The Findlay Jeffersonian. [volume] (Findlay, Hancock County, Ohio) 1870-1881, 1872-02-02
SETTLING ON PUBLIC LANDS.

IS As general answer to many spe
: cial inquiries, We stste the followiu
= facts:
= l. The larger portion of the ~
r employ ed, uncultivated soil OF ID
!, United States, including yearly 81
e that OF the States of Nebraska, Ne
B. vada and Oregon, as also OF s!l th'
: Territories, is still The property oi th,
: Federal Union, aud Is known as th,
, Public Douain.
2. While much cf the domain i:
t sterile, rocky, mountainous, and thu:
! unfit Tor cultivation. 3 large proper.
/ ton is fertile and excellent, including
, thousands of square miles which,
, being treeless and very thinly
!, glassed, have been accounted desert,
but which prove quite productive
when reclaimed by irrigation.
! 3 As general rule, any part OF
this domain not already granted 10 or
occupied by private owners is open
to settlement by any one He who
"squats' on trsct 10 which he has
no title, is regarded ss holding it by
pre-emption. He is, of course, liable
to be, but seldom Is, dispossessed by
a bona fide purchaser.
B. The government proffers 8
quarter section (l60 acres) to sny
one who settles upon tract to which
no adverse title Or claim exists, erects
habitation and lives On it for five
years. lie has to pay for the papers
and legal formalities, requiring about
$50 in all. This is Masking a home
stead.
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 Tor
square miles) for certain distance
on either side of the projected rail-
road.
8. The alternate sections reserved
by the government are doubled in
price, and he who settles on these and
proceeds to acquire home under the
Homestead act, is allowed but so in
stead of the usual 160 acres.
I. The general price of the public
lands is S1.25 per acre, or $500 Tor
160 acres. The alternate sections
reserved by the government along the
lines of railroads are held at double
price, or 50 so per acre.
8. The railroad companies gen. !
orally charge more for their alterna;e
sections; but the governments land
is held at $3.50 per acre, and as so
acres OF it may be acquired by set {
-lement for less than so, the govern :
neEt's sections are likely to have |
The preference. |
9. It is decidedly advisable that {
hose who have means should buy {
heir lands, either of the government
Or the railroads 1t precludes all {
as to the due perfor- 7
nance of the Homestead requirements a
gives an Instant and perfect title, and '
enables the owner TO sell and convey, s
90 and come, lasse or rent, without /
peril of creating an adverse tile or {
nvalidaiing his own. !
10. No one can legally locate, c
with cash or scrip, a quarter t
section actually in the possession, by b
egal occupancy and residence, of C
'ettler, though he has not or does not 9
mean 10 pay for it But this primer 5
pie does not srply to the alternate t
sections granted to railroads which i
10 not recognize prescriptions.
IL A quaTter-sec,lon of public
ands is not necessarily regular |
quarter Of some designated section,
put MAJ be made up OF two eighties t
DR. four forties forming oae compact I
body, though these were parts OF diff |
erent quarter sections technically
I
Such is the substance of the laws I
md regulations governing the acqui
'i:ion of public lands by individuals, l
ls we understand them. We trust
his compilation answers most of the
questions addressed to us whereto
We are unable to give special replies.