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. -Area Unapprop'd & Unreserved Total. propriated. 522,373 54,369,023 86,240 12,738,022 32,049,387 5,685,455 72,792,500 Arkansas. 3,696,990 3,696,990 16,189,170 35,273,705 4,434,846 39,708,551 1,592,893 164,382 1,757,275 19,840 11,268,786 ... 1,060,883 50,334,242 52,383,000 26,632,809 28,863,188 505,895 36,819,000 3,246,498 383,950 383,950 29,301,050 29,685,000 445,911 43,796,000 95,259,720 38,518,367 49,137,339 70,336,500 56,877,835 6,029,448 15,289,722 78,197,005 20,574,613 44,902,987 7,007,222 5,467,702 20,260,647 61,626,218 12,982.826 43,937,896 Wisconsin. 413,799 413,799 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 369,5:29,600 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 Origina! Original June 30, 1897, Inclusive. 1869. 2,698,482 1880. 6,045,571 2,169,484 1891. 5,028,101 1,763,799 1892. 7,716,062 41,375 6,348,045 2,546,686 1893. 6,808,791 10,989 1872 4,595,435 1883. 8,171,914 3,110,930 1894. 8,046,968 4,209 4,084,464 1895. 851,2.6 1885. 7,415,886 4,755,006 1896. 1875 2,369,782 473,694 1886 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, $1.962,628.22 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 grain 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 periods should not be used to compute the percentages of increase. In the following comparative statement (the subjoined totals of manufactures), showing the percentage of increase, the statistics for 1890 do not include the data for the industries previously enumerated as not being included in the reports of the tenth census" (1880). The following comparative summary of totals for the United States, with percentage of increase, 1880 and 1890, is from the census of 1890: The following table exhibits the distribution of manufactures as between the several States and Territories: *No report received in 1880. North Dakota and South Dakota combined for 1890, to compare with Dakota Territory for 1880 |