400

UNITED STATES

The public lands are divided into two great classes. The one class have a dollar and a quarter an acre designated as the minimum price, and the other two dollai-s and a half an acre, the latter being the alternate sections, reserved by the United States in land grants to railroads, &c. Titles to these lands may be acquired by location under the homestead laws ; or, as to some classes, by purchase for cash. The homestead laws give the right to 160 acres of a-dollar- and-a-quarter lands to any citizen or applicant forcitizeuship who will actually settle upon and cultivate the land. The title is perfected by the issue of a patent after five years of actual settlement. The only charges in the case of homestead entries are fees and commissions. On July 1, 1912, 682,984,762 acres were unappropriated and unreserved, of which 368,010,643 were in Alaska. In 1907, 14,754,584 acres were taken up under the Homestead Act, and in all 20,866,592 acres were disposed of to individuals, States, and railroad and wagon-road companies. It is provided by law that two sections, of 640 acres of land, in each ' township, ' are reserved for common schools, so that the spread of education may go together with colonisation.

The power of Congress over the public territory is exclusive and universal, except so far as restrained by stipulations in the original cessions.

According to census returns the total acreage of farms and the improved acreage have been : —

Years

Farm area. Acies

Improved area. Acres

Value of farm property

Valuta of products in preceding year

1890 1900 1910

623,218,619 838,591,774 878,798,325

357,616,755 414,498,487 478,451,750

Dollars 16,082,267,689 20,439,901,164 40,991,449,090

Dollars 2,460,107.454 4,717,069,973

In the same years the numbers of farms of different sizes were : —

Acres

1890

1900

1910

Under 3 acres ....

\ 150,194

41,385

18,033

3 and under 10

225,844

317,010

10 ,, 20 . .

265,550

406,641

504,123

20 ,, 50 . .

902,777

1,257,496

1,414,376

50 ,, 100

1,121,485

1,366,038

1,438,069

100 ,, 500

2,008,694

2,290,282

2,494,461

500 ,, 1,000

84,395

102,526

125,295

1,000 and over ....

31,546

47,160 5,737,372

50,135

Total . . .

4,564,641

6,361,502

In 1910, 4,771,063 farms were occupied by native whites, 669,556 by foreign-born whites and 920,883 by negroes and other non-whites. Of the occupants, 3,948,722 were owners, 58,104 managers, 712,294 cash tenants, 1,319,953 share tenants, 208,436 share-cash tenants and 113,993 not reporting.

The areas and produce of the principal cereal crops for three years are

shown in the subjoined tables.