Publisher's Synopsis
Excerpt from A New Railway Outlet From Chicago to the Seaboard: Port Huron and Lake Michigan Railroad Company; Chicago and Michigan Grand Trunk Railway Company; Organization, Resources, Business Prospects
The tide of emigration fi'om the older States Has not ceased to roll westward during the last thirty years; and the war made no diminution in our foreign emigration. That fi'om Great Britain, in 1864, was larger than it had been in e1ther of the ten years preceding, and included about English, 6000 Scotch, and Irish. From nearly all 'parts of the old world the emigration, for 1866, is assumin extraordinary proportions. In Switzerland the papers advocate speci organizations to assist in the forwarding of emigrants, as the only means of avoiding the calamities of pauperism. In Germany every country will furnish an unusually large quota. In mecklenburgh-schwerin over one thousand males left from one small county. The reports from Hamburg and Bremen state that all steamers, during the whole winter, have been crowded with passengers; and news reaching us from England asserts, in the most positive terms, that large numbers of sturdy English workmen are preparing themselves for em1grating this spring to America. Agents and shipping houses aver, that in the year 1866, the number of emigrants arriving on our shores will exceed that of half a million of sound, healthy and industrious men.
How much room is left for emigrants, ma be inferred from the follow ing paragra h from a recent work, entitle Climatology of the United States: he assertion may at first appear unwarranted, but it is demon strahle that an area, not inferior in size to the whole United States east of the Mississippi, now almost wholl unoccupied, lies west of the 98th meridian, and above the 43d paral 81, which is perfem adapted to the fullest occupation by cultivated nations. Another writer attempts to give a conception of the size of The West, by compariso thus: Illinois would make forty such States as Rhode Island, an Minnesota sixty. Missouri is lar er than all New England. Ohio exceeds either Ireland or Scotland, or ortugal; and equals Belgium, Scotland and Switzerland together. Missouri is more than half as large as Italy, and larger than Denmark, Holland, Bel 'um and Switzerland. Missouri and Illinois are larger than England, tland, Ireland and Wales. And the United States land ofiices show where the tide of emigration sets. During only the months of August, September and October last, there were taken, under the Homestead Act, at the land office at La Crosse, Wisconsin, acres of land. The Commissioner of the General Land Ofiice states that at one land office in Missouri, during the month of December last, acres were taken up for actual settlement, and cash land sales made at the same office, for the same period, amount to $8262. At the office at Brownsville, Missouri, there were taken for actual settlement, in December, acres, besides cash land sales made, amountin to 2664 acres. Over 1000 acres were sold at the land thus sol bein known as the alternate reserved railroad sections. The last returns cm the Fort Dodge land office, in Iowa, show that in August 4438 acres were taken up at that ofiice for settlement. At Topeka, Kansas, during December, there was taken up, with Agricultural College scrip, acres, and upwards of 2200 acres were actua ly settled upon under the Homestead law. 7585 acres of public lands are reported to have been taken up for actual settlement during the month of September, at the land omoe in Minneapolis, Minn. 3000 acres were taken up at Denver Colorado, during the same month.
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