LAND SALES IN AMERICA,

Colonist, Issue 24, 12 January 1858, Page 2

LAND SALES IN AMERICA,

It is quite surprising to see how ignorant the English press generally is with respect to the prevailing modes of disposing of the .waste lands of America. Now it is a fact of long standing that the Government domains are sold at the minimum price of five shillings, or one a quarter dollar per acre. But the land is only so sold at a settled price after it has been tried at auction to realise a higher amount and has failed to do so. The bulk of the land so disposed of for cash, is re-sold by different companies or firms, at a handsome profit, on credit, and formerly .iar below the English market. This is the"great reason of the prosperity of the States. Cash purchasers can get possession at once without delay; credit purchasers can do the same of secondary agencies either by private contract or bargain, or at auction, which of course varies in different States according to circumstances. We give in our fourth- page an account of the Governmental modes of sale, both formerly and at present. But our readers will please to understand that in all the hew territories, and there are six or seven of such, various modes of credit are often employed by authority, anterior to the formal surrender of the soil to the General Government. Indeed through the thirtyseven States and territories, because of large reserves for local purposes, over which the Federal Government has no control, there is "a most extensive opening for every form of purchase, the fixed cash price of the Washington-Offices notwithstanding , | Any person, therefore, who would comprehend the United States' system of sales, as a whole, should take these main facts severally into his reckoning; for the system generates and'promotes them all. Omitting to do this many people have been led to most erroneous conclusions.