Land States and
Territories.

In acres.

Tabular statement showing the number of acres of public lands surveyed in the following land States and Territories up to June 30, 1879, during the present fiscal year, and the total of the public lands surveyed up to June 30, 1880; also, the total area of the public domain remaining unsurveyed within the same.

Total.......

1,814, 788, 922 2, 835, 606 734, 591, 236 2, 266, 712. 49 15, 699, 252. 96 752, 557, 195 1. 069, 143, 727

*208,299.30 acres are embraced in Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Indian reservations. † 67,063.90 acres are embraced in Red Cloud and Spotted Tail Indian reservations.

COSTS OF SURVEYING UNDER RECTANGULAR SYSTEM.

The price per mile for surveying has varied with the several acts. Under the ordinance of May 20, 1785, the surveyor was allowed at the rate of $2 per mile for every mile in length he should run, including the wages of chain carriers, markers, and every other expense attending the same.

Under the powers to the Board of Treasury to sell western territory, July 23, 1787, the Ohio Company were to survey the lands of their purchase into townships and other subdivisions, as provided in the survey ordinance above set out, at their own expense, and return the plat to the Board of Treasury. Under the ordinance of July 9, 1788, supplemental to the one of May 20, 1785, the surveyors to be appointed by the geographer to lay off lands and locate warrants thereon were to receive for their compensation an allowance to be fixed by the governor and judges of the western territory.

Under the act of 1796, May 18, the President of the United States was to fix the compensation of the assistant surveyors, chain carriers, and axe men, provided the whole

Total up to June 30,
1880.

Total area of public and Indian
lands remaining unsurveyed,
inclusive of the area of pri
vate land claims, estimated at
60,000,000 acres, surveyed up
to June 30, 1880.

expense should not exceed $3 per mile. This price was continued in the act of May, 10, 1800.

The price has varied, owing to topographical features, as in wooded or swamp country, for which from $3 to $20 have been paid in Missouri and other land States. The several acts of Congress up to 1860 will give the prices paid per mile.

TABLES SHOWING COST OF SURVEYS FROM 1860 TO 1881.

The following table will give the variat ions in prices of surveys from 1860 to 1881: Statement of rates paid per linear mile, from 1860 to 1881, inclusive.

The highest prices for surveying were as follows:

For State and Territorial boundary surveys, astronomically determined, $75 per linear mile. For surveys of out-boundaries of Indian reservations, $25 per lineal mile. For surveys of public lands, for principal bases and meridians, standard parallels, $20 per linear mile, and for township lines $18, and section lines $12.

The surveying rates prescribed by law for the survey of the public land has ranged from $3 to $20 per linear mile at various times.

APPROPRIATIONS FOR SURVEYS.

It was the custom prior to July 31, 1876, for Congress to make appropriations annually for each surveying district by separate item.

July 31, 1876 (19 Stats., p. 120), Congress changed the method of appropriation by giving a gross sum for annual surveys, without specifying surveying districts, States, or Territories; which system now exists. The Secretary of the Interior, under this law, annually apportions the same to the several surveying districts as in his judgment is deemed best.

PRESENT COST OF SURVEYING A TOWNSHIP.

It now costs to survey the exterior and subdivision lines of a township of land the following sums:

A township of land contains 12 miles of exterior and about 60 miles of section lines. The prices allowed by existing law are $12 for standard and meridian lines, $10 for exterior township lines, and $8 for section lines, per mile, except where the lands are heavily timbered, mountainous, or covered with dense undergrowth, when $16 per mile are allowed for standard, $14 for township, and $10 for section lines.

1875.

1876.

1877.

1878.

1879.

1880.

The cost of survey of the lines of one township at the ordinary rates is $600, and at the augmented rates is $768, not including anything for meander lines, or for the standard and meridian lines run in reaching and controlling the township surveys.

At the ordinary rates it costs for the field-work alone about 24 cents, and at the augmented rates about 3 cents, per acre. Add one cent to each of the above sums for the cost of disposing of the land, including expenses of the General Land Office, and it gives 3 cents as the cost of survey and sale of ordinary lands, and 4 cents as cost of survey and sale of timbered and mountainous lands, per acre.

COMPARATIVE PROGRESS OF SURVEYS DURING SIX YEARS LAST PAST.

The following table exhibits the comparative progress of the surveys and disposal of public lands during the period of six years beginning with the 1st day of July, 1874, and ending on the 30th June, 1880. It also shows the cost of the surveys in the field, including compensation to surveyors-general, their clerks and draughtsmen, and the incidental expenses of their offices, together with the number of the surveying and land districts.

