Acres.

tion of the act of 15th July, 1870, so far modifies the original homestead act as to allow officers, soldiers, and sailors who have served in the army or navy of the United States for ninety days during the war of the rebellion, and remained loyal to the government, to enter 160 acres instead of 80 acres of double minimum lands. In all other respects the requirements of the original and amendatory acts remain in force, actual settlement and cultivation being in no case dispensed with. Special affidavits are required in such cases. Congress has also enacted that any alien of the age of 21 years and upward who has entered or shall enlist in the armies of the United States, and be honorably discharged therefrom, shall not be required to make any declaration of intention to become a citizen of the United States, and may, upon his petition, and on proof of honorable military service, be admitted to full citizenship after not less than one year's residence in the United States.

Under the soldiers' homestead act of June 8, 1872, the period of military service is allowed in accounting the five years' residence. For instructions under said act see circular herewith.

17. For homestead entries on surveyed lands in Michigan, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Minnesota, Kansas, Nebraska, Dakota, Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida, fees are to be paid according to the following table:

NOTE-Where entries are made on $2.50 lands by officers, soldiers, and sailors under the act of 15th July, 1870, or act of June 8th, 1872, double the amount of the above commission must of course be paidthat is, for 160 acres of $2.50, $8.00 at date of entry, and $8.00 upon proving up.

These rates will also apply to Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, if any vacant tracts can be found liable to homestead in those three States, where but very few isolated tracts of public land remain undisposed of.

18. In the Pacific and other political divisions, viz: On surveyed lands in California, Nevada, Oregon, Colorado, New Mexico, and Washington, and in Arizona, Idaho, Utah, Wyoming, and Montana, the commissions and fees are to be paid according to the following table:

The note to the table under the 17th head applies also to this table of rates.

19. By the act 21st June, 1866, U. S. Statutes, vol. 14, page 66, the public lands of Alabama, Mississippi, Louisiana, Arkansas, and Florida, are subject to disposal only under the provisions of the homestead laws.

20. Upon payment of the fee and commissions in accordance with the table under the 17th head, the receiver will issue his receipt therefor and furnish a duplicate to the claimant.

The matter will then be entered on their records and reported to the general land office.

21. An inceptive right is vested in the settler by such proceedings, and upon faithful observance of the law in regard to settlement and cultivation for the continuous term of five years, and at the expiration of that time, or within two years thereafter, upon proper proof to the satisfaction of the land officers, and payment to the receiver, the register will issue his certificate, and make proper returns to this office as the basis of a patent or complete title for the homestead.

NOTE.-The law is specific in requiring final proof to be made within two years after the expiration of the five years.

In making final proof, it is required that the homestead party shall appear in person at the district land office, and there make the affidavit required of him by law in support of his claim. Where, from physical disability, distance, or other good cause, the witnesses of said party cannot attend in person at the district office, their testimony in support of the claim may be taken where they reside, before an officer authorized by law to administer oaths.

Their testimony must state satisfactorily the reason of their inability to attend at the district office; and the credibility and responsibility of the witnesses must be certified by the officiating magistrate, whose official character must be authenticated under seal.

The corroborating testimony thus prepared must be deposited with the register and receiver, and filed with the affidavit of the homestead party, and the decision of the register and receiver indorsed thereon, as a preliminary to the transmission of the same to the general land office.

22. Where a homestead settler dies before the consummation of his claim, the widow, or, in case of her death, the heirs, may continue the settlement and cultivation, and obtain title upon requisite proof at the proper time. If the widow proves up, the title passes to her; if she dies before proving up and the heirs make the proof, the title will vest in them.

Where both parents die leaving infant heirs, the homestead may be sold for cash for the benefit of such heirs, and the purchaser will receive title from the United States.

23. The sale of a homestead claim by the settler to another party before completion of title is not recognized by this office, and not only vests no title or equities in the purchaser, but would be prima facie evidence of abandonment, and might give cause for cancellation of the claim.

A party may relinquish his claim, but only to the government; and in such cases should surrender his duplicate receipt, with a relinquishment indorsed thereon; or, if the duplicate has been lost, that fact should be stated in the relinquishment, duly signed and acknowledged.

