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.
