The union Democrat., 1871-06-24

to the Registers and Receivers of Public
Land:
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIoR.
General Land Office, Nay 6, 1871.
GENTLEMEN: For your observance in the
matter of controversies between mineral and
agricultural claimants, the segregation Of
mineral from agricultural lands, and the sur
vey and entry of placer claims, the following
is communicated:
SEGREGATION OF AGRICULTURAL FROM MINERAL
LANDs-How THE SANE NAY BE REJECTED.
l. The twelfth section of the amendatory
act of 9th July, 1870, providing for the
patenting of placer claims, stipulates in its
second proviso ''that legal subdivisions of
forty acres may be subdivided into ten-acre
tracts, and that two or more persons, or asso-
Citations Of persons, having contiguous claims
of any size, although such claims may be
less than ten acres each, may make joint en-
try thereof :" the last clause to the third pro-
viso of said section STIMULATING, that nothing
in this section contained shall defeat or i'm
pair any bona td: presumption or homestead
claim upon agricultural lands, or authorize
the sale of the improvements of any bona .fde
settler to any purchaser.
2. The sixteenth section of said act repeals
so much of the act of Sd March, 1858, enti-
tied s'An act to provide for the survey Of the
public lands in California, the granting Of
presumption rights and for other purposes"
as provides that none other than township
lines shall be surveyed where the lands are
mineral, and extends the public surveys over
mineral as over agricultural lands; the sec
ton further providing for the subdivision, at
the expense of claimants, of surveyed lands
into lots less than one hundred and sixty
acres, which may be done by county and To-
cal surveyors.
3. 1t is thought that under the operation of
this law, recognizing ten-acre lots as legal
subdivisions of the public lands in mining
regions, much of the difficulty hitherto ex-
perenced in proving the mineral or non-min-
eral character of lands may be obviated.
4. Heretofore it was necessary that miner
al af6davits should be filed upon each forty
acre tract, that being the smallest legal sub
division of public lands and to disprove the
mineral character of lands so filed upon, it
was necessary to establish the fact that such
forty-acre tract was, as whole, more valua-
BILE for agricultural than for mining pur-
poses.
: 5. This it was often found impossible to
do, for the reason that although parties could
be readily produced to testify to the fact that
one-half, or perhaps three-fourths, of given
tract was only fit for farming, yet inasmuch
as small fraction of the land was intersect-
ed by-a gulch, ravine, or quartz lode, yield
ing mineral, the value of which deposit there
was no definite means of ascertaining, the
deponents would be unable to testify that the
entire forty-acre subdivision was of greater
Il Co. c. khow f,~
6. In this way, although thirty or even
thirty-6ve acres in forty acre tract might be
shown to contain no mineral whatever, or
none in quantities sufficiently abundant to be
remunerative to the miner, yet, on account of
the known mineral character of small frag-
ment of the land, the bona tide agrieulturist
has been debarred from securing a title to
his land, OF least to the extent of that forty
acre tract.
7. Hereafter, when an application is filed
at your Office to enter land as agricultural
which mas been returned by the United States
deputy surveyor as mineral, or upon which min
eral afidavits have been filed. you will, at the
expense of such applicant, publish a notice of
such application for thirty consecutive days, in
a newspaper of general circulation published
nearest to the land in question, or, if in a
weekly paper, for five consecutive weeks, CIV
ing the name and address of the applicant !;
the designation of each forty-acre tract covered
by the application the names of any miners
or mining companies whose claims are up
on the land the names of the parties who
fled the mineral afidavits, and when such
filing was made; and, finally, the notice
should name day, after the thirty days
have expired, upon which a hearing will be
had before the register and receiver to deter
mine The facts as to the mineral or non-miner-
al character of the land, when such witnesses
as may be brought by the parties in interest
will be examined and their testimony reduc-
ed to writing; and the dispositions of such
witnesses as are unable to be present from
distance, infrmity, or other good cause, will
be received and examined after which the
proceedings will be submitted to the Commits
siouer of the General Land Office for review,
prior to final award of the land.
A copy of this notice must also be posted in
q conspicuous place upon each .torty-ac1'e
tract embraced in the application, for the
period of thirty consecutive days, proof of
which you will require on the day of the
hearing by the sworn statements Of at least
two witnesses, one of whom may be the APP
plicant, deponerts to state where the notice
was posted, the date of posting, and how long
continued and you will also require copy
Of the printed notice to be fled. with the
publishers affdavit attached, stating when
the notice was first published and for how
long.
9. In every ease where practicable. in ad-
dition to the foregoing publication and post
ing, personal notice must be served in the
usual manner upon the parties who fled the
mineral afidavits, snd upon those who are
actually engaged in mining upon the land.
10. On the day of the hearing Jon will ex-
anime the witnesses with the view of eliciting
the truth as to the mineral or non-mineral
character Of tie land and in cases where it
is established that portion of the land in a
forty-acre tract is mineral and the remainder
agricultural, the testimony should be of a ma
ture clearly showing what particular portion
or portions of the land are actually covered
by placer or quartz claims, or used In con-
nection Herewith as fixed by local customs or
rules of miners ; and it is here suggested that
If prior to such hearing the respective parties
can come to an agreement rs to the proper
boundaries Of the mineral and agricultural
lands in the same forty-acre tract, and file,
on the day of the hearing, q diagram and