Land sale

“ Sale of Crown Lands.
"The Crown Lands are classified as Town, Suburban, Country, and Mineral.
"Town and Suburban Lands are sold by auction, at upset prices regulated by the Governor.
"Ordinary Country Lands are sold, at the fixed price of 10s. per acre, to the first bonâ fide applicant for the same, in lots not less than 40 acres each.
"A deposit of one-tenth the purchase money is payable when the Land is applied for, and the balance within one month afterwards, with title-deed fee of 1l. "Remissions granted to Military or Naval Officers and Men." ”

“ If this quietus was refused, these scamps would attend the sale, and bid the land up to some exorbitant price, knowing that their victim must be the buyer. Land once advertised by Government must be put up to auction; and the jobber's victim was obliged either to purchase, or to run the risk of having a stranger sit down as the proprietor of a few hundred acres in the midst of his thousands. ”

“ The purchaser draws boundaries, fences himself in, and says, “This is mine; each one by himself, each one for himself.” Here, then, is a piece of land upon which, henceforth, no one has a right to step, save the proprietor and his friends; which can benefit nobody, save the proprietor and his servants. Let these sales multiply, and soon the people—who have been neither able nor willing to sell, and who have received none of the proceeds of the sale—will have nowhere to rest, no place of shelter, no ground to till. ”

“ Then what land is not sold at public sale is open to private entry at $1.25 an acre. It is such land that bounty warrants are located on. Thus it is seen the pioneer has the first choice. Why, I have walked over land up here that would now bring from ten to twenty dollars an acre if it was in the market, and which any settler can preempt and get for $1.25 an acre. I am strongly tempted to turn farmer myself, and go out and build me a cabin. ”

“ Though the government had arbitrary power to take almost any lands it wanted, the number of forced sales was not very large. The presence of the law on the statute books and the realization that the government meant business resulted in offers of great tracts of land for sale. Almost every year nearly twice as much land was offered to the government as it was prepared to buy, and it was thus able to pick and choose such lands as were best suited by location and quality for settlement. ”

“ All lands, leaseholds, timber, and other products of land, before being offered, shall be appraised at their true value, and no sale or other disposal thereof shall be made for a consideration less than the value so ascertained, nor upon credit unless accompanied by ample security, and the legal title shall not be deemed to have passed until the consideration shall have been paid. ”

“ As a substitute measure which arose over the problem of land taken up in Pamunkey Neck and on the south side of Blackwater Swamp, the Governor and Council in 1699 authorized the acquisition of land by "treasury right," stating that title to fifty acres of land would be granted for the payment of five shillings sterling to the auditor. Thus during the terminal year of this study, we find the significant reappearance of sale of land by "treasury right" which increased in importance as the eighteenth century progressed. ”

“ We are informed by a schedule attached to the 6th Geo. IV. cap 45. that under the powers of this Act, eight acres, one p. 89rood, and nineteen perches of land, were sold to purchase these waters; the amount received for which, including “interest and auction duty,” was two thousand, nine hundred and nineteen pounds, sixteen shillings and sixpence.
The lands, described in the schedule annexed to this Act, are said to be “the most convenient for sale,” being “detached parts” of the estate. How there came to be any “detached parts” in so snug an estate, the Act does not inform us. ”

“ Under certain conditions any person or company could purchase the land at £3 per acre.
It was found that as the leasing system was popularised by liberal regulations, the revenue derived from the sale of Crown lands decreased. But Mr. Fraser, the Commissioner of Crown Lands, viewed this fact with equanimity, believing that if bona-fide settlement were obtained the general advantages more than counterbalanced the loss in revenue by sale. ”

“ Fifth, there is a tendency on the part of land salesmen to load up the immigrant with more land than he can use, or sometimes pay for. Eighty acres makes a good-sized farm for one family to develop and handle, and this is the size of tract recommended. ”

“ If proprietors find it most profitable to let their lands in large lots, either for agriculture, for cattle, for sheep, or for deer, there is no reason why they should not do so, and there is no doubt that in the end what is most advantageous to the proprietor is so to the tenant, and vice versa, as also to the country at large. If, on the other hand, it be found that letting land in small lots is more profitable than the other practice, few proprietors, we daresay, would hesitate to cut up their land into suitable lots. ”

“ They have lands allotted to them in severalty, and have made considerable advancement in agriculture and civilization, though they still follow the chase to some extent. Under the provisions of the Act of June 10th, 1872, steps are being taken to sell 50,000 acres of the western part of their reservation. The proceeds of the sale of these lands will enable them to improve and stock their farms, build houses, etc., and, with proper care and industry, to become in a few years entirely self-sustaining. ”

“ Before giving publicity to our plans, however, we purchased one hundred and seventy-four acres contiguous to that which we already owned, and laid out the entire property in regular streets, and lined them with trees, reserving a beautiful grove of six or eight acres, which we inclosed, and converted into a public park. We then commenced selling alternate lots, at the same price which the land cost us by the acre. Our sales were always made on the condition that a suitable dwelling-house, store, or manufactory should be erected upon the land, within one year from the date of purchase ”

“ It is a tract of land gained from the sea of about ten or twelve hundred acres, banked round in three divisions, and made arable, on which are built about twenty farmhouses, which form almost a new world. This land is the property of the government; a small sum is paid on entering, and a yearly ground-rent, and then it is the property of the purchaser for ever. ”

