should be destroyed by grasshoppers, or by extreme and unusual drought.

Fifth. If, at the expiration of eight years, or at any time within five years thereafter, the person making the entry, or, if he or she be dead, his or her heirs or legal representatives, shall prove by two credible witnesses the fact of such planting, cultivation, etc., of the said timber for not less than the said period of eight years, he, she or they shall receive a patent for the land embraced in said entry.

Sixth. If at any time after one year from the date of entry, and prior to the issue of a patent therefor, the claimant shall fail to comply with the requirements of this act, or any part thereof, then such land shall become liable to a contest in the manner provided in homestead cases; and upon due proof of such failure the entry shall be cancelled, and the land become again subject to entry under the homestead laws, or by some other person under the provisions of this act.

Seventh, No land acquired under the provisions of this act shall in any event become liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted prior to the issuing of final certificate therefor.

Eighth. The fees for entries under the act of June 14, 1878, are ten dollars, if the tract applied for is more than eighty acres, and five dollars, if it is eighty acres or less; and the commission of registers and receivers on all entries (irrespective of area) are four dollars (two dollars to each) at the date of entry, and a like sum at the date of final proof.

Ninth. No distinction is made, as to area or the amount of fee and commissions, between minimum and double-minimum lands; a party may enter 160 acres of either on payment of the prescribed fee and commissions.

Tenth. The fifth section of the act entitled "An act in addition to an act to punish crimes against the United States and for other purposes," approved March 3, 1857, shall extend to all oaths, affirmations and affidavits required or authorized by this act.

Eleventh. The parties who have already made entries under

APPEALS UNDER TIMBER-CULTURE ACTS.

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the Timber-Culture Acts of March 3, 1873, and March 13, 1874, of which the act of June 14, 1878, is amendatory, may complete the same by compliance with the requirements of the latter act; that is, they may do so by showing, at the time of making their final proof, that they have had under cultivation, as required by the act of June 14, 1878, an amount of timber sufficient to make the number of acres required thereby, being one-fourth the number required by the former acts.

32. The following regulations are prescribed pursuant to the fifth section of the act of June 14, 1878, viz.:

First. The register and receiver will not restrict entries under this act to one quarter-section only in each section, as was formerly done under the acts to which this is amendatory, but may allow entries to be made of subdivisions of different quartersections; provided that each entry shall form a compact body, not exceeding 160 acres, and that not more than that quantity shall be entered in any one section.

Second. When they shall have satisfied themselves that the land applied for is properly subject to an entry, they will require the party to make the prescribed affidavit, and to pay the fee and that part of the commission payable at the date of entry.

Third. When a contest is instituted, as contemplated in third section of the act of June 14, 1878, the contestant will be allowed to make application to enter the land. Should the contest result in the cancellation of the contested entry, the contestant may then perfect his own, but no preference right will be allowed unless application is made by him at date of instituting contest.

Fourth. In all cases under this act it will be required that trees shall be cultivated which shall be of the class included in the term "timber," the cultivation of shrubbery and fruit trees not being sufficient.

PRESENTATION OF APPEALS.

33. Any party aggrieved by the rejection of his claim has a right to appeal from the decision of the register and receiver to the Commissioner of the General Land Office, and from him may still further appeal to the Secretary of the Interior. All

appeals to the Commissioner must be within thirty days from the date of land officer's decision, and all appeals to the Secretary within sixty days after service of notice. If not appealed, the decision is by law made final.

II. TIMBER AND STONE LANDS.-The laws of the United States permit the sale of lands unfit for cultivation, but valuable only or chiefly for the timber and stone they contain, and not withdrawn from ordinary sale as mineral lands; but the purchaser must be a citizen of the United States, or have legally declared his intention to become a citizen. The minimum price of such lands is to be two dollars and fifty cents per acre, with the usual fees, and the purchaser from the government is restricted to 160 acres or less.

