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Montgomery Ala. March 1st 1866.

Bt. Maj Gen Major Swayne

Asst Coms'r Bureau R.F & A Lands. Montgomery, Alabama

General,
I have the honor respectfully to report that under your instructions of the 6th ult & proceeded to visit the local land officers of this state and that I very much regret the fact of having found the records in most cases, in such a condition as to preclude the possibility of acquiring such knowledge of the several districts (without consuming much more time than I supposed could well be given) as to give you a detailed report of each. in fact, in three of of the districts the last of book of entries made by the Registers could not be found.
I found that there are unentered lands amounting to between six and seven millions of acres, lying chiefly in the Middle and Southern portions of the state. The unentered lands in the Northern part, and lying in the district of "Centre Huntsville and Tuscaloosa" are very broken and hilly, and the vastly large proportion is unfit for agricultural pursuits, besides lying in that portion of the state, to which the public mind is now directed as containing valuable mineral deposits, and therefore,  not subject to entry for the purpose indicated. 
The unentered lands lying within the districts of "Demopolis, St Stephens, Elba & Granville" coming the Central Southern, South Eastern, and South Western portions of the state, are generally heavily timbered, and susceptible when cleared, of producing largely of the cereal and staple production of the state, and an eminently fitted