Where application is made for the cancellation of a homestead entry on the ground of abandonment, the party must file his affidavit with the district land officers, setting forth the facts on which the allegations are founded, describing the tract, and giving the name of the settler. Upon this the officers will set apart a day for hearing, giving all the parties in interest due notice of the time and place of trial.

After the trial the land officers will transmit the testimony, with their joint report, for the action of this office.

The expenses incident to such contest must be defrayed by the contestant, and no entry of the land can be made until the district officers have received notice from this office of the cancellation of the entry covering the same; nor does an informant obtain any privileges thereby. Such person must, if he desires the land, by proper diligence ascertain when notice of cancellation is received by the register and receiver, and then make formal written application for the tract; the land, after reception by said officers of notice of cancellation, being always open to the first legal applicant, unless otherwise withdrawn from entry for any purpose.

24. As the law allows but one homestead privilege, a settler relinquishing or abandoning his claim cannot thereafter make a second entry. But, in case of the illegality of his entry, he may make a second claim.

Where an individual has made settlement on a tract and filed his pre-emption declaration therefor, he may change his filing to a homestead, if he has in good faith complied with the pre-emption laws to the date of such change. If, however, the land has become double minimum in price, he can, unless a soldier, commute to the extent of eighty acres only.

25. If the homestead settler does not wish to remain five years on his tract, the law permits him to pay for it with cash or warrants, or agriculuralcollege scrip, upon making proof of settlement and cultivation for a period not less than six months from the date of entry to the time of payment.

This proof of actual settlement and cultivation must be the affidavit of the party, made before the district officers, corroborated by the testimony of two credible witnesses.

26. There is another class of homesteads designated as "adjoining farm homesteads." In these cases the law allows an applicant owning and residing on an original farm to enter other land lying contiguous thereto, which shall not, with such farm, exceed in the aggregate 160 acres. Thus, for example, a party owning or occupying 80 acres, may enter 80 additional of $1.25, or 40 acres of $2.50 land. Or, suppose the applicant to own 40 acres, then he may enter 120 acres at $1.25, or 40 at $1.25, with 40 at $2.50, if both classes of land should be found contiguous to his original farm.

In entries of "adjoining farms" the settler must describe, in his affidavit, the tract he owns and is settled upon as his original farm. Actual residence on the tract entered as an adjoining farm, is not required, but bona fide improvement and cultivation of it must be shown for the period required by

the statute.

27. The homestead and pre-emption privilege is conceded to Indians who have voluntarily dissolved all connection with their tribes and no longer share in the annuities, or in exemptions, or in privileges secured to them by acts of congress or treaty stipulations. Special forms of affidavit with corroborative testimony are required in these cases, forms of which are attached: Nos. 10

and 11.

28. Lands obtained under the homestead laws are exempted from liability for debts contracted prior to the issuing of patent therefor.

Copies of the homestead laws are hereto annexed, marked E, F, and G, as also forms of affidavits and applications, numbered from one to twelve, required upon initiation of claims under the pre-emption and homestead laws.

PRESENTATION OF APPEALS.

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. Such appeal, however, with the reasons therefor, must be filed with the land officers within thirty days from the date of their decision, accompanied by the rejected papers, if any; also with any argument the party desires to file. These papers will then be forwarded to the commissioner by the district land officers for review and decision. Their report should set forth the nature of the claim, whether homestead, pre-emption, railroad, mineral, swamp, or other State selection, the names of parties, description of land, number of filing, entry, list or selection, and date of hearing.

No appeal will be entertained unless sent up through the district land office. The party may still further appeal from the decision of the Commissioner of the General Land Office to the Secretary of the Interior. This appeal must be taken within sixty days after service of notice on the party. This may be filed with the district land officers and by them forwarded, or it may be filed with the commissioner, and must recite the points of exception.

If not appealed, the decision is by law made final. See section 10, act of June 12, 1858-United States Statutes, volume 11, page 326. After appeal, thirty days are usually allowed for filing arguments, and the case is then sent to the Secretary, whose decision is final and conclusive.

29.

REGISTERS' AND RECEIVERS' RETURNS.

Within three days from the close of each month, the district land officers are required to make out and transmit to the General Land office a statement of the business of their respective offices for the preceding month.

