, many industries were reported in the last census which were not included in the previous one; and the retail business was much more fully reported in 1890 than in 1880. It is from these causes that many of the comparisons between the two censuses will appear dubious; and that the total industrial capital of the nation is shown to have made the incredible advance from $2,780,766,895 in 1880 to $6,139,397,785 in 1890-an increase of 120.78 per cent., and that the value of products shows a gain of 69.31 per cent. Whether the returns of 1880 were deficient, or those of 1890 were excessive, or whether there is reason for both suppositions, it is not easy to decide; but there is unquestionably a more or less general discrepancy which materially lessens the value of the vast compilation. The Superintendent of Census remarks on this aspect of the census of 1890: "Owing to the changes in both the form and the scope of the inquiry at the census of 1890, as compared with that of 1880, the totals as reported at the two census pericds should not be used to compute the percentages of increase. In the following comparative statement (the subjoined totals of manufactures), showing |