Alabama, Mississippi, and Louisiana. (The larger portion of the lastnamed falling in the valley of the Mississippi.) These four States embrace an area nearly equal to that of France. Climate, soil, and productions bear a general similarity, having a semi-tropical type, yet verging upon the more decided peculiarities of the temperate zone. Their most important staples are cotton, sugar, rice, and great variety of delicious and semi-tropical fruits. Twenty-eighth. States in the valley of the Mississippi, east of that river-Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Michigan, Wisconsin. THE GREAT REGION OF WHEAT, CORN, AND STAPLE ESCULENTSSKETCH OF THEIR RESOURCES. Twenty-ninth. States and Territories west of the river in the Mississippi Valley-Minnesota, (a small part east of the river,) Dakota, Iowa, Missouri, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska. General descriptions given of these political divisions, rich in varied and staple products. Thirtieth. Territories traversed by the Rocky Mountains, beginning in the south, with New Mexico, Arizona, advancing to Colorado, Wyoming, Idaho, Montana, and Utah; outlines given of these political divisions in regard to their natural resources. Thirty first. Political divisions on the Pacific slope: Alaska, Wash ington, Oregon, California, and Nevada. Brief descriptions given of their resources. Thirty-second. Public sales during the last fiscal year. There have been offered at public sale, pursuant to proclamation of the President, in New Mexico Colorado. Total... Acres. 1,644, 388 143,000 1,787, 388 And there have been restored to market of lands heretofore withdrawn for railroad grants in— Thirty-third. Preëmption privileges in obtaining titles to the public lands fully explained, and the effect of the recent provision in the act of July 14, 1870, (U. S. Stat. for 1870, p. 279, chap. 272,) pointed out, by which, in respect to surveyed and unoffered land, preëmption, proof, and settlement are required to be made within eighteen months after expiration of the time prescribed for filing declaratory statements; such statements to be filed within three months after settlement upon this class of lands, and within three months from the filing of plat of survey in the district land office where settlement is made before survey. Thirty-fourth. Benefits suggested as resulting from the operations of the homestead laws. Thirty-fifth. Grants in the interests of education, common schools, colleges, universities, equal to 78,576,802 acres. Thirty-sixth. Military services. Aggregate granted from the close of the Revolution to the 30th June, 1870, being equal to 73,463,961 acres. Thirty-seventh. Concessions in aid of internal improvements, giving the status of each and the quantity donated under general and special grants, amounting in the aggregate to 13,853,054.93 acres, exclusive of railroads and wagon roads. Thirty-eighth. Swamp and overflowed lands; aggregate area selected in place under acts of 1849 and 1850, from commencement of operations to 30th June, 1870, equal to 60,459,868,84 acres; quantity certified as indemnity to end of last fiscal year equals 637,261.81 acres; paid over as eash indemnity from commencement of that principle to end of last fiscal year equals $728,491 16. Thirty-ninth. Sketch of the mineral resources of the United States. Fortieth. Operations of the mining act shown, with mode of proceeding to obtain title to mines of gold, silver, cinnabar, and copper, as also to placer claims. Forty-first. Railway and wagon-road grants; results presented. Forty-second. Town sites; showing the operations under congressional legislation in this respect as to urban settlements. Forty-third. California titles under Spanish and Mexican grants; also as to donations in Oregon and Washington, inaugurated in the early history of that region to promote settlement. Forty-fourth. The land ledger system adopted in the General Land Office at an early period, whereby, in condensed form, the whole history of the disposal of all tracts from the foundation of the Government is shown to latest dates. Forty fifth. Adaptation of public domain to special branches of agricultural productions. Forty-sixth. Paper on tea culture accompanying annual report. Forty-eighth. Closing chapter, illustrating the influence of the public land system upon the development of our resources, especially upon our domestic and foreign trade. Forty-ninth. The annual report, besides the papers on tea culture and silk culture, is accompanied by separate reports from the surveyors general, with tabular statements exhibiting the disposal of the public lands and embracing the details and aggregates. Maps have been prepared, subject to order, indicating the progress of surveys in the public land States and Territories. With the report there are, also, instructions as to the mode of obtaining title under the various laws of Congress to agricultural and mineral lands. Special communications from scientific gentlemen, and a map showing the route of trade from an early period to recent dates. Our separate, or connected map, prepared under joint resolution approved January 6, 