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Show Bibliography (With a Supplement for Chapter XXIII) Still useful for a study of land policies though they have been in print for more than a generation are the three bibliographies prepared by members of the staff of the U.S. Department of Agriculture: Everett E. Edwards, A Bibliography of the History of Agriculture in the United States (Washington, 1930) ; Louise O. Bercaw, A. M. Hannay, and Esther M. Colvin, Bibliography on Land Settlement with Particular Reference to Small Holdings and Subsistence Homesteads (Washington, 1934); and Bercaw and Hannay, Bibliography on Land Utilization, 1918-1936, (Washington, 1938). Government Documents, Manuscript and Published Original manuscript records of the public lands have constituted the principal sources of this study. My first introduction to them was in the summer of 1927 when I used the "Abstracts of Entries" of cash, warrant, and scrip entries kept by the registers and the "Register of Receipts" kept by the receivers of the eight land offices of Illinois which were then in the auditor's office in Springfield but now are in the State Archives. Separate volumes were maintained for entries with Revolutionary War Scrip, War of 1812 warrants, military bounty land warrants of the acts of 1847, 1850, 1852, and 1855 and of each of the numerous special scrip acts for each land office. From these abstracts and registers it was possible to compile data showing the entries of those who were speculating in public lands. Originals of all the abstracts and registers of the many land offices in the various states are now in the National Archives or where still current in the Bureau of Land Management. Duplicates maintained by the local offices, where noncurrent, have been deposited with the individual states. The abstracts of sales and entries with warrants and scrip are particularly meaningful, for the entries, no matter what the size, were out in the open, subject to public inspection. There was nothing hidden about them. They were not the result of fraud, though favoritism and special influence might enable some to gain rights to land that others hoped to win. On the other hand, the declaratory statements of persons filing for a preemption, the original entries of homesteaders and of those entering land under the Timber Culture Act, the Desert Land Act, and the Timber and Stone Act might be made for persons ineligible to file them directly and are not, therefore, a very good index of early ownership. To determine the individuals for whom such entries were made one must go to the county conveyances. The Tract Books, of which duplicate sets were maintained in Washington and in the local offices, record all the entries whether carried to title or cancelled for each section, each quarter-section and quarter-quarter, and mineral claims of even fewer acres were entered. The Tract Books and the Abstracts of Entries constitute the great Domesday Survey of the Public Domain showing the transfer of lands 773 |