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upon proof of continuous residence upon the land to which the transfer is made for a period of not less than three months prior to the making of proof.

When application is made for transfer under this section, the register and receiver will require that the party make affidavit as to the facts relative to the former entry or filing, and where the fees and commissions paid thereon have been returned, it will be necessary that he make payment anew before the allowance of the transfer.

Said affidavit must be corroborated by at least two witnesses having knowledge in relation to the party's residence and improvement upon the land from which the transfer is sought, and should satisfactorily show a compliance with the requirements of law to the extent claimed, as the same will necessarily form a part of the final proof for the land to which the transfer is made.

The corroborating affidavits may be made before any officer authorized to administer oaths.

Final payment upon entries and filings transferred under this section. will be made as under existing laws. (Circular of November 7, 1890, 11 L. D., 435.)

DISPOSAL OF ABANDONED MILITARY RESERVATIONS.

Formerly military reservations which were no longer needed for military purposes were transferred to the Interior Department by the War Department only under special acts which provided for the transfer and disposal of the particular reservations named in the several acts.

By the act of August 18, 1856 (11 Stat. L., 87), provision was made for the disposal of the abandoned military reservations in the State of Florida. The act of July 5, 1884.(23 Stat. L., 103), repealed the said act of August 18, 1856, and made provisions for the transfer and disposal of abandoned military reservations generally. The provisions of said act of July 5, 1884, permit the appraisal and public sale of such land after sixty days' public notice of the time, place, and terms of sale. The lands are required to be sold for cash to the highest bidder at not less than the appraised value nor less than $1.25 per acre. If the lands are not sold at the first offering they may be reoffered at any subsequent time in the same manner, after which they may be sold for cash at private sale at not less than the appraised value nor less than $1.25 per acre. The improvements belonging to the Government on such lands may, after appraisal, be sold with the tracts upon which they are situated, or they may be sold separately at public sale to the highest bidder for cash, at not less than the appraised value, to be removed by the purchaser within such time as may be prescribed.

Where the improvements were sold by the Government prior to the passage of the act of July 5, 1884, the purchaser thereof has the preference right for sixty days to purchase, at the appraised value, the land containing such improvements, not exceeding the smallest subdivision or lot provided for by the act.

It is further provided that any of such lands containing valuable mineral deposits shall be disposed of exclusively under the mineralland laws.

Provision is also made that any settler, who was in actual occupation of any portion of any such reservation prior to the location of such reservation, or who settled thereon prior to January 1, 1884, in good faith for the purpose of securing a home and of entering the same

under the general laws, and continued in such occupation to the date of the act, if entitled by law to make a homestead entry, may enter the land so occupied, not exceeding 160 acres in a body, according to the Government surveys and subdivisions, provided that said lands were subject to entry under the public-land laws at the time of their withdrawal.

The act of August 23, 1894 (28 Stat. L., 491; Appendix No. 58, p. 217), made further provision for the disposal of abandoned military reservations, and the scope of said act was extended by the amendatory act of February 15, 1895 (28 Stat. L., 664; Appendix No. 63, p. 220).

The first section of the former act opens to settlement under the public-land laws of the United States all lands not already disposed of in any abandoned military reservation theretofore placed under the control of the Secretary of the Interior for disposal under the act of July 5, 1884, the disposal of which has not been provided for by subsequent act of Congress, where the area exceeds 5,000 acres; such legal subdivisions as have Government improvements thereon, and such other parts as are now or may be hereafter reserved for some public use, being excepted. It also gives a preference right of entry for a period of six months from the date of the act to bona fide settlers who are qualified to enter under the homestead law and have made improvements, and were at date of said act residing upon any agricultural lands in such reservations, and also for a period of six months from the date of settlement when that shall occur after the date of this act. It also provides that persons who make homestead entries for such lands shall pay not less than the value heretofore or hereafter determined by appraisement, nor less than the price of the land at the time of entry, and that such payment may be made, at the option of the purchaser, in five equal installments, at times and at rates of interest to be fixed by the Secretary of the Interior.

The second section refers to lands thereafter to be placed under the control of the Secretary of the Interior, and provides for the manner of appraisements.