1863, (12 U. S. Stat., p. 822,) accompanies this annual report. Respectfully submitted. JOS. S. WILSON, Commissioner General Land Office. The Honorable SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, General Land Office, October 27, 1870. SIR: The operations of this branch of the service during the fiscal year terminating on the 30th June, 1870, have been coextensive with the whole national domain, except Alaska; the new and last-created Territory of Wyoming having been organized into a district for surveys and disposal of lands by the statute of February 5, 1870. By act of Congress, approved July 9, 1870, Arizona was detached from the juris diction of the United States surveyor general of California and erected into a separate surveying district, so that now there are seventeen dif ferent surveying departments, extending from Florida, on the Atlantic, to the Pacific Ocean. The public surveys have been established, to a greater or less extent, under the direction of surveyors general, by skillful deputies, in the States of Oregon, California, Nevada, Nebraska, Minnesota, Louisiana, and Florida, and in the Territories of Dakota, Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, Washington, Utah, and Arizona. During the past fiscal year the public surveys have been extended over 18,165,278 acres. The separate reports of the surveyors general, in the appendix herewith, convey much varied and useful in formation respecting the resources of the different parts of the public domain. There are eighty different land districts established for local convenience and obtaining titles to the public lands, each district having a register and receiver authorized by law to receive and act upon all applications for obtaining titles. The land office formerly at Monroe, Louisiana, has been consolidated with that at New Orleans; the district office at Los Angeles, California, has been restored and reorganized, while new offices have been created for the districts of Springfield and Pembina, in Dakota; Pueblo, in Colorado, and for the two new 'districts in Kansas-the one with the local office at Augusta, the other at Concordia. A list of all the United States land districts, with the localities of the different local offices, will be found in the appendix. The officers at the places indicated are ready to accommodate parties desirous of obtaining titles under the laws of Congress. Results in the disposal of the public lands during the aforesaid last fiscal year may be summed up as follows: Acres. Cash sale, including a small amount of military scrip........ 2, 159, 515. 81 mental .... Agricultural college scrip locations. Certified for railways under various acts of Congress.. 512, 360, 00 Total of lands disposed of during the fiscal year.. 8, 695, 413. 00 Increased disposal... The receipts during the year were as follows: Cash and bounty-land scrip treated as cash, for lands at and above the minimum of $1 25 per acre... 7,666, 151, 97 429,261, 03 $3, 123, 677 39 Aggregate of homestead fees, $5 and $10, paid pursuant to the homestead law of 1862... Amount paid as fees of registers and receivers under the homestead acts of 1862 and 1864... Aggregate fees received on locations, selections, and donations, fees in preemption cases, and for certified transcripts Total gross receipts.... $300, 025 00 132,383 99 107,427 52 3,663, 513 90 The above figures show a decrease in the aggregate cash receipts compared with the previous fiscal year. The reason of this is sufficiently obvious upon inspection of the foregoing statement. Though the general aggregate of land disposed of during the year has increased nearly half a million of acres, the increase has been confined to those branches which bring but little revenue to the Government. While the military bounty-land warrant locations, the homestead entries, the certificates to railroads, and the approvals under the swamp-land laws have increased, the sales for cash have diminished. The financial results of the General Land Office operations being quite important to the treasury, the strictest methods of responsibility are adopted to prevent any loss to the Government. It is believed that our system of checks and balances is such as to secure the most economical administration practicable of the public funds arising from the transfer of the landed estate to private ownership. The decrease of revenue from this source, though inviting attention, is, under the circumstances, comparatively a matter of no serious concern, because resulting from the greater appreciation of the liberal features of our landed policy by the uncapitalized classes for whose benefit these provisions were specially drawn. The relation of the Government to society in this matter is only that of a trustee. In its fiduciary responsibilities, growing out of the trust imposed, the raising of a revenue has much the smaller scope. The enlargement of this idea to the injury of more extensive and vital interests would be extremely injudicious. It would be unwise financial economy to administer this trust in such a manner as to raise a million or so more of dollars, if this involved the necessity of impeding