20 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



than ever it was in its years of swollen wealth. Its 

 present potential value has been estimated in billions 

 not including those lands in which the United States 

 has recently reserved minerals; but any estimate is 

 the merest guess work. Even after all its remaining 

 lands, now largely desert, shall have been given 

 away, if ever they are given away, the existence of 

 the General Land Office is guaranteed by the mineral 

 leasing act which has retained national ownership 

 of non-metaliferous minerals found in lands there- 

 after to be homesteaded. 



The total area of the United States, exclusive 

 of Alaska and island possessions, is 1,937,144,960 

 acres, or 3,026,789 square miles. Once the Public 

 Domain consisted of 1,400,00,000 acres or 2,187,400 

 square miles. To-day, much the most of it having 

 passed into private possession and more than half 

 the remainder having been withdrawn for conserva- 

 tion, it contains about 194,000,000 acres or 303,- 

 125 square miles, an area practically equal to the 

 New England and Middle States with Virginia, 

 West Virginia and North Carolina. How these 

 lands were acquired and how they passed, and still 

 are passing, is the story of the Public Domain. 



The lands in the original thirteen states, Con- 

 necticut, Delaware, Georgia, Maryland, Massachu- 

 setts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, 

 North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, South 

 Carolina and Virginia, also in Texas, never formed 

 a part of the Public Domain, though areas for spe- 