These reports are in form of abstracts of declarations of settlements filed, abstracts of lands sold, abstracts of homesteads entered, abstracts of military warrants and of agricultural-college scrip located, accompanied by the certificates of purchase, receiver's receipts, homestead applications and affidavits, warrants and agricultural-college scrip, and certificates of location. The abstracts are all to be critically examined and thereafter duly certified by register and receiver as correct and in conformity with the records and the papers, and that all agree with each other.

The receiver is required also to render promptly a monthly account of all the moneys received, showing the balance due the government at the close of each

month.

At the end of every quarter he must also transmit a quarterly account as receiver; upon the several accounts an adjustment is here made and submitted to the treasury department for final settlement.

He must also render a quarterly disbursing account of all moneys expended. The receiver is required to deposit the moneys received by him at some depository designated by the Secretary of the Treasury when the amount on hand shall have reached the sum of two thousand dollars; and in no case is he authorized, without special instructions, to hold a larger amount in his hands. 30. It is the duty of the registers and receivers to be in attendance at their offices, and give proper facilities and information to persons applying for lands.

31. A list of all the district land offices in the United States is hereto annexed.

32. Laws and instructions relating to mining claims form the subject of a separate circular. Lands bearing "gold, silver, cinnabar, lead, tin, copper, or other valuable deposits," are not subject to disposal under the homestead and pre-emption laws.

33. Registers and receivers of the land offices are not authorized by law to make any charge for their services in accepting or entering pre-emption or homestead claims other than is herein set forth.

By the sixth section of act of congress approved July 17, 1874, it is, among other things, provided, that upon satisfactory proof that either of said officers or any other officer has charged or received fees or other rewards not authorized by law, he shall forthwith be removed from office.

WILLIS DRUMMOND,

Commissioner of the General Land Office.

AN ACT TO APPROPRIATE PROCEEDS OF THE SALES OF THE PUBLIC LANDS AND TO GRANT PRE-EMPTION RIGHTS.

SEC. 10. And be it further enacted, That from and after the passage of this act, every person, being the head of a family, or widow, or single man over the age of twenty-one years, and being a citizen of the United States, or having filed his declaration of intention to become a citizen as required by the naturalization laws, who, since the first day of June, A. D., eighteen hundred and forty, has made, or shall hereafter make, a settlement in person on the public lands to which the Indian title had been at the time of such settlement extinguished, and which has been, or shall have been, surveyed prior thereto, and who shall inhabit and improve the same, and who has or shall erect a dwelling thereon, shall be, and hereby is, authorized to enter with the register of the land office for the district in which said land may lie, by legal sub-divisions, any number of acres not exceeding one hundred and sixty, or a quarter section of land, to include the residence of such claimant, upon paying to the United States the minimum price of such land, subject, however, to the following limitations and exceptions: No person shall be entitled to more than one pre-emptive right by virtue of this act; no person who is the proprietor of three hundred and twenty acres of land in any State or Territory of the United States; and no person who shall quit or abandon his residence on his own land to reside on the public land in the same State or Territory, shall acquire any right of pre-emption under this act; no lands included in any reservation, by any treaty, law, or procla mation of the President of the United States, or reserved for salines or for other purposes; no lands reserved for the support of schools, nor the lands acquired by either of the two last treaties with the Miami tribe of Indians in the State of Indiana, or which may be acquired of the Wyandotte tribe of Indians in the State of Ohio, or other Indian reservation to which the title has been, or may be, extinguished by the United States at any time during the operation of this act; no section,s of land reserved to the United States alternate to other sections granted to any of the States for the construction of any canal, railroad, or other public improvement; no sections or fractions of sections included within the limits of any incorporated town; no portion of the public lands which have been selected as the site for a city or town; no parcel or lot of land actually settled and occupied for the purposes of trade and not agriculture; and no lands on which are situated any known salines or mines, shall be liable to entry under and by virtue of the provisions of this act. And so much of the proviso of the act of twenty-second of June, eighteen hundred and thirty-eight, or any order of the President of the United States, as directs certain reservations to be made in favor of certain claims under the treaty of Dancing Rabbit Creek, be, and the same