ting to homestead entries on which timber is cultivated, is omitted from the act of June 14, 1878:

"Sec. 4. That each and every person who, under the provisions of the act entitled 'An act to secure homesteads to actual settlers on the public domain,' approved May 20, 1862, or any amendment thereto, having a homestead on said public domain, who, at any time after the end of the third year of his or her residence thereon, shall, in addition to the settlement and improvements now required by law, have had under cultivation, for two years, one acre of timber, the trees thereon not being more than twelve feet apart each way, and in a good, thrifty condition, for each and every sixteen acres of said homestead, shall, upon due proof of such fact by two credible witnesses, receive his or her patent for said homestead."

The rights of claimants under entries actually made according to the act of March 13, 1874, before the fourteenth of June, 1878, when the amendatory act took effect, are not affected by the repeal of the provisions referred to. The parties interested, if they so elect, may consummate their entries according to the provisions of the act under which they were initiated. And homestead entries made before the fourteenth of June, 1878, will be patented according to the fourth section above quoted, where the facts are such as to bring the cases within its provisions, and the interested parties so desire.

§ 244. But entries made since that time must be adjusted according to the principles of the law as modified by the amendatory act.

The principal points to be observed in proceedings thereunder may be stated as follows:

1. The privilege of entry under the act of June 14, 1878, is confined to persons who are heads of families, or over twentyone years of age, and who are citizens of the United States, or have declared their intention to become such, according to the naturalization laws.

2. The affidavit required for initiating an entry under the act of June 14, 1878, may be made before the register or receiver of the district office for the land district embracing the desired tract, before the clerk of some court of record, or before any officer authorized to administer oaths in that district.

3. Not more than 160 acres in any one section can be entered under this act, and no person can make more than one entry thereunder.

4. The ratio of area required to be broken, planted, etc., in

all entries under the act of June 14, 1878, is stated in the statute itself. The party making an entry of a quarter-section, or 160 acres, is required to break or plow five acres covered thereby during the first year, and five acres in addition during the second year. The five acres broken or plowed during the first year he is required to cultivate by raising a crop, or otherwise, during the second year, and to plant in timber, seeds, or cuttings during the third year. The five acres broken or plowed during the second year he is required to cultivate by raising a crop, or otherwise, during the third year, and to plant in timber, seeds, or cuttings during the fourth year. The tracts embraced in entries of a less quantity than one quarter-section are required to be broken or plowed, cultivated, and planted in trees, treeseeds, or cuttings, during the same periods, and to the same extent, in proportion to their total areas, as are provided for in entries of a quarter-section. Provision is made in the act for an extension of time in case the trees, seeds, or cuttings planted should be destroyed by grasshoppers or by extreme and unusual drought.

§ 245. Classes of Trees Recognized.-5. If, at the expiration of eight years from the date of entry, or at any time within five years thereafter, the person making the entry, or, if he be dead, his heirs or legal representatives, shall prove, by two credible witnesses, the planting, cultivating, and protecting of the timber for not less than eight years, according to the provisions of the act of June 14, 1878, he or they will be entitled to a patent for the land embraced in the entry.

The following classes of trees are recognized by this office as timber in the meaning of the law, viz.: Ash, alder, birch, beech, black-walnut, bass-wood, black locust, cedar, chestnut, cottonwood, elm, fir, including spruce, hickory, honey-locust, larch, maple, including box-elder, oak, pine, plane-tree, otherwise called cotton - tree, button-wood or sycamore, service tree, otherwise called mountain ash, white walnut, otherwise called butter-nut, white willow and white wood, otherwise called tulip tree.

§ 246. Contests as in Homestead Cases.-6. 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 any of the legal requirements, then and in that event such entry will become liable to a contest, in the manner provided in homestead cases, and upon due proof of such failure the entry will be canceled, and the land become again subject to entry under

the homestead laws, or by some other person under the act of June 14, 1878.

7. No land acquired under the provisions of the act of June 14, 1878, will in any event become liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted prior to the issuing of the final certificate therefor.

8. The fees for entries under the act of June 14, 1878, are $10 if the tract applied for is more than 80 acres, and $5 if it is 80 acres or less; and the commissions of registers and receivers on all entries (irrespective of area) are $4 ($2 to each), at the date of entry, and a like sum at the date of final proof.

9. 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.

