Rensselaer Union, Volume 3, Number 36, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 1 June 1871 — The Acquisition of Public Lands. [ARTICLE]

The Acquisition of Public Lands.

The New York Tribune gives the following synopsis of the rules and regulations governing the acquisition of public lands by individuals: 1. Tho larger portion of the unimproved, uncultivated soil of the United States, including nearly ail that of tho States of Nebraska, Nevada and Oregon, as also of all the territories, is still the property of the Federal Union, and is known as the public domain. 2. While much of this domain is sterile, rocky, mountainous, and thus unfit for cultivation, a large proportion is facile and excellent, including thousands of square miles which, being treeless and thinly grassed, have been accounted desert, but which prove quite productive when reclaimed by irrigation. 3. As a general rule, any part of this domain not already granted to or occupied by privajtfi owners is open to settlement by anyone. He who “ squats ” «on a tract to which he has no title is regarded as holding it by pre-emption. He is, of course, liable to lie, but seldom is, dispossessed by a bona Me purchaser. 4. The government proffers a quarter section (100 acres) to anyone who settle* upon a tract to which no adverse title or claim exists, erects a habitation, and lives in it for five years. He has to pay for the papers and legal formalities required, about S2O in all. This is colled making a homestead. 5. Congress has from time to time made extensive grants of land to States and companies, in aid of the construction of railroads through the public domain. These grants are usually of alternate sections (or square miles) for a certain distance on either side of the projected railroad. 0. The alternate sections reserved bv tho government are doubled in price, and be who settles/On these and proceeds to acquire a home under the homestead act, is allowed but eighty instead of the usual 100 acres. 7. The general price of the public lands is $1.25 per acre, or S2OQ per 160 acres. The alternate sections reserved by the government along the lines of railroad, arc held at double price, or $2.60 per acre. 8. The railroad companies generally charge more for their alternate sections; but, as the government's land is held at $2.50 per acre, and 80 acres of it may be acquired by settlement for less than $lO, the government's sections are likely to have the preference. 9. It is decidedly advisable that those who have means should buy their lands either of the government or the railroads. It precludes ail controversy as to the due performance of the homestead requirements, gives an instant and perfect title, and enables the owner to self and convey, go and come, lease or rent, without peril of creating an adverse title or invalidating his own. 10. College scrip is extensively used in purchasing by those who wish to economize. Congress, ten years or more ago, granted to each State a quantity of public lauds proportioned to its representation in that body, in aid of education in agriculture in the usefhl arts. College scrip represents these grants, and is generally procurable by settlers at $1 per acre. In large quantities it is sold somewhat lower. A warrant Of scrip calling for a quartersection will buy 160 acres; but it will not buy 80acres of the reserved alternate sections along a line of railroad. Of these reserved sections, 160 acres can be bought in one tract for S2OO in cash, and one 160- ■ acre warrant or scrip. With this exception, pre-emptors can always use college scrip in paying for government (not raflroaa companies’) lands; but speculators, who buy or hold scrip in large quantities, are not allowed to locate more than three sections (or three square miles) of that scrip in any one township. This is to prevent the monopolizing of large tracts by means of scrip. With cask, any quantity may be purchased of the government at the foregoing rates. 11. No one can legally locate, whether with cash or scrip, a quarter section actually in the possession, by legal occupancy, and residence of a settler, though he has not paid and does not mean to pay for it. But this principle does not apply to the alternate sections granted to railroads, which do not recognize pre-emptions. 12. A quarter-section of public land is not necessarily a regular qtarter of some designated section, but may be made up of two eighties or four forties forming one compact body, though these were parts of different quarter-sections technically considered.