“ People are now flocking in here in considerable numbers, either to settle or to make investments in real estate, in the hope and expectation [Pg 225] of realizing a fortune by the rise in the value of property. We have dally stages from the east and south, and they generally come loaded inside and out to the extent of their capacity. The land-office is crowded both by settlers and speculators eager to enter the choicest lands remaining unsold. ”

“ The object of this provision is to prevent existing landowners from aggregating large estates by the purchase of Crown Lands. Cash sales are effected at a price of not less than 20s. and 5s. per acre, respectively, for first-class and second-class land, and entitle the selector to a free-hold title upon the expenditure of a prescribed amount on improvements. Land selected under occupation with the right of purchase is subject to a rental of 5 per cent. upon the cash price, under lease in perpetuity, which is for 999 years, to a rental of 4 per cent. ”

“ Many millions of acres of public lands lying within the limits of several of the Western States have been offered in the market and been subject to sale at private entry for more than twenty years and large quantities for more than thirty years at the lowest price prescribed by the existing laws, and it has been found that they will not command that price. ”

“ There are laws in operation fixing the price and amount of land to be bought by any one person. One may buy 6,000 acres of first-class grazing land and 10,250 acres of second-class grazing land at very low prices. ”

“ The stock-raising homestead law, as it is called, permits a man to make entry for not more than six hundred and forty acres of unappropriated land which shall have been designated by the Secretary of the Interior as "stock-raising land." Cultivation of the land is not required, but the holder is required to make "permanent improvements" to the value of a dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, and at least one-half of these improvements must be made within three years after the date of entry. ”

“ A location within such an atmosphere of improvement must continually increase in value. The owner will find himself growing richer from this cause, just as the trucker on the Pennsylvania side has done—not so rapidly, but quite as surely. An investment in such land, properly managed, and not permitted to deteriorate, will assuredly pay. My own little farm is an illustration; for more than once have I been solicited to sell at double the price it cost me. ”

“ The price of public lands ranges from twenty-two cents to eighty-eight cents per acre, to those making an independent purchase. To those without the means of buying land, or of supporting themselves separately, one hundred and fifty acres of land will be provided, under the regulations of the government, in one of their colonies—to be paid for at the rate of one dollar and thirty-three cents per acre, one-third at the end of two years, one-third at the end of four years, and the last third at the end of six years. ”

“ Our pioneer settlers were offered homes of one hundred and sixty acres each on condition of occupancy and improvement, but the speculator could throw himself across their track by buying up large bodies of choice land to be held back from settlement and tillage for a rise in price, and thus force them further into the frontier, and on to less desirable lands. ”

“ The rights and property of the company were taken over by the crown, but recognition was made of the private property right of the planter and of individual claims of those who had invested in the company. Even land rights to planters and adventurers that had not been taken up were recognized, but few proceeded to effect settlement or to exercise the right of taking up 100 acres per share of stock. ”

“ Let them buy up land in large acreages and cut it up into small plots of from one to ten acres, charging enough advance to return interest on the money invested and to meet the necessary expenses in such operation. ”

“ Such purchases, however, are almost everywhere extremely desirable, there being hardly any country in which landed property is not either too much or too little subdivided, requiring either that great estates should be broken down, or that small ones should be bought up and consolidated. To make land as easily transferable as stock, would be one of the greatest economical improvements which could be bestowed on a country ”

“ I have often been puzzled to see how eager some people are to purchase acreage because the land was cheap, when the preparing of this land for homes would cost much more than good lands that could be obtained, where homes could be made easily and cheaply, and much better when made. ”

“ The difficulty, indeed, of late years, has been not to find sellers but purchasers of the land, and it is not to be supposed that even if you were to take away every check, and make every landowner an absolute owner, he would at once rush into the market and sell his property. ”

“ As no one shall own more than $100,000 worth of property all told, this 160 acres will have to be reduced as we get near to the centres of population. This will still give the owner of such convenient land an advantage over those living further out, who will always be willing to exchange should the first rather follow the coarser grades of farming to dairying or gardening.
Neither is there any reason why the owning of great sections of timber land by one or two men should be necessary to the running of sawmills and supplying the people with lumber. ”

“ We can thus concentrate upon land as the representative of the free gifts of nature, which are of economic significance. Land in modern communities is for the most part privately owned. It can be bought and sold for a price, and acquired by inheritance. Moreover, it is a common practice, particularly in the United Kingdom, for an owner who does not wish himself to cultivate or otherwise use the land, not to sell it to the man who does, but to lease it to him for a term of years for an annual payment which we term rent. ”

“ Even when the credit or installment feature was abolished in 1821 and the price of the land lowered to a cash price of $1.75 an acre, the opportunity for large speculative purchases continued to attract capital to land ventures.
The Development of the Small Freehold.—The cheapness of land and the scarcity of labor, nevertheless, made impossible the triumph of the huge estate with its semi-servile tenantry. For about $45 a man could get a farm of 160 acres on the installment plan ”

“ In England, where the ownership of land carries with it a certain social dignity, and where the mere possession of money has a less marked influence in this direction, there is no doubt that the title-deeds to broad acres constitute a certain sort of patent of nobility. In this country, where land is plenty and cheap and where large fortunes are rare, a farmer gets consideration less for the amount of land that he himself owns, than for the sum-total of the mortgages which he holds upon his neighbors' land. ”