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The greater part of such land passed to the
Republic as successor to the Spanish crown, another portion was added
in 1844 by the confiscation of property belonging to Haitians, but no
attempt has ever been made to survey or even to list state lands.
According to some estimates the state owns as much as one or even
two-fifths the area of the Republic, but it is probable that these
estimates are exaggerated and almost the only tracts remaining to the
government are situated in the inaccessible mountain region of the
interior and along the Haitian border. The income of the Republic is
still insufficient to leave money for the investigation of public
lands, and every year's delay will permit more of such lands to be
absorbed by private persons.
A large portion of the rural land is held in common. Tracts originally
belonging to one owner descended undivided among his heirs for
generations, individual heirs sometimes sold their shares, and the
result is that often the tract belongs in common to many persons, some
of them holding very small shares.


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