Page:Early western travels, 1748-1846 (1907 Volume 9).djvu/185

 a much greater profit than eight per cent. per annum from the increasing value of property, and occasionally from renting it out to others. Where judicious selections are made, they calculate rightly.

The land system now adopted in the United States is admirable in regard of ingenuity, simplicity, and liberality. A slight attention to the map of a district, will enable any one to know at once the relative situation of any section that he may afterwards hear mentioned, and its direct distance in measured miles. There can be no necessity for giving names to farms or estates, as the designation of the particular township, and the number of the section is sufficient, and has, besides, the singular convenience of conveying accurate information as to where it is situated. By the new arrangement the boundaries of possessions are most securely fixed, {154} and freed alike from the inconvenience of rivers changing their course, and complexity of curved lines. Litigation amongst neighbours as to their landmarks, is in a great measure excluded. The title deed is printed on a piece of parchment of the quarto size. The date, the locality of the purchase, and the purchaser's name, are inserted in writing, and the instrument is subscribed by the President of the United States, and the agent of the general land office.[85] It is delivered to the buyer free of all expense, and may be transferred by him to another person without using stamped paper, and without the intervention of a law practitioner. The business of the land office proceeds on the most moderate principles, and with the strictest regard to justice. The proceeds are applied in defray-*