Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 11.djvu/816

* LANDS. 740 LANDS. viduala. (See Homestead Laws.) The home- stead policy is now the approved method of dis- posing of the public lands. It does not ofl'er the same opportunity for fraud that some of the other methods have shown, and has produced the most satisfactory results ever obtained from a national .system of land distribution. According to the third method of acquiring title to public land, the President, by order or proclamation, aiuiouhces that certain lands will be open to public auction at a certain time and continue open for a specified period, during which time they will be sold to the highest bidder for cash, the minimum price being fixed at $1.25 per acre. Such portions as remain unsold at the expiration of the period of sale are held for private entry and sale. According to the fourth method, cer- tain soldiers or members of their families are given military land warrants entitling them to a specified part of the public lands, and upon presentation to the proper officer of such war- rants the holder is entitled to enter upon so much of the public domain without pavment of money, unless the land is held above the usual price. Finall,v, by the Timber-Culture Act of 1878 it was provided that a person, upon proof that he had planted a certain number of acres of tim- ber, was entitled to receive a patent for land not exceeding ItJO acres occupied. This act. together with the Preemption Law, has recently been re- pealed, on account of numerous frauds growing out of their administration. At present the pub- lic lands of the United States are classified by the Land Oflice as mineral lands, which are chief- ly valuable for their mineral wealth, and are usually resened from preemption or homestead, and sold at from $2. .50 to $.5 per acre: timber and stone lands, unfit for cultivation, but valuable otherwise, and iisually sold at $2.50 per acre; saline lands, salt springs, at first offered at pub- lic sale to the highest bidder at not less than $1.25 per acre; town-site lands, sold at $1.25 per acre ; desert lands, sold at the same price, and in lots not exceeding 320 acres : eoal lands, sold usually at from $10 to $20 per acre, according to their distance from a completed railroad: and agricultural lands, sold everywhere at $1.25 per acre. From 1854 to 1862 there was a class of graduated lands, consisting of parcels which had long remained unsold and were offered to adjoin- ing settlers at very low prices. The management of the public lands is in- trusted to a bureau of the Interior Department known as the General Land Office, at the head of which is a commissioner appointed bv the President with the advice and consent of the Senate. This office was created in 1812, and took over the various duties relating to the manage- ment of the public lands, which had previously been managed by officers in the departments of State, Treasurj', and War. The Land Office con- stituted a bureau in the Treasury Department until 1849, when it was transferred to the new Department of the Interior. The commissioner is charged with a series of duties relative to the surveying and sale of the public lands, such as relate to private claims for lands and the issuing and recording of patents for all grants of land of whatever character made under the authority of the X'nited States. Local land offices are estab- lished in the various States and Territories where the amount of unsold public land exceeds 100.000 acres. For each land office a register and a re- ceiver are appointed, whose duties are to transact the business relating to the public lands in their districts. The registers receive applications for land, file receipts, and on final payment give to the purchaser a certificate which entitles him to a patent or deed from the United States. For- merly the patents were signed by the President of the United States: but that practice was aban- tloned, and at present they are signed by a secre- tary and countersigned by the recorder. It is the duty of the receiver to receive money or land scrip from the purchaser, and to issue receipts therefor. Registers and receivers are appointed by the President, and hold oflice- for four years. All proceedings for the acquirement of public lands are to be made before these olliccrs, and they are empowered to pass upon all claims relating to land within their districts, their decisions, how- ever, being subject to review by the Commissioner of the General Land Ollice. ]5esides these officers, there are some seventeen surveyors-general — one for each of the surveving districts into which the public domain is divided. Under their direc- tion the public lands are surveyed and described and thus made ready for sale. Another impor- tant official of the Goneral Land Office is the recorder, likewise appointed by the President, and charged with countersigning and recording patents. The Commissioner of the General Land STATE OR TEKRITOKY Undisposed of. acres Reserved, acres Already ap- propriated 3.59,250 a59,492.760 50.286.986 3,493.444 42,467,512 39,650,247 1,596,411 43,286,694 .53.880 8.610.920 16.798.146 2.660 16.011,279 5,490,001 19,259 1,742,809 32 244.790 5 707.188 30.047.676 Calitomia 41.491.129 21.207 912 Florida 33.456.970 8.26:1.937 35,842.560 22,950,400 i9,(»8.sa6 35.616.080 1.196,900 442,224 430,483 4,686,203 285.804 337,946 67,963,067 9.798,68tl 56,541.170 18,725,239 987.875 1,474.834 90.386 5.022.298 50.197.945 27.138.:!n3 36.298.331 41.479,.'i79 29.399.318 43.4.57.894 11,511.531 69.902 5,967.412 3,370,291 14.119.012 39.268.690 15.920,218 22.814.550 26.062.720 5,733.572 34,377,907 11,930,809 42,967,451 11,125,883 313.565 48.358.169 7,203.429 5,600.821 12,909.822 5,487,668 12.366.791 3ea.3Xi 8.046.226 ll.K)7.399 21.398.712 South Dakota 24.365.769 Utah 4,086,321 Washinfrton 19.2.54.206 »4,.595.962 6,028.885 Total 917.135,880 154,745,782 737,658.178 Office makes an annual report to Congress of the work of his office, including statistics of land surveys and sales. These volumes contain a vast amount of descriptive and statistical information concerning the public lands of the United States, and are often accompanied by valuable maps showing the Government reserves and the unap- propriated domain. The rectangular system of surveying the public lands was early adopted by the Government, and was first practiced in south- eastern Ohio under the direction of Thomas Hutchins. geographer of the United States. This system provides for the division of the lands into ranges, townships, sections, and quarter sections.