here mentioned, with a certificate appended, to be signed by the Register and Receiver, and make affidavit to the

same.

10. He is also required to bring with him a respect. able witness of his acquaintance, who is knowing to the facts of his settlement, to make affidavit to the 4th, 5th, 6th, 7th, and 8th requirements here mentioned, with the same set forth on paper, with a corresponding blank certificate attached, to be signed by the land-officers.

11. The pre-emptor, if a foreigner, must bring with him to the land-office, duplicates of his naturalization papers, duly signed by the official from whom they were received.

A minor who is the head of a family, or a widow, may also pre-empt their families being required to live on the land.

The settler is required to file a written declaratory statement of his intention to pre-empt, before he can proceed with his pre-emption.

FEES.-1st. The fee required by the Register for filing a declaratory statement, is one dollar.

2d. For granting a pre-emption, the Register and Receiver can receive fifty cents.

3d. For duplicate of the map of any township, one dollar is required by the Register."

LAND GRANT

EFFECT UPON PRE-EMPTIONS.

We assure all our readers, that the closing of the landoffices need deter no one from immigrating to Wisconsin, and none there from making claims. The Railroad Grant, in its terms, respects all pre-emptions made up to the time the roads are actually located. After the location, preemptors are excluded from pre-empting odd-numbered sections only, within six miles of either side of the roads

1

as located; but the Government price for all lands within six miles of the railroads, is $2 50 per acre. If they wish to go further off than six miles from the proposed railroad lines, then the price of the lands will be $1 25 per acre.

The closing of the land-offices is a real benefit to the settler, by preventing speculators (the bane of all new States,) from taking up all the public lands along the line of the proposed roads.

UNSURVEYED LANDS.

Besides the lands which have been surveyed and brought into market, there are large tracts yet unsurveyed, and almost unexplored. The amount of these lands is estimated at about 14,500 square miles; principally lying in the northwestern part of the State, and almost without inhabitants. The soil of this region is of an excellent quality, &c.1

LAND-OFFICES.

There are six land-offices in Wisconsin, each of which represents several counties, viz.: Mineral Point, Manasha, Hudson, Stevens' Point, La Crosse, and City of Superior. At either of these offices, settlers will be furnished with small township maps, showing all the vacant or unentered lands, up to the date of application.

The right of pre-emption gives to Wisconsin an advantage over other Western States, for it precludes entirely the possibility of its becoming, as are the States of Illinois and Iowa, a country of speculators, who feel no interest in them, except that of having their lands increase in value, as the result of the public spirit and enterprise of others. There are still thousands of persons at the East, farmers, mechanics, artisans, working-people, who look toward

1 See Pages 40 and 42.

Wisconsin with a disposition to emigrate-perhaps they mete out from year to year a bare subsistence - the year rolls by, and if they have enjoyed the right to labor during the bulk of it, they have accumulated but little; and when we look back at the condition of things a winter or two ago, in the large cities, when the most hard-working, honest, proud-spirited mechanics were straitened for want of the means of keeping themselves and their little ones from starvation, we cannot help wondering why more of them do not come to this favored State. And who can tell when these things will occur again? Neither honesty, industry, nor capability, are a protection when there is no work. The very men who have barely enough to eke out a miserable subsistence in the cities, could command in Wisconsin, through the whole winter, from $250 to $3 00 per day, and be sought after gladly, and begged to work. What, too, would be their opportunities, rising in a new country; at home among people like themselves; their children imbibing health and happiness from the air they breathed, instead of disease and crime; they themselves known and respected according to their deserts; and possessing the many advantages for a rapid accumulation of fortune, known only to a new country! Who would ask to exchange such a pure, free life, for the crowded miseries of the Eastern cities, their uncertainty of employment, and the few rugged, scrambling roads by which the poor can rise! Surely no sensible man would hesitate long as to his choice.

"The working-man in Wisconsin need never be idle, and it is pre-eminently the place for working-people; the whole country is in a state of transition, rapidly going on. What has been done at the East, has yet to be done here; the numerous channels of business, into which it requires years to attain a successful position there, are either just opened

to enterprise in this State, or await, perhaps, another year's agricultural settlement, as we chance to look at a point just bursting into notice, or another with a few years the advantage hence, the newly-arrived mechanic, artisan, or manufacturer asks himself, not, Where can I find an opening? but, Which is the best?"

The Emigrant's Journal says: "We do know that the Beneficent Creator of all things, in his sovereign benevolence, has thrown wide to humanity millions upon millions of untilled acres in the Great West, that lie there waiting for hands to cover them with harvests. And we also know that, in the crowded cities of our own land, and in the crowded States of Europe, thousands on thousands of our fellow-beings are toiling through life to obtain a miserable subsistence, who, on those broad acres, would soon find ease, and comfort, and affluence. Now, to assist that emigration, seems to us one of the noblest works to which man could devote himself. To illustrate our purpose, let us stop at this corner of a great city, and see the population set past us. It is sunset. Note that poor laborer; he comes from a hard day's work. From morning to night that man's muscles have been going. The miserable pittance he receives is scarce enough to keep his wife and children in food and lodging. The benefit of all his toil goes to some one- - not to himself.

'Imagine that man set upon his own land, the plough in his grasp, and his fortune before him. Where, then, would be the result of his labor? House, ploughed land, fences, barns, would grow under his hand with half the labor he now gives to procure a living, and every day's work would be for himself, and would add to his own personal wealth. The heavens would smile above him, the great earth would yield him her fruits; and he would leave

his children—instead of sickness, sin, and poverty-health, happiness, and prosperity."

Another journal forcibly remarks: "We say, then, to the mechanic, pent up in dense, suffocating cities, or crowded towns, toiling at the selfish dictation of arrogant employers, who derive at least three-fourths of the profits of your labor-to such I say, Come to the fresh and fruitful West, where you may easily have an independent and pleasant home.

"To the young farmer, who works the long hot days for the paltry sum of ten or a dozen dollars per month, or to him who rents land, returning to others the 'lion's share' of all the products of his industry- to all who would better their condition and regain new energies, unto such I say, confidently and in a lively friendship, Come, and appropriate to yourselves any necessary and proper amount of these gardens, boundless and beautiful, which you can, so many of you, easily do.

They will return you a greater yield of crops, for less labor, and then you can obtain prices but little under Eastern markets; transportation is so cheap and speedy, which renders these Western lands as valuable as those of the East."

An intelligent writer in the New York Herald says: Having visited Kansas, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, and Wisconsin, I can speak from knowledge and experience in regard to their present and future. I am desirous of stating, through your columns, my opinion as to which of these Territories or States, emigrants, particularly those of the Northern States, and who are practical farmers, will, taking all the circumstances into consideration, find it most to their advantage to settle in. Wisconsin is my choice, for the following reasons: First, good water, a healthy climate, plenty of wood, all kinds of grain and fruit grow