Under the terms of this act settlement may be made on any of these reservations to which the terms of the first section apply, whether surveyed or not, where the area exceeds 5,000 acres. Where the lands in such reservations have been surveyed and the triplicate plats filed in the district land office, the register and receiver will allow homestead entries to go to record therefor, if the entrymen are duly qualified to make entry, as in the case of other surveyed public lands. But where entry is made under this act, the entryman will be required to pay for the lands at the value heretofore or hereafter determined by appraisement, and the payments may be made, at the option of the purchaser, in five equal installments, at times and at rates of interest to be fixed by the Secretary of the Interior.

Appraisements of such lands will be ordered by the Secretary of the Interior at such times as the public interests demand, and to the extent permissible under the appropriations made or to be made by Congress for this purpose.

In some instances instructions have been issued to the district land officers to allow homestead entries, under the act of July 5, 1884, where the lands have been surveyed, in abandoned military reservations the area of which exceeds 5,000 acres. Such of these lands as have not been entered under said act of July 5, 1884, are now subject to the provisions of the act of August 23, 1894, but this latter act does not apply to any abandoned military reservations whose area is 5,000 acres or less, and

settlement, except as provided by said act of July 5, 1884, on any such reservations will not confer any rights upon the settlers.

It will be observed that this act grants a preference right of entry for a period of six months from its date to all bona fide settlers who are qualified to enter under the homestead law and have made improvements and are now residing upon any agricultural lands in said reservations, and also for a period of six months from the date of settlement when that shall occur after the date of this act. Where the lands have been surveyed, there will be no difficulty in the operations of this provision of law, but in cases in which the lands have not been surveyed, the equitable construction of this act seems to be that the preference right of entry shall extend to a period of six months from the date of the filing of the triplicate plats of surveys in the district land office.

Definite instructions as to the price of the land, the dates of payments, and the rates of interest to be paid thereon will be issued in relation to each reservation when the appraisement thereof shall have been made and approved.

The amendatory act extends the provisions of the act of August 23, 1894, "to all abandoned military reservations which were placed under the control of the Secretary of the Interior under any law in force prior to the act of July 5, 1884," and provides that the preference right of entry given to actual settlers by the act amended shall, as to the lands to which the provisions of said act are extended, take effect and continue for six months from the date of the amendatory act.

SALINE LANDS RESERVED UNDER GENERAL LAWS.

Congress passed an act January 12, 1877 (19 Stat. L., 221; Appendix No. 3, p. 145), for the sale of saline or salt-spring lands in certain States. This act has exclusive reference to that class of lands which at an early period were segregated from the public lands on account of salt springs and reserved from disposal under general laws, and which, therefore, to use the language of the statute, were "incapable of being purchased under any of the laws of the United States relative to the public domain" (see decision of the Supreme Court of the United States in the case of Morton v. Nebraska, 21 Wallace, 660). These lands never were subject to the operation of the homestead and preemption laws nor of any other law for the disposal of the public lands except the act of January 12, 1877, above referred to (see Public Domain, p. 217). That act provides for the disposal of such lands in a certain contingency at private sale, and, being special in character and of particular application, is not repealed or modified by the general provisions of the act of March 2, 1889, "to withdraw certain public lands from private entry" (25 Stat. L., 854; Appendix No. 33, p. 170; second paragraph circular of March 8, 1889, 8 L. D., 314).

DETERMINATION OF THE CHARACTER OF THE LANDS.

Should prima facie evidence that certain tracts are saline in character be filed with the register and receiver of the proper land district, they will designate a time for a hearing at their office and give notice to all parties in interest, in order that they may have ample opportunity to be present with their witnesses. Such witnesses will be examined in regard to the saline character of the given tracts and whether the same are claimed by any person; if so, the names of the claimants and the extent of their improvements must be shown.

The witnesses should be thoroughly examined as to the true character of the land in other respects-its agricultural capacities; what kind of crops, if any, have been raised thereon or can be raised from land of such character; whether it contains any valuable deposit of mineral of any kind or of coal. In short, the testimony should be as complete as possible, and in addition to the points indicated above everything of importance bearing upon the character of the land should be elicited at the hearing.

The testimony taken at the hearing will be transmitted to the General Land Office by the register and receiver, with their opinion thereon. When the case comes before the General Land Office such a decision will be rendered in regard to the character of the land as the facts may warrant.

DISPOSAL OF SALINE LANDS.

Should the tracts be adjudged saline lands, the register and receiver will be instructed to offer the same for sale, after public notice, at the local land office of the district in which the same shall be situated and to sell said tract or tracts to the highest bidder for cash at a price not less than $1.25 per acre.

