26 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



1849 was transferred to the Interior Department, in- 

 augurating the system of to-day. 



Meantime, in 1803, the Louisiana Purchase had 

 added most of the western drainage basin of the 

 Mississippi to the prospective wealth of the nation, 

 pushed "the west" many miles farther back, and in- 

 creased the sales of the new Commissioner to "land- 

 office business" proportions, originating that still- 

 current phrase. The Louisiana Purchase, acquired 

 from France, cost $27,267,621.98. Florida, which 

 was bought from Spain on February 22, 1819, cost 

 $6,489,768. 



In 1841, the young nation changed its policy 

 from selling land to all purchasers for cash income 

 to using it to acquire a farming population whose 

 industry would benefit the nation permanently. The 

 Pre-emption Act then passed gave the right to pur- 

 chase 1 60 acres to actual settlers only. This logi- 

 cally led to the Homestead Act of May 20, 1862, 

 which President Lincoln so highly approved; it 

 awarded 160 acres free to any able bodied citizen of 

 good character who should agree to live on the prop- 

 erty and develop it. Upon this policy grew the rapid 

 settlement and much of the prosperity which has at- 

 tended our national growth since. When the rich 

 prairies of the Mississippi Valley were exhausted, 

 homestead entries in semi-desert lands farther west 

 were enlarged to 320 acres. With nearly all agri- 

 cultural lands gone and remaining arid lands fit for 

 little except to raise hardy stock, one to half a dozen 



