The Lake County star. [volume] (Chase, Mich.) 1873-current, 1875-12-09
Public Lands.

80, 1875. TOTO, 271.29 acres have been
disposed Of during the year by ordinary
cash sales, homestead entries, to rail
road, and otherwise, against 9,530,872 SO
acres disposed of during the previous
year, being decrease of 2,460, Col GA
acres. The cash receipts were $l,784,-
001.27. The total area of the States and
Territories is 1884, 724 856 acres; total
surveyed to June 80, 1875, $50, 253, 094.21
acres leaving yet to be surveyed, l, 154,-
All, 1852 70 acres. The falling of, as COM
pared with the disposals of the year i'm
mediately preceding in entries made for
actual settlement, as evidenced by ap-
preparations of the public lands under the
homestead and timber-culture laws, is
found to be 1900, 1902 acres. This re-
suit may he attributed, in large degree,
to the devastation by grasshoppers, 40
companied, in some places, by season
of unusual drought in the localities most
inviting to homestead and timberculture
settlement, to which is to be added the
falling off of emigration and the general
business depression which has reached the
agricultural as we'll as the other indus
trial classes Of the country.
4nC tboiOuOI IcCOuulcuuS tudb
unoccupied lands, unfit for agricultural
purposes and not mineral, be offered for
sale at one dollar and twenty-five cents
per acre-this recommