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non-mineral character of the land, and its unoccupied and unimproved condition, must consist of the testimony of at least two disinterested witnesses, to the effect that they know the facts to which they testify, from personal inspection of the land and of each of its smallest legal subdivisions. This testimony may be taken before the register or receiver, or any officer using an official seal and authorized to administer oaths, in the land district in which the land lies. Upon such proof being produced, if no adverse claim shall have been filed, the entry applied for will be allowed in pursuance of the provisions of the act. The receiver will issue his receipt for the purchase money, and the register his certificate of purchase, numbering the entry in the regular cash series. The register and receiver will enter the sale on their books, and make the usual returns therefor to the land office, noting on the monthly abstracts, opposite the entry, and on the entry papers, a reference to the act of congress under which allowed. They will forward all the papers in the case with their returns to the land office, except the retained duplicate statement filed under the second section of the act, to which the register will give the same number with the other papers for the entry, and retain it on the appropriate file, with the formal application, in his office.

The register and receiver will be entitled to a fee of five dollars each for allowing an entry under said act, and jointly at the rate of twenty-two cents and a half per hundred words for testimony reduced by them to writing for claimants, which will be accounted for as other fees.

If, at the expiration of the sixty days' notice provided for in the third section of the act, an adverse claim should be found to exist, calling for an investigation, the register and receiver will allow the parties a hearing according to the rules of practice.

In case of an association of persons making application for such an entry, each of the persons must prove the requisite qualifications, and their names must appear in and be subscribed to the sworn statement, as in case of an individual person. They must also unite in the regular application for entry, which will be made in their joint names, as in other cases of joint cash entry. The forms prescribed for cases of applications by individual persons may be adapted for use in applications of this class.

Circular of October 1, 1880.

CHAPTER XIV.

TIMBER AND TIMBER CULTURE.

§ 252. Timber on Mineral Lands may be Taken for Certain Purposes. Permission to Take not Extended to Railroad Companies.

Duty of Register and Receiver to Report Unauthorized Taking.
Penalty for Unauthorized Taking.

§ 253.

§ 254.

§ 255.

§ 256.

Timber and Stone Lands in California, Oregon, etc., to be Sold.
Application for Purchase. False Swearing.

§ 257. Publication of Application. Facts to be Proved. Objections to

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§ 263.

Cutting or Destruction of Live-oak or Red Cedar; Penalty.

§ 264.

Vessels Employed in Carrying Away Live-oak and Red Cedar; Forfeiture of.

§ 265. Clearance of Vessels Laden with Live-oak; Prosecution of Depreda

tors.

§ 266. Secretary of Navy to Ascertain what Reserved Lands not Required for Naval Purposes.

§ 267. Lands not Required, to be Certified to Secretary of Interior, and thereafter to be Subject to Entry and Sale. Preference Right of Purchase for Certain Parties.

§ 268. Cutting or Injuring Trees on Lands of United States Reserved or Purchased for Public Uses; Punishment.

Authority to Condone Trespasses Committed Prior to March 1, 1879.
Timber-culture Entries. Patents to Issue for Lands Cultivated in

§ 269.

§ 270.

Timber at Expiration of Eight Years. Only One Quarter of a
Section to be Entered, and but One Entry Allowed.

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§ 272.

Number of Acres to be Broken and Planted Annually. Time Extended in Case of Destruction by Grasshoppers or Drought.

§ 273.

§ 274.

Proof of Cultivation, Final Certificate, and Patent.
Right to be Forfeited on Failure to Comply with the Law.

§ 275. Land not Liable for Prior Debts.

§ 276.

§ 277.

Commissioner to Make Regulations. Fees of Registers and Receivers.
False Oath Constitutes Perjury.

§ 278.

Entries under Former Laws, how Perfected.

§ 279. Publication of Notices of Contest.

§ 280. Lands Relinquished by Timber-culture Claimants Subject to Re-entry at Once.

§ 281. Contestants of Timber-culture Entries Allowed Thirty Days after Notice of Cancellation to Make Entry.

§ 252. Timber on Mineral Lands may be Taken for Certain Purposes. All citizens of the United States and other persons bona fide residents of the state of Colorado or Nevada, or either of the territories of New Mexico, Arizona, Utah, Wyoming, Dakota, Idaho, or Montana, and all other mineral districts of the United States, shall be and are hereby authorized and permitted to fell and remove, for building, agricultural, mining, or other domestic purposes, any timber or other trees growing or being on the public lands, said lands being mineral, and not subject to entry under existing laws of the United States, except for mineral entry, in either of said states, territories, or districts of which such citizens or persons may be at the time bona fide residents, subject to such rules and regulations as the secretary of the interior may prescribe for the protection of the timber and of the undergrowth growing upon such lands, and for other purposes; provided, that the foregoing provisions shall not extend to railroad corporations.

