Exports of Domestic Merchandise, by Principal Articles and Classes, in Order of Magnitude, Years Ending June 30, 1894-1899. PUBLIC LANDS OF THE UNITED STATES. Area Surveyed and Unsurveyed. (Prepared by the General Land Office.) Statement showing the number of acres of public lands surveyed in the following land States and Territories up to June 30, 1898, during the past fiscal year, and the total of the public lands surveyed up to June 30, 1899; also the total area of the public domain remaining unsurve ed within the *There were 229.153 acres of resurveys executed in Grant and Hooker counties which are not counted in this column because previously reckoned in the surveyed area. These surveys were executed by the United States Geological Survey, except the surveyed areas included in the following Indian reservations, viz.: The Quapaws, Peorias, Ottawas, Modocs, Shawnees, Senecas, and Wyandottes, in the extreme northeast part of the Territory. + This estimate is of a very general nature and affords no index to the disposable volume of land remaining, nor the amount available for agricultural purposes. It includes Indian and other pub-. lic reservations, unsurveyed private land claims, as well as surveyed private land claims in the districts of Arizona, California, Colorado, and New Mexico; the sixteenth and thirty-sixth sections reserved for common schools; unsurveyed lands embraced in railroad, swamp-land, and other grants; the great mountain areas; the areas of unsurveyed rivers and lakes, and large areas wholly unproductive and unavailable for ordinary purposes. Vacant Public Lands, with Area Reserved and Appropriated. Statement of Number of Acres Entered Annually Under the Homestead and Timber Culture Acts from July 1, 1866, to Original Original June 30, 1899, Inclusive. Original Original Original Original Homestead Timber Entries. Culture. Acres. Acres. 6,670,616 3,735,305 1867 1,834,513 1878. Year 5,267,385 2,775,503 1890. 1885. 473,694 1886. 599,918 1887. 7,415,886 4,755,006 1896. 1897. 1898. | 1899. Lands patented by the United States up to June 30, 1890: To States for wagon roads, 2,047,419.35 acres; to States for canal purposes, 4,433,073.06 acres; to States and corporations for railroad purposes, 89,452,512.86 acres; under river improvement grants. 1,406,210.80 acres; total, 97,339,216.07 acres. * The unreserved lands in Alaska are mostly unsurveyed and unappropriated. In the absence of any means of getting complete information as to the present condition of the manufacturing industries, the census of 1890 must be accepted as affording the only available data. In compiling the last census, new methods of inquiry were employed in collecting the returns, with the result of showing increases, as compared with the census of 1880, which the facts do not warrant. Besides, many industries were reported in the last census which were not included in the previous one; and the retail business was much more fully reported in 1890 than in 1880. It is from these causes that many of the comparisons between the two censuses will appear dubious; and that the total industrial capital of the nation is shown to have made the incredible advance from $2,780,766,895 in 1880 to $6,139,397,785 in 1890-an increase of 120.78 per cent,, and that the value of products shows a gain of 69.31 per cent. Whether the returns of 1880 were deficient, or those of 1890 were excessive, or whether there is reason for both suppositions, it is not easy to decide; but there is unquestionably a more or less general discrepancy which materially lessens the value of the vast compilation. The Superintendent of Census remarks on this aspect of the census of 1890: "Owing to the changes in both the form and the scope of the inquiry at the census of 1890, as compared with that of 1880, the totals as reported at the two census pericds should not be used to compute the percentages of increase. In the following comparative statement (the subjoined totals of manufactures), showing |