a |Land grants |Donations |Sales to companies |460,000,000 |
|given to | for | to the | or individuals | Acres |
|individuals| internal | states for | under preemption | |
|in the |improvements| education | and general laws, | (Diagram |
|form of | and | and | and private land | based upon |
|homesteads |railroads | other | claims allowed | the Report |
|or | | local | | of the |
|allotments | | purposes | | Public Lands |
| | | | | Commission |
| | | | | and the |
|122,000,000|137,000,000 | 164,000,000| 319,000,000 | Report of the |
|Acres | Acres | Acres | Acres | Commissioner |
| | of the |
| Land area of the twenty-nine states constituting the | General Land |
| public domain. 1,442,000,000 Acres | Office, 1905) |
+---------------------------------------------------------+---------------+

By 1890 the good agricultural lands of the United States were nearly all
in private hands. Their occupation had been hastened in the last five
years by facility of access and the efforts of the railways. With the
disappearance of free lands a new period in America began, as was
recognized at the time, and has become clearer ever since.

Out of forty-eight States comprising the United States in 1912, and
including about 1,902,000,000 acres, twenty-nine with 1,442,000,000
acres had been erected in the public domain to which Congress had once
owned title. By cession, purchase, or conquest this domain had been
acquired between 1781 and 1853; it had been treated as a national asset
and governed with what efficiency Congress possessed. By 1903 the United
States had transferred to individuals about half its public land and
nearly all its farm land. It retained many millions of acres, but these
were mountain or desert, and were not usable by the individual farmer
who had been the typical unit in the occupation of the West.

Already, by 1880, the statisticians had recognized that the period of
free land was at an end, and had turned their attention to the abuses
which had arisen in the administration of the estate. From the
beginning, it h