As many people, who have speculated in land, have let their interest run, much will be due at the end of four years; but should the instalments and interest be paid on the day the last instalment becomes due, the interest will be saved on the fourth instalment; but four years' interest are due on the second and third instalments, that is 38 dollars 40 cents, but one day later will make it 57 dollars 60 cents.
If not paid at the end of four years, I have reason to think some time is allowed {269} before the land reverts to the government. But the interest still runs on till the day of payment; and if the arrears be not paid, the land and all its improvements, if any, return to the government.
The above was the plan on which the public lands were disposed of; but by an act of congress passed last spring,[154] a new plan has been adopted, and took place on the 1st of July, by which all credit on public land is done away, and the price reduced to 1 dollar 25 cents per acre, or 200 dollars for a quarter-section; that is, for land that has been offered by public auction.
I have every reason to conclude, that much remains due on the land entered in most of the western states, and some will, most probably, be forfeited to government, as much of it was entered on speculation, and still remains in a state of nature.
The alteration in the price of land, the large quantities lately offered for sale, with the shortness of money, will, I think, prove {270} extremely hurtful to some of the large speculators; but, in my opinion, will in the end be beneficial to the country at large, as it will oblige those who enter land to bring it into cultivation, instead of taking up large quantities, as it will now require a greater capital to speculate than it has hitherto done. Many of the speculators calculate to sell again without paying any of the instalments, after the first deposit, but some of them are now greatly dispirited, and would be happy to dispose of their land on almost any terms, at least to recover what it at first and since has cost them.
I will now endeavour to give a small sketch of the plan of the survey of the country near us, and likewise of the township in which we live.
From the third principal meridian, which begins at the mouth of the Ohio river, and runs north to the Indian boundary, called the Base Line, there is one range to {271} the west called Range 1, West of the 3d Principal Meridian; eleven ranges east, called Range 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, East of the 3d Principal Meridian; and three ranges, called Range 12, 13, 14, West of the 2d Principal Meridian; this survey was continued from the State of Indiana, and met the survey from the 3d Meridian at Range 11 East, which was the reason Range 11 was so narrow, and is called a fractional range.
The townships run from east to west, beginning at the Base Line; the upper line of townships, called Town 1, the second line Town 2, and so on down to Town 15, near the mouth of the Ohio; and the Townships and Ranges are called as follows; suppose at Albion, as marked in the map, in looking on the top is seen Range 10 and Town 2, East of the 3d Principal Meridian: or at Carmi, on the Little Wabash, Range 10, Town 5, East of the 3d Principal Meridian: or at Golconda, on the Ohio River, Range 6, Town 12, {272} East of the 3d Principal Meridian. The Townships are each six miles square, and are divided in sections of one mile square, 36 of which make a Township, and are marked and numbered as in the plate.
The Township, Range 10, East of the 3d Principal Meridian, Town 2, South of the Base Line, contains the whole of the English Prairie, most of Birks' Prairie, and a small part of Burnt and Long Prairie.