Arizona citizen., 1873-04-26
THE CITIZEN.
TUCSON, PIMA COUNTY, ARIZONA.
Saturday, April 26. 1873
TIMBER ON PUBLIC LANDS.

The late Congress passed an i'm portant bill for the encouragement o
 the growth of timber on the public
 lands. We call the attention of oul
 readers to its various provisions
 The first section provides that any per.
 son who shall plant and protect, and keeE
 in healthy growing condition for ter
 years, forty acres of timber trees thereon
 not being more than twelve feet apart each
 way, on any quarter section of any public
 lands of the United States, shall be entitled to a patent for the whole of said quarter
 section at the expiration of the ten years,
 on making proof of the fact by not less
 than two credible witnesses.
 The second section provides that the person applying for the benefits of the act shall, upon application to the register and receiver of the land office in which he or she is about to make such entry, make affidavit that the said entry is made for the cultivation of timber, and that upon filing such affidavit with the said register and receiver and the payment of ten dollars, he or she shall be permitted to enter the quarter section of land specified j; provided that no certificate be given or patent issued therefor until the expiration of at least ten years from the date of such entry, and if at the expiration of such time, or three years thereafter, the person making such entry, or, if he or she be dead, his or her heirs or legal representa- tives, shall prove by two credible witt nesses that they have cultivated and pro- tected such quantity and character of tim Der, they shall receive patent for such quarter section of land, and that if at any time after filing the said affidavit and prior to the issuing of the patent for said lands, it shall be proven, after due notice to the parties, that such parties abandoned or failed to cultivate the said lands, the land shall revert to the United States.
 The bill further provides that each and every person who under the pre-emptiOn and homestead laws, or any amendments thereto, having a homestead and who at the end of the third year of his or her residence thereon shall have had under cultivation an acre of timber trees thereon, not more than twelve feet apart each way, and in good and thrifty condition, for each and every one hundred and sixty acres of homestead shall, on the proof of two credible witnesses, receive a patent for the said homestead, and that none of the lands shall become liable for the satisfac tioa of any debt or debts contracted before.
 The bill further provides that the Con- missioner of the General Land Office shall be required te issue such rules and regula- tions consistent with this act, as shall be necessary and proper to carry its provisions into effect, and that the registers and re- ceivers of the several land offices shall be entitled to receive the same compensation for the land entered under the provisions of this act, that they are now entitled to receive when land is entered with money also that the provisions of the act of March 3, 1867, shall extend to all the af- frmations, affidavits, and oaths required by this act.