OCR Text |
Show PUBLIC LANDS. Or, More Properly, the Private Lands of Utah's Citizens. Over Half a Million Acres Entered En-tered in the Land Office. A statement of the acreage of the public lands, taken up in this territory, terri-tory, has never been published. Reports Re-ports from the surveyor general' office have been published yearly in ibe general land office reports ever since an office was established in this city, but until 1876 these reports contained con-tained but little information that was in any way aocurate, so far, at lewt, as regards the various uses to whioh the land in this territory was put and the area devoted to the several sev-eral purposes for whioh the land was entered. In 187G, however, the amouut of Und entered each year, with the purposes for which it bad been taken up, was put forth in the report of the surveyor general to the department at Washington, and there published in a tabular form. These have been published lor three yea; b past 1876, '77 and '78 that of 1879 not yet having appeared, though it will when the land office report is completed by the printer. From these reports, together with the items ! taken from the surveyor general's report re-port for 1879, the following figures are obtained, and are therefore reliable; and in as much bb this is the firBt comprehensive table ever published regarding public lands, it will be found valuable, as well for reference aa for general information. It is somewhat unfortunate that up to 1876 no report gives the amouBt of laud taken up for the v-irbus purposes, and there -fore an approximate figure only can be given; still, as it appears tht up to and including 1876 only Borne 500,000 odd acres of land were under cultivation in this territory the esti mate will be near enough for all general gen-eral purposes. From this report it is Bbown that, as compared with the entries of 1876, nearly double the amount was taken up in 1878, while during the year ending June SOth, 1879, there was a falling ofl from the amount entered during 1878; which, however, is not very material, ag the various entries durinn 1879 are vastly greater than those of '76 and '77. From these reports it appears that no mineral lands were purchased , from tbe government until 1877, : though mines were worked in nearly j every place where they are worked i now for some time prior to 1S77. In ! regard to these lands, however, the purchases of 1879 exceeded those of 1877 and 1878 considerably, the total j area now being 1,807.69 acres. This j includes tbe amount up to the 31st j of October, as will be seen by the supplemental report, which embraces tbe various lands entered during tbe first third of the fiscal year of 1880. Aocordine to these reports there are but 640 acres of coal land so far taken up in the territory, this amount having hav-ing been fileduponduring 77 and '78, the reports showing no preemptions whatever for ooal lands during, 1876. 1S79, or the four mouths of the fiscal year 1880. Timber culture lands, however, show a steady and gratifying gratify-ing increase, 418.50 being filed upon in 1877, 1,280 in 1878, 2,179.47 in 1S79, and 1,090 during the four months of 1SS0, the amount nearly doubling each year, with a like prospect pros-pect for 1880. Tbe great bulk of tbe entries have, of course, been under tbe homestead laws; and cash has been the basis. Still there have been preemption pre-emption entries with military land warrants, but these are insignificant in comparison with the total amount. Considerable land has also been taken up under the deBert land act, but there is a marked falling oQ in 1879, when compared with 1878, and from the supplementary report the iodioa-tions iodioa-tions are that there will be a still further decrease in 1880. In many other respects this r a port will be found very useful, besides being a means of comparison. Toe principal report was worked up in the office of the surveyor general, the supplementary being obtained in the land office: " to 5 5 3 M 5f OOOO If- 3 Tssl sss ss s J3 CD S S 2 M 3 S 5" S833 -"a I 3 SsSSSSSSSS s I S i: ?S g 3' S rlls ls"3" ' !i ii- i i ! ! i ; i I : I s N M U I I ! ; H 1 1 I I ; ! I i.5S&S!.S-o. from July 1st up to October Slar, 1S79. Homestca.l 22,547.59 Final homestead 4,130 38 Cash - 3,hS Military lar.d warrant - 240.1X) Timber culture l.WO.OO Desprt land 8,024 ilinoral innd ... 1 j Suproms court scrip l.iSHi.OO Second desert land - - 306.00 To'.al . 6,5SW.40 j Public Land Surveyed. ! Number of arr surveyed , up to Jura 30th, S,l7S,Sl9.97 Number of acres relumed during the lineal vear eud- irg June 30th, 1670 - 416,132 37 Total - 8,5,952-34 COXOUETE WALKS, for Gardens Sidewalko, and FIRE-PROOF ROOFING made by a6 Morris & Evans. |