THE STORY OF OUR PUBLIC DOMAIN 53 



spite her northern position. Public Land surveys 

 of more than two million acres have been confined 

 to known agricultural areas, coal fields and lands 

 which in other ways may be attractive to settlers, be- 

 cause population is what Alaska needs most. Also 

 individual town sites, native allotments, trade and 

 manufacturing sites, and homestead entry claims 

 have been surveyed in widely separated parts of the 

 territory to focus growth at as many points as pos- 

 sible. Further to make settlement attractive, in 

 1918 Congress made provision for homestead sur- 

 veys without cost to claimants. 



Congress has also extended to Alaska the prin- 

 cipal laws applicable to land in the state. The min- 

 ing laws, the coal-leasing acts of 1914 and 1921, the 

 homestead laws confined to entries of 160 acres, the 

 right-of-way laws, town site laws, entries for trade 

 and manufacture laws, and timber acquisition laws 

 apply also there. 



Since April, 1926, timber may be exported from 

 Alaska. Indians may now own town site lots else- 

 where than in their own towns. Lands may be 

 leased for fur farming and this new type of enter- 

 prise has become one of the profitable businesses of 

 the country. Eighteeen establishments are engaged 

 in producing fur of the red and silver foxes. Rein- 

 deer farming has developed, at this writing, more 

 rapidly than its market. Increase of the herds, es- 

 pecially in the Seward Peninsula, is presenting seri- 

 ous questions. More than half a million animals 



