258 READINGS IN RURAL ECONOMICS 



. . . The history of the public lands happens to fall into five tolera- 

 bly distinct periods, each of about twenty years. From 1 784 to 1801 

 the policy of the government was to sell lands in large quantities 

 by special contract ; the result was an average sale of less than one 

 hundred thousand acres yearly. In 1800 was inaugurated a new 

 system of sales, in small lots, on credit ; about eighteen millions 

 of acres were thus taken, but more than two and a half millions 

 subsequently reverted to the government under relief acts. In the 

 middle of 1820 began a system of sales for cash, in lots to suit 

 purchasers. Seventy-six million acres were sold in twenty years ; 

 but the half of this quantity went in the two years preceding the 

 panic of 1837. After that revulsion the pre-emption system was 

 adopted, by which the most desirable lands were reserved for 

 actual settlers, at a low price. Except in the years 18 56-1 85 7 

 the sales were steady and kept pace with the growth of the 

 West. The homestead system carried the principle of land for 

 the landless still further, and cut down cash sales to an average of 

 a million acres a year. Since 1880, pre-emptions have been re- 

 sorted to again, in many cases for fraudulent purposes. At pres- 

 ent lands are classified by the Land Office as agricultural, saline, 

 town site, mineral, coal, stone and timber, and desert lands. 

 From 1854 to 1862 there was a further class of "graduated 

 lands." These were tracts which had long remained unsold, and 

 were offered to abutters at very low prices. The minimum price 

 for ordinary lands has for many years been $1.25 per acre. Tim- 

 ber lands and lands reserved from railroad land-grants are sold at 

 the "double minimum" of $2.50 an acre; mineral lands are val- 

 ued at $2.50 and $5 an acre ; coal lands, at $10 and $20 an acre. 



It would seem, therefore, as though the sale of a hundred and 

 ninety-two million acres must have brought in a handsome sum 

 to the government. As long ago as 1787 Thomas Jefferson 

 wrote : " I am very much pleased that our Western lands sell so 

 successfully. I turn to this precious resource as that which will, 

 in every event, liberate us from our domestic debt, and perhaps, 

 too, from our foreign one." It is true that the proceeds of the 

 public lands did eventually wipe out the last vestiges of the debt 

 which had existed in 1787. It is true that the lands had, up to 



