Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 12.djvu/134

122  1em 1em 1em  Copyright, 1880, by Charles Scribner s Sons. nnHE laws of the United States give to every citizen who I is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, the right to a homestead of 160 acres, to be selected at will from any of the surveyed and otherwise unappropriated public lands, without cost, ex cept entry fees. The tract thus taken as a homestead must be located in a compact body, upon land which is agricultural in character, and must conform to the legal subdivisions established by the official survey. It is set apart from the general estate of the householder as a sacred provision for the family, and is protected from alienation by the householder, and from execution for his general debts. The administration of the homestead and other land laws is committed to the general land office, a bureau of the interior department of the National Government at Washington, presided over by a commis sioner, the secretary of the interior having appellate jurisdiction. For the convenience of applicants, the States and Territories where the public lands are .still to be found are divided into districts, in each of which there is estab lished a local land office, in charge of a registrar and a receiver, whose duty it is to attend to the disposal of the public lands. To obtain a homestead the applicant must make an affidavit before the registrar or receiver that he is over the age of twenty-one years, or the head of a family; that he is a citizen of the United States, or has declared his intention to become such ; and that the entry is made for his exclusive use and benefit, and for actual settlement and cultivation. A homestead entry thus made vests in the settler an inceptive right only. He has a &quot; claim &quot; to the land which no one can dispute so long as he complies with the law requiring him to live upon and cultivate it for five years ; but he has no title which he can convey. If he abandons the land, or remains absent from it for a period of more than six months, his entry may be contested and cancelled ; and then the tract will be open to the first legal applicant. In such a case the original claimant will not be permitted to make another entry, as the law allows but one homestead privilege. It is essential that the person making a homestead entry should know that no one else has located upon the land and begun improvements as the foundation of a claim under the pre-emption laws, for such a claim would antedate his own. Having resided upon and cultivated his claim for five years, the settler is allowed two years more, but no longer, in which to make his &quot; final proof.&quot; Final proof consists in the affidavit of the settler and that of two disinterested witnesses, showing that the claimant is a citizen of the United States, that he has made actual settlement upon and cultivated the land in good faith for the time required, and that he has never perfected or abandoned an entry made under the home stead laws. This proof is then transmitted to the commis. sioner of the general land office at Washington, and if tin entry is found to be in all respects lawful, a patent in forwarded to the settler, who thus acquires a permanent and absolute title to his homestead. The public lands are held by the Government at tho minimum price of $1.25 per acre ; but where alternate sections have been granted to railroads or other works of internal improvement, the reserved sections are held at $2.50. Of this $2.50 or &quot;double minimum&quot; land, formerly only soldiers and sailors of the War of the llebellion were allowed to enter as homestead claimants of 160 acres, other citizens being restricted to 80 acres. By the acts of March 3d and July 1st 1879, the privilege of entering 160 acres was extended to all citizens and made general ; but there are still some portions of Alabama, Mississippi, and other States where no more than 80 acres of $2.50 land can be taken. Where homestead entries are made by soldiers and sailors who served ninety days or more in the United States army or navy during the War of the Rebellion, the period of their service, or, if they were discharged on account of wounds or disability incurred in the line of duty, the entire term of enlistment, not to exceed four years, is deducted from the five years residence required by law. But no one can receive a title to his homestead under any circumstances without having lived upon it at least one year. 1 For homestead entries on lands in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Floridi, commissions and fees are to be paid according to the fi 1- lowing table: 1 A settler who under former laws was restricted in his entry to less than 160 acres is now permitted, except in a few localities, to enter other lands adjoining his original homestead, as an &quot;additional entry,&quot; to an amount sufficient to make with his first entry 160 acres ; and in this case the time of his residence on the tract originally entered will be deducted from the five years, so that in making his final proof he need show occupancy and cultivation of his additional homestead for one year only. Entries of this class are made without payment of fees and commissions. Instead of making such an additional entry the settler may surrender his existing entry to the Government, and make another of 160 acres. Soldiers and sailors of the War of the Rebellion, who prior to June 22, 1874, had made homestead entries of less than 160 acres, have the further privilege of selecting their additional entries from any unoccupied lands, whether adjoining their original homesteads or not. 