In case said lands should not be sold when so offered they will be subject to private sale for cash at a price not less than $1.25 per acre in the same manner as other public lands are sold at private sale.

Should the tract in question be adjudged agricultural or mineral it will be subject to disposal as such.

The provisions of this act do not apply to any lands within the Territories nor to any within the States of Mississippi, Louisiana, Florida, California, or Nevada, none of which has had a grant of salines by act of Congress; nor do they apply to the States of Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Montana, Washington, or Wyoming, none of which has had an express grant of saline lands, although each has had a grant declared to be in lieu of saline and other special grants.

GENERAL RULES APPLICABLE TO DIFFERENT CLASSES OF ENTRIES.

1. Applicants to make entries and claimants and witnesses making final proof must in all cases state their place of actual residence, their business or occupation, and their post-office address. It is not sufficient to name the county and State or Territory where a party lives, but the town or city must be named, and, if residence is in a city, the street and number must be given. The register and receiver will note the postoffice address in their tract book.

2. Where the residence of a party or witness is on surveyed land the subdivision, section, township, and range must be stated in every case. 3. Notice by registered letter, directed to claimant's last known postoffice address, is the prescribed means of giving legal notice to him of official action taken in respect to his entry, either before or after proof (circular approved October 28, 1886, 5 L. D., 204). Claimants and entrymen should therefore give prompt notice to the register and receiver of any change of residence or post-office address.

PUBLICATION OF NOTICE OF FINAL PROOF.

4. Any claimant desiring to make final proof of having complied with the provisions of law in respect to residence, cultivation, or improvement must first file with the register of the proper land office a written notice of his intention to do so, which notice must be transmitted by

the register and receiver to this office, with the proof. The notice must describe the land claimed, and the claimant must give the names and residences of the witnesses by whom the necessary facts as to settlement, residence, cultivation, etc., are to be established. He must also state the day when, the place where, and the officer before whom the proof is to be taken.

5. The filing of notice of intention to make proof must be accompa nied by a deposit of sufficient money to pay the cost of publishing the notice to be given by the register, the deposit to be made with the receiver, who will notify the register thereof, that he may cause the notice to be published, but settlers are not to be deprived of the right to make their own contracts for publishing notices of intention to make final proof and to make payment therefor directly to the publishers of the paper, after the notice has been prepared by the register and the paper designated by him, on presenting to the register a statement from the publisher or his agent that the money for the payment of said notice has been paid to or deposited with said publisher.

6. Upon the filing of the notice by the applicant the register will publish a notice that such application has been made, once each week for a period of thirty days, in a newspaper which he shall designate by an order written on said application, as published nearest the land described in the application, and he shall also post said notice in some conspicuous place in his office for the same period. If published in a weekly paper a compliance with the law will require the notice to be published weekly six times, as there must be thirty days between the first and last publications.

7. The notice to be given by the register must state that application to make final proof has been filed; the name of the applicant; the kind of entry, whether homestead, preemption, or other; a description of the land and the names and residences of the witnesses as stated in the application; also the day when, the place where, and the officer before whom the proof is to be taken. (See Form 4-347, p. 240.)

8. To save expense, the register may embrace two or more cases in one publication, when it can be done consistently with the legal requirements of publication in a newspaper published nearest the land, as per Form 4-347, p. 240.

9. Publishers should cause each proof notice to be carefully compared by copy, and should send at least one copy of the paper containing the notice to the party in interest. This course will avoid errors or secure their correction in proper time.

10. Proof of publication will be the affidavit of the publisher or foreman of the newspaper employed that the notice (a copy of which notice must be annexed to the affidavit) was published in said newspaper once a week (if a weekly paper) for six successive weeks, or for thirty days in a daily paper, as the case may be. Such affidavit must show that the notice was published in the regular and entire issue of every number of the paper during the period and time of publication, and that the notice was published in the newspaper proper and not in a supplement. Affidavits of publication not in conformity with these requirements will be rejected by the register and receiver.

11. Proof of posting notice in the district land office will be the certificate of the register that the notice of the application (a copy of which should be annexed to the certificate) was posted by him in a conspicuous place in his office for a period of thirty days. (Form 4-227, p. 241.) 12. The proof of the publication and posting of the notice must be filed and preserved by the register, to be forwarded to the General Land Office with the final papers when issued.

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