III. DESERT LANDS.-By the following act of Congress passed March 3, 1877, entitled, “An act for the sale of desert lands, in certain States and Territories," provision was made for the sale of such lands as could only be made valuable by irrigation:

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That it shall be lawful for any citizen of the United States, or any person of requisite age "who may be entitled to become a citizen, and whọ has filed his declaration to become such," and upon payment of twenty-five cents per acre, to file a declaration, under oath, with the register and the receiver of the land district in which any desert land is situated, that he intends to reclaim a tract of desert land, not exceeding one section, by conducting water upon the same within the period of three years thereafter: Provided, however, That the right to the use of water by the person so conducting the same on or to any tract of desert land of 640 acres shall depend upon bona fide prior appropriation; and such right shall not exceed the amount of water actually appropriated and necessarily used for the purpose of irrigation and reclamation; and all surplus water over and above such actual appropriation and use, together with the water of all lakes, rivers, and other sources of water supply upon the public lands and not navigable, shall remain and be held free for the appropriation and use of the public for irrigation, mining, and manufacturing

purposes subject to existing rights. Said declaration shall describe particularly said section of land if surveyed, and if unsurveyed shall describe the same as nearly as possible without a survey. At any time within the period of three years after filing said declaration, upon making satisfactory proof to the register and receiver of the reclamation of said tract of land in the manner aforesaid, and upon the payment to the receiver of the additional sum of one dollar per acre for a tract of land not exceeding 640 acres to any one person, a patent for the same shall be issued to him: Provided, That no person shall be permitted to enter more than one tract of land and not to exceed 640 acres, which shall be in compact form.

SEC. 2. That all lands, exclusive of timber lands and mineral lands, which will not, without irrigation, produce some agricultural crop, shall be deemed desert lands within the meaning of this act, which fact shall be ascertained by proof of two or more credible witnesses under oath, whose affidavits shall be filed in the land office in which said tract of land may be situated.

SEC. 3. That this act shall only apply to and take effect in the States of California, Oregon, and Nevada, and the Territories of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, and Dakota, and the determination of what may be considered desert land shall be subject to the decision and regulation of the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

More than 1,000,000 acres of these lands were sold before June 30, 1878, a period of fifteen months after the law took effect.

Provision will probably be made for the entry of these desert lands as homestead lands under the same provisions, as they will in most cases prove valuable as wheat lands or for root crops.

IV. GRAZING LANDS.-Up to 1880 grazing lands could only be purchased, except in Texas, or from the great land-grant railways, on the same terms as other agricultural lands; and, as a consequence, in the thinly settled States and Territories, the greater part of the herds were pastured on the unsold and generally unsurveyed government lands. As these were

gradually encroached upon by the farmers, the stock-raisers had begun to be desirous of purchasing their pasturage lands, which being usually on the mountain slopes were not generally considered arable. The laws in regard to agricultural lands made this almost impossible; but a bill was introduced into Congress at its recent session (1879-1880) which will probably obviate the existing difficulty. It provides for the sale of grazing lands (which are carefully defined) in quantities of eight square miles or less, at nominal rates, with the usual fees.

CHAPTER IV.

MINING AND MINERAL LANDS-THE UNITED STATES LAWS AND REGULATIONS OF THE LAND Office in reGARD TO T: M-State, Territorial and LOCAL RULES OR LAWS.

V. MINING AND MINERAL LANDS.-The United States laws regulating mining lands and mineral resources have been very often modified, but are now reduced to a practical basis; these laws, however, are to some extent modified in their operations by the State mining laws, and the local regulations in the mining districts. They are at this time as follows:

LAWS OF THE UNITED STATES,

RELATIVE TO MINING LANDS AND MINERAL RESOURCES, RESERVED FROM SALE UNDER THE PRE-EMPTION ACTS.

[From Revised Statutes of the United States, being a full text of all laws now in force concerning mining rights.]

CHAPTER 6.-SEC. 2318. In all cases land valuable for minerals shall be reserved from sale except as otherwise expressly directed by law. Sec. 5, July 4, 1866.

SEC. 2319. All valuable mineral deposits in lands belonging t the United States, both surveyed and unsurveyed, are hereby declared to be free and open to exploration and purchase, and the lands in which they are found to occupation and purchase, by citizens of the United States, and those who have declared their