pear to be erroneous in the matter of cattle, sheep, and hogs. Excluding these, there has been a very considerable increase of all denominations except mules, and these have decreased no doubt because of the advancing construction of roads suitable for waggons, so that pack animals are not so much required as formerly.

TOTAL NUMBERS OF STOCK OF VARIOUS KINDS IN OREGON IN SUCCESSIVE YEARS.

Years. Horses. Mules. Cattle, Oxen, Milch Cows.

and others.

Sheep. Hogs.

According to the returns contained in the 'Monthly Reports of the United States Department of Agriculture for 1876, pp. 3, 4, 5 et seq., Oregon is one of the States of the Union showing the largest increase in numbers of cattle and milch cows, and also in that of horses and sheep in the year 1876. Horses have increased 7 per cent.; milch cows, 6; cattle, 9; sheep, 12; and hogs, 4; mules, 1.

According to the Report of the Secretary of State of Oregon, all the counties of the State show an increase in the value of real and personal property between the estimates of 1858 and 1873, excepting the counties of Benton, Josephine, and Polk, in which there has been a decrease. The largest increase is in Multnomah County, and amounts to more than one-half of the total increase in value of the entire States.

LANDS.

Reference has been made in another place to the "Donation Law," under which large grants of land were gratuitously made to settlers in Oregon. This act of Congress, while of great benefit to the State at the time, by attracting considerable immigration, has since proved a positive detriment to it; for the most easily cultivated lands in Western Oregon, the rich prairie lands of the Willamette Valley, were taken up under it, and have ever since remained in large tracts in comparatively few hands, and such hands too, to a great extent, that are either too indolent to cultivate all they possess, or unwilling to sell what they do not cultivate to those that would make their spare acres productive. But for this law much of the land in question would still be the property of the United States Government, and as such within the reach of new settlers under the homestead and pre-emption laws. As it is, both the public and railroad lands of Oregon consist mainly of timber land, which is of course less easily brought under cultivation.

In the Willamette Valley farms containing from 80 to 160 acres, with from 15 to 20 acres under cultivation, and from 8 to 20 miles from the railroad, can be had at from $800 to $1400 gold. Farms, in no better state of cultiva_ tion, cost, according to situation, soil, and nature of improvements, from $10 to $30 gold per acre. Well-improved prairie farms in the best localities can be bought at from $30 to $60 gold per acre. In the immediate proximity of the larger towns of the northern part of the valley land commands a still higher figure.

It is astonishing to the traveller in Oregon to observe the extent to which all flat bottom lands, even in remote valleys, have been sought out and taken up by settlers Most of the wild land in Western Oregon now for sale to

the settler is situated in the foot hills of the Cascade and Coast Ranges. Competent judges claim that the greater part of these lands is of the best kind, and equal in productiveness to the best prairie land. Destructive fires, sweeping over the foot hills, have in many places destroyed the timber so effectively that it will cost but little to clear the ground entirely if frugal, and industrious men with sufficient means for a start may be sure of obtaining on these lands an independent livelihood within three or four years.

Although surveys have been carried on for many years, vast tracts of public lands still remain unsurveyed. According to the United States Land Office Report for 1875, of the 60,975,360 acres of land of which Oregon consists, only 16,819,735, or about one-fourth, had been surveyed up to June 30, 1875, whilst 44,115,972 acres remained to be surveyed.

More Government land is, however, now in the market than is likely to be taken up for a long time to come. There are five United States land offices in the State, situate respectively at Oregon City, Roseburg, the Dalles, La Grande, and Pinkville, which afford the usual facilities to settlers wishing to avail themselves of the homestead or pre-emption laws. Under the homestead law every head of a family, male or female, or single man over twenty.one years, a citizen of the United States, or one who has formally declared his intention to become such, can enter, on payment of registry fees, ranging at from $7 to $22, 80 acres of any lands reserved by Government within the limits of railroad or waggon road grants, excepting lands bearing gold, silver, cinnabar, or copper; and 160 acres, if the claim be situate outside the limits of grants. After five years' bona fide residence upon and improvement of the land by the claimant, he receives from Government a regular title to it. Under the pre

emption laws persons possessing the same qualifications as claimants under the homestead law, not being in possession of 320 acres in any of the states or territories of the United States, may "enter" at a land office, on payment of a fee of $2, and establish a pre-emption right; that is, a right to purchase a tract of 160 acres, either within or without the limits of a railroad grant, at $2.50 per acre in the former, and at $1.25 per acre in the latter case. Where the tract was offered for sale by the Government, the land must be paid for within thirteen months from the date of settlement, otherwise within thirty-three months. Thus the alien settler, by becoming a citizen of the United States, can become possessor of 320 acres at most of the United States' lands.

The Surveyor-General of Oregon is of opinion that settlers will in future go East.

In the Report of the Commissioner of the United States General Land Office for 1876, he writes to this effect:"The majority of emigrants come with the expectation of settling on the public lands. The principal area of the field work of this office will henceforth lie east of the Cascade range. There is not a great deal of unsurveyed land in Western Oregon for which there will be any demand for years to come, and the civilization and culture which have overspread the hills and prairies and crept into the mountain passes of the fertile regions on this side are now pushing outward and over the great mountain barrier into the fruitful valleys and along the grassy uplands of Eastern Oregon."

But there are several other classes of wild lands which can be purchased by the settler whether he be an American citizen or not. These are "school lands" and lands belonging to railroad or waggon-road grants.

The land of the State is surveyed by the Government officers in a series of squares by means of parallel lines

H

66

run at right angles to each other. Each square is one square mile or 640 acres in area, and is termed a section." The sections are grouped into large square areas of six miles in length in the side, and thus containing thirty-six sections, which are termed townships.

In each township two sections are set apart as school lands, that is to be sold for the benefit of the school funds of the district. A certain further number of sections of land in the various counties have been granted to the State by the United States as an endowment for the University of Oregon and its Agricultural College. These school lands are sold to applicants at prices varying with their quality. A return of the sales effected from September, 1874, to September, 1876, is given in the Report of the Commissioners for the sale of school lands in Oregon for 1876, and gives a criterion of the prices realized by wild land in the various counties.

In the La Grande district, 4133 acres of State and school land, situate in Baker, Union, and Umatilla Counties, sold for $1.25 per acre.

Of land forming part of the endowment of the State Agricultural College, 1314 acres in the counties of Grant, Jackson and Lake sold at $2.50 per acre.

Of University land in Benton, Clatsop, Lane, Marion, Multnomah, Polk, Wasco, Washington, and Yamhill Counties, 2385 acres sold at an average price of $1.62.

28,805 acres of common school land situate in nineteen different counties, sold at an average price of $1.12. Certain grants of land have also been made to the State by the United States for various purposes of internal improvement, and are known as State lands. The office for their sale is at Salem.

In 1875-76 as above, 4995 acres of State land in Columbia, Douglas, Jackson, Lake, Multnomah, Wasco, and Washington Counties, sold at an average price of $1.90.