Progress of surveys and disposal of public lands during a period of six years, §c.

COST OF SURVEYS AND DISPOSITION FROM 1785 TO 1880.

The cost of the surveys of the public land and private land claims from the beginning of the system to June 30, 1880, including maintenance of offices of surveyorsgeneral, is estimated at $24,468,691, covering the survey of 752,557,195 acres, or at the rate of 3 cents per acre. The cost of disposition has been $22,094,611.07, or 2.9 cent. per acre, a total cost of 6.2 cents per acre for survey and sale.

RE-ESTABLISHING THE LINES OF PUBLIC SURVEYS.

The original corners, when they can be found, must stand under the statute as the true corners they were intended to represent, even though not exactly where strict professional care might have placed them in the first instance. Missing corners must be re-established in the identical localities they originally occupied. When the spot cannot be determined by the existing landmarks in the field, resort must be had to the field-notes of the original survey. The law provides that the length of the lines, as stated in the original field-notes, shall be considered as the true lengths, and the distances between corners set down in those notes constitute proper data from which to determine the true locality of a missing corner; hence the rule that all such should be restored at distances proportionate to the original measurements between existing original landmarks.

LAWS AND RULES GOVERNING THE SUBDIVISION OF SECTIONS OF PUBLIC LANDS.

Information is frequently called for in reference to the rules prevailing in the surveys and subdivisions. The acts of Congress approved May 10, 1800, section 3 (2 Stats., p. 73), and February 11, 1805 (2 Stats., pp. 313, 314), regulate the mode of proceeding. Although the statute of 1805 does not require actual running and marking the interior lines of a section by the Government surveyors, it prescribes certain principles upon which the division lines may be ascertained and the lands sold by legal subdi. visions, as laid down on township plats by surveyors-general.

The subdivision of a quarter-section, provided for by section 1, act of Congress approved April 24, 1820 (3 Stats., p. 566), is as follows:

And in every case of the division of a quarter-section, the line for the division thereof shall run north and south, and corners and contents of half-quarter-sections which may thereafter be sold shall be ascertained in the manner and on the principles directed and prescribed by the second section of an act entitled "An act concerning the mode of surveying the public lands of the United Stated," passed on the eleventh day of February, eighteen hundred and five; and fractional sections containing one hundred and sixty acres or upwards shall in like manner, as nearly as practicable, be subdivided into half-quarter-sections, under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury.

In pursuance of the foregoing act of Congress, the Secretary of the Treasury, then having jurisdiction, directed the subdivision of fractional sections into half-quarters by north and south or east and west lines, so as to preserve the most compact and convenient forms, together with the quantity contained in each subdivision.

The act of Congress approved April 5 1832 (4 Stats., p. 503), provides for the subdivision of a half-quarter-sections thus:

And in every case of a division of a half-quarter-section, the line for the division thereof shall run east and west, and the corners and contents of quarter-quarter-sections which may thereafter be sold shall be ascertained as nearly as may be in the manner and on the principles directed and prescribed by the second section of an act entitled "An act couceruing the mode of surveying the public lands of the United States," passed on the eleventh day of February, eighteen hundred and five, and fractional sections containing fewer or more than one hundred and sixty acres shall in like manner, as nearly as may be practicable, be subdi vided into quarter-quarter-sections, under such rules and regulations as may be prescribed by the Secretary of the Treasury. In accordance with these legal provisions, the Secretary of the Treasury, in 1834, directed the subdivision of sections into quarter-quarter-sections as follows:

In all cases where the quantity of the fractional section, or the portion thereof remaining unsold and liable to be subdivided under the act of the 5th April 1832, admits of the sale of one or more quarter-sections, you will subdivide such quarter-sections into quarter-quarter-sections, and they will be described by the registers as quarter

quarter-sections.

Fractional sections containing less than 160 acres, after the subdivision into as many quarter-quarter-sections as it is susceptible of, may be subdivided into lots, each containing the quantity of a quarter-quarter, by so laying down the line of subdivision that they shall be 20 chains wide; the distances are to be marked on the plat of subdivision, which must show the areas of the quarter-quarters and residuary fractions. The aforesaid legal provisions govern the methods employed for the survey and calculation of areas of the fractional sections on the north and west of townships, such surveys representing the proper boundaries, contents, and subdivisions of the several sections, half-sections, quarter-sections, half-quarter sections, quarter-quarter-sections, and fractions designated by special numbers.

13 L 0-VOL III