10. The fifth section of the act approved March 3, 1857, entitled "An act in addition to an act to punish crimes against the United States, and for other purposes," is extended to all oaths, affirmations, and affidavits required or authorized by the act of June 14, 1878.

§ 247. Additional Land.-Parties who have already made entries under 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. It will be sufficient for this if the parties show that of the entire area embraced in their respective entries they have cultivated in timber, for the period required by the act of 1878, an area not less than one sixteenth part, and that they have then growing upon such cultivated area the prescribed number of "living and thrifty trees," viz., 6,750, where the entry is for 160 acres, 3,375 where the entry is for 80 acres, and 1,688 where it is for 40 acres or less.

$248. Act of June 14, 1878.-The following regulations are prescribed pursuant to the fifth section of the act of June 14, 1878, viz.:

1. 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 quarters of the same section; 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. Before allowing any entry applied for, they will by a careful examination of the plat and tract-books with reference to any previous entry or entries within the limits of the same section, satisfy themselves that the desired entry is admissible under this rule.

2. When they shall have satisfied themselves that the land applied for is properly subject to such entry, they will require the party to make the prescribed affidavit, and to pay the fee and that part of the commissions payable at the date of entry, and the receiver will issue his receipt therefor, in duplicate, giving the party a duplicate receipt. They will number the entry in its order in a separate series of numbers, unless they have already a series under the acts to which this act is amendatory, in which case they will number the entry as one of that series; they will note the entry on their records and report it in their monthly returns, sending up all the papers therein, with an abstract of the entries allowed during the month under this act. If the affidavit is made before a justice of the peace, which the act admits of, his official character and the genuineness of his signature must be certified under seal.

§ 249. Proceedings on Contest.-3. When a contest is instituted, as contemplated in the third section of the act of June 14, 1878, the contestant will be allowed to make application to enter the land. The register will thereupon indorse on the application the date of its presentation, and will make the application and the contestant's affidavit, setting forth the grounds of contest, the basis for further proceedings, these papers to accompany the report, submitting the case to the general land office. 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 under this section unless application is made by him at date of instituting contest. But reference is here made to the subsequent act of congress approved May 14, 1880, the provisions of which allowing preference rights apply to timberculture entries as well as to homesteads and pre-emptions.

4. The fees and commissions in this class of entries the receiver will account for in the usual manner, indicating the same as fees and commissions on timber-culture entries, which will

be charged against the maximum of three dollars now allowed by law.

5. In all cases under this act it will be required that trees shall be cultivated which shall be of the classes included in the term "timber," the cultivation of shrubbery and fruit trees not being sufficient. (See classes of trees before mentioned.)

6. The applications, affidavits, and receipts in entries allowed under the act of June 14, 1878, will be made out according to the forms hereto attached, Nos. 4-009, 4-073, and 4–142.

The foregoing portion of this circular has reference to public lands which are agricultural in character. There are special laws for the disposal of desert lands, saline lands, town sites on the public domain, and lands which are unfit for cultivation and valuable chiefly for timber or stone.

Circular of October 1, 1880.

§ 250. Stone and Timber Lands-Mode of Procedure.-The first second, and third sections of the act of congress of June 3, 1878, provide for the sale of surveyed lands in California, Oregon, Nevada, and in Washington territory not yet proclaimed and offered at public sale, valuable chiefly for timber and stone, unfit for cultivation, and consequently for disposal under the pre-emption and homestead laws. When a party applies to purchase a tract thereunder, the register and receiver will require him to make affidavit that he is a citizen of the United States by birth or naturalization, or that he has declared his intention to become a citizen under the naturalization laws. If native-born, parol evidence of that fact will be received. If not native-born, record evidence of the prescribed qualification must be furnished. In connection therewith, he will be required to make the sworn statement in duplicate. One of the duplicate statements filed in each is by the act required to be transmitted to this office, and the registers and receivers will accordingly send up with their monthly returns the duplicate statements to be transmitted for the month.

§ 251. Notice and Publication.-The evidence in regard to the publication of notice required to be furnished, in the third section of the act, must consist of the affidavit of the publisher, or other person having charge of the newspaper in which the notice is published, with a copy of the notice attached thereto, setting forth the nature of his connection with the paper, and that the notice was duly published for the prescribed period. The evidence required in the same section with regard to the