20 Stat. 88.

§ 253. Duty of Register and Receiver to Report Unauthorized Taking. It shall be the duty of the register and the receiver of any local land office in whose district any mineral land may be situated to ascertain from time to time whether any timber is being cut or used upon any such lands, except for the purposes authorized in the preceding section, within their respective land districts; and, if so, they shall immediately notify the commissioner of the general land office of that fact; and all necessary expenses incurred in making such proper examinations shall be paid and allowed such register and receiver in making up their next quarterly accounts.

20 Stat. 88.

§ 254. Penally for Unauthorized Taking.-Any person or persons who shall violate the provisions of the two next preceding sections, or any rules and regulations in pursuance thereof made by the secretary of the interior, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and, upon conviction, shall be fined in any sum not exceeding $500, and to which may be added imprisonment for any term not exceeding six months.

20 Stat. 89.

§ 255. Timber and Stone Lands in California, Oregon, etc., to be Sold. Surveyed public lands of the United States within the states of California, Oregon, and Nevada, and in Washington territory, not included within military, Indian, or other reserva

tions of the United States, valuable chiefly for timber, but unfit for cultivation, and which have not been offered at public sale according to law, may be sold to citizens of the United States, or persons who have declared their intention to become such, in quantities not exceeding 160 acres to any one person or association of persons, at the minimum price of $2.50 per acre; and lands valuable chiefly for stone may be sold on the same terms as timber lands; provided, that nothing herein contained shall defeat or impair any bona fide claim under any law of the United States, or authorize the sale of any mining claim, or the improvements of any bona fide settler, or lands containing gold, silver, cinnabar, copper, or coal, or lands selected by the said states under any law of the United States donating lands for internal improvements, education, or other purposes; and provided further, that none of the rights conferred by the act approved July 26, 1866, entitled "An act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands, and for other purposes," shall be abrogated by this act; and all patents granted shall be subject to any vested and accrued water rights, or rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water rights, as may have been acquired under and by the provisions of said act; and such rights shall be expressly reserved in any patent issued under this act.

14 Stat. 251; 20 Id. 89; R. S. 2339, 2340, 2341.

§ 256. Application for Purchase.-Any person desiring to avail himself of the provisions of this act shall file with the register of the proper district a written statement in duplicate, one of which is to be transmitted to the general land office, designating by legal subdivisions the particular tract of land he desires to purchase, setting forth that the same is unfit for cultivation, and valuable chiefly for its timber or stone; that it is uninhabited; contains no mining or other improvements, except for ditch or canal purposes, where any such do exist, save such as were made by or belong to the applicant, nor, as deponent verily believes, any valuable deposit of gold, silver, cinnabar, copper, or coal; that deponent has made no other application under this act; that he does not apply to purchase the same on speculation, but in good faith to appropriate it to his own exclusive use and benefit; and that he has not, directly or indirectly, made any agreement or contract, in any way or manner, with any person or persons whatsoever, by which the title which he might acquire from the government of the United States should inure, in whole or in part, to the benefit of any person

except himself; which statement must be verified by the oath of the applicant before the register or the receiver of the land office within the district where the land is situated; and if any person taking such oath shall swear falsely in the premises, he shall be subject to all the pains and penalties of perjury, and shall forfeit the money which he may have paid for said lands, and all right and title to the same; and any grant or conveyance which he may have made, except in the hands of bona fide purchasers, shall be null and void.

20 Stat. 89.

§ 257. Publication of Application.-Upon the filing of said statement, as provided in the preceding section, the register of the land office shall post a notice of such application, embracing a description of the land by legal subdivisions, in his office, for a period of sixty days, and shall furnish the applicant a copy of the same for publication, at the expense of such applicant, in a newspaper published nearest the location of the premises, for a like period of time; and after the expiration of said sixty days, if no adverse claim shall have been filed, the person desiring to purchase shall furnish to the register of the land office satisfactory evidence, first, that said notice of the application prepared by the register as aforesaid was duly published in a newspaper as herein required; secondly, that the land is of the character contemplated in this act, unoccupied, and without improvements, other than those excepted, either mining or agricultural, and that it apparently contains no valuable deposits of gold, silver, cinnabar, copper, or coal; and upon payment to the proper officer of the purchase money of said land, together with the fees of the register and the receiver, as provided for in case of mining claims in section 2237 of the Revised Statutes, the applicant may be permitted to enter said tract, and, on the transmission to the general land office of the papers and testimony in the case, a patent shall issue thereon; provided, that any person having a valid claim to any portion of the land may object, in writing, to the issuance of a patent to lands so held by him, stating the nature of his claim thereto; and evidence shall be taken, and the merits of said objection shall be determined by the officers of the land office, subject to appeal, as in other land cases. Effect shall be given to the foregoing provisions of this act by regulations to be prescribed by the commissioner of the general land office.

17 Stat. 95; 20 Id. 89; R. S. 2238.

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