the settlement of the public domain by raising the price, or by withdrawing any of the present facilities for their appropriation which the law holds out to the humblest industry. The annual increase of proceeds of internal taxation and of duties upon foreign imports secured by a growing civilization would far transcend any enlargement of revenue from the sale of lands that might be secured by abolishing the liberal and beneficent features of our public land system. But the increase of public revenue is but a slight exponent of the higher functions of this noble system. The enlargement of the area of civilization and the inexpressible relief which has been afforded to the crowded millions of European society, groaning under the evils of a state of transition from feudalism to civil and religious freedom, can be measured by no aggregates of financial value created. The intellectual and spiritual activities of the human soul developed by the extension of free society transcend all moneyed standards. It should be sufficient if, in the management of this trust, the public laud system should pay its own expenses without imposing a tax upon the property of the American people. The foregoing statements indicate a still greater acceleration in the process of settling and civilizing the North American Continent. The increase in the homestead settlements is especially indicative of the increase of smaller freeholds. Of the cash sales and military bounty. land warrant locations, a very large proportion have been made under the preemption law, awarding tracts not exceeding 160 acres to parties actually occupying and settling the same. The lands already certified to railroads, it is known, have, to a considerable extent, been sold to purchasers in small tracts, exhibiting the prevailing tendency of our social system to the subdivision of land proprietorship. It was obvious last year that temporary causes had for several years previous been stimulating and enlarging the westward movement of our population, producing an increased appropriation of the public lands by private parties. Since then the appreciation of our national securities, the rapid decrease of our public debt, and the relief of the tax-paying part of the nation from an immense burden of taxation, together with good crops throughout the agricultural districts, have very considerably lightened the pressure of financial distress which constrained the westward movement of our population; yet, from the increased appropriation of the public lands during the past fiscal year under the preemption and homestead laws, we recognize the continuance of that movement in greater force than ever. A very large and important element in this influx of population into the public domain is from Europe-Germany, the British Isles, and the Scandinavian Peninsula being the leading countries from which it comes. It is in place here to renew the testimony of this office last year in favor of the noble policy of naturalization which has given to this nation its magnificent career of development. The United States is the favorite land of the emigrant. Other countries present equal attractions in the natural advantages of soil, climate, and position, but have never yet attracted immigration. The thinly populated regions of the Crimea, the north shore of the Black Sea, the valley of the Danube, Algiers, Mexico, Central and South America, all present especial advantages to the emigrant. Canada lies in much closer proximity to Europe, offering advantages for settlement to its northern races, perhaps, equal to those of some of our Northwestern States; but in spite of every effort of the British Govern. ment, the large majority of the immigrants directed to this point are soon attracted to the more genial nationality of the United States of America. The reason of this preference is found in the freedom of our political and social systems, and the superior development of natural resources which that freedom secures. Our Government confines itself to the narrowest limits consistent with the maintenance of public order. It everywhere 'causes its influence to be respected, not as the master, but as the servant of the people. It thus appeals to the self-reliance of the citizen, calling forth all his latent energies, the exercise of which upon the obstacles of external nature do not fail to result in the accumulation of wealth and in the development of personal independence of character. Our policy thus unmasks those immense capabilities of human nature which in the Old World are overlain by caste and proscription, utilizing what would otherwise either go to waste or remain paralyzed in chronic inaction. The value of foreign immigration to this country has been estimated from a purely financial point of view with very remarkable results. In my last report it was mentioned that an estimate had been made of the average sum of money imported by each foreign immigrant at $68 per capita. It is now believed by parties more thoroughly conversant with the facts that this estimate is entirely too small, being founded on a very imperfect range of inquiry. One of the New York commissioners |