—

minimum price of such lan

2

20 AGRICULTURAL REPORT.

a widow, or any man over the age of 21 years, and being a oiti- zen of the United States, or having filed his declaration of intention to become a citizen, as required by the naturalization laws, who had made or should make a settlement in person on any public lands to which the Indian title had been or should be extinguished at the date of settlement, said lands having been surveyed, who shall inhabit and improve the same, and erect a dwelling thereon, the right to enter any number of acres, not exceeding 160 in one body, to include the residence of such settler, upon paying to the United States the d. The right is restricted, however, to such as did not own 320 acres of land at, the time of settlement, and no one is allowed to enjoy it who shall abandon a residence on his own land to settle upon the public land in the same State or Terri- tory, and the right can only be enjoyed once under this act. The blessings of this law to individuals and families, and its advantages to the government itself, are inestimable. Thousands upon thousands of indigent families have thus been enabled to obtain comfortable homes, and, by means of their settlements, our western wilds have been subdued into civil."ion, and covered by the farms of a pros- perous and happy people..

In 1844, an act was passed for the relief of citizens of towns under certain circumstances, which gives the right to enter by pre-emption 320 acres of land, so settled and occupied as'a town site, in trust for the several use and benefit of the inhabitants, according to their res- pective interests.

By the act of the 3d of March, 1855, contractors carrying the mails through the Territories west of the Mississippi are authorized to pre- empt their stations, not more than one for every 20 miles of the route, to the extent of 640 acres at each station. In 1853— 54, the pre-emption law of 1841 was extended to the public lands in Califor- nia, Kansas, Nebraska, Minnesota, Oregon, Washington, and New Mexico, and the right o. ettlement was conferred upon unsurveyed as well as surveyed lands. This privilege of settling upon unsurveyed lands has been of great advantage to the hardy pioneers, and has done much towards the peopling of our vast territorial possessions.

In Oregon and Washington, stronger inducements were offered by the donation acts, which grant to settlers upon the public lands in those Territories, under certain conditions and restrictions, a half section of land to a single, and a whole section to a married man. In the latter case, one-half is secured to and vests in the wife, another very wise and loneficent interposition in favor of females.

This is but a cursory view of our pre-emption and donation systems, and the laws upon which they are based; all having in view the expansion of our country, as well as the happiness, advancement, and prosperity of the great masses of our people.

Towards the close of the last century, a new era dawned upon the productive industry of both hemispheres, in the formation of agricul- tural associations and economical societies, the beneficial effects of which were manifest from the interest they elicited on the part of