NATIONS OF THE GLOBE.
Silver Lake, Ind.
How many nations are there on the globe? Has each of them a flag?
J. F. Clymer.
Answer.—The following is a full list of the nations of the world, each of which has its own distinctive national colors or flag: The United States of America, Mexico, Nicaragua, Honduras, Guatemala, San Salvador, Costa Rica, the United States of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, Bolivia, Chili, Argentine Confederation, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil, Venezuela, Hayti, and San Domingo, which are all the independent nationalities of North and South America and the West India Islands; Great Britain and her dependencies in both hemispheres, France and her dependencies in Asia, Africa, and Oceanica, the German Empire, Austro-Hungary, Russia, Italy, Spain and her dependencies in both hemispheres; Portugal and her dependencies in Asia and Africa, Switzerland, Belgium, Netherlands and her dependencies in both hemispheres, Denmark and her colonial possessions, Sweden and Norway, Greece, Roumania, Servia, Montenegro, Turkey or the Ottoman Empire, Andorra, San Marino, and Monaco; the only independent States of Africa (except those wholly savage), Liberia, Orange River Free State, Transvaal Republic, Morocco, and Abyssinia; the only independent nationalities of all Asia—Persia, Burmah, Afghanistan, Beloochistan, Siam, China, and Japan; finally the Sandwich Islands. This makes a total of fifty-seven nations universally recognized and diplomatically treated as such, although several of them, like Afghanistan and Burmah, are little more than nominally independent, and two of them—Monaco, with an area of only 5¾ square miles, or less than a Congressional township in this country, and a population less than 6,000, and San Marino, with an area of barely 23-8/10 square miles and less than 8,000 inhabitants—are so insignificant in comparison with their great neighbors that it seems a mockery of the name to call them nations. Indian tribes, Esquimaux, tribes of Africa, Asia, and Australia, although taken into treaty relations as independent or quasi independent peoples, are never correctly spoken of as nations in the sense in which the term is used in international law.
ENTERING LAND IN DAKOTA.
Huston, D. T.
Nine-tenths of the persons who have inquired of me about Dakota land entries since my brief note in The Inter Ocean did not inclose stamps or postal cards for replies. I have answered all that did observe this plain business rule. I am no land agent, nor have I land to sell, so I ask you to publish the following notes, which will answer nearly all the questions asked me. [A person should not invite a general correspondence through a paper like The Inter Ocean, “whose parish is the world,” unless he is prepared to employ one or two stenographic correspondence clerks. In almost every instance that we have published contributors’ invitations to Farm and Home readers to write to them, these rash friends have sent us word that they were deluged with correspondence.—Ed]. Of course, in the beginning all the government land in Douglas County, D. T., was subject to entry under the pre-emption and homestead or timber-culture acts. But at present there are not more than three hundred vacant quarters in the county, and, since the timber-culture act only allows one such claim in each section, these unentered quarters can be taken only under the homestead and pre-emption acts. A timber-culture claimant is required to plant ten acres of trees and protect and cultivate them for eight years. As no settlement is required, these claims are in good demand, the relinquishments selling for from $200 to $400, owing to location. Under the pre-emption law the settler pays $2 to file his claim. After he has lived upon the land six months final proof can be made by paying $1.25 per acre. Under this entry the claimant is allowed thirty-three months in which to prove up, at the end of which time, if he has not complied with this requirement, the land is again open for settlement. Under the homestead law the settler pays $14 to enter. He has then six months in which to begin his residence on the land, after which time, if he has not complied with the law, it can be contested on the ground of abandonment. Where a settler is unable to begin his residence and settlement within the time allowed by law, he can dispose of the claim by relinquishing to the government and allowing some one else to enter. Nearly all the land throughout the central part of the county has been taken; and what government land there is remaining is mostly in the western part and around the borders of the county. Relinquishments range in price from $50 to $300, owing to location and quality of the land.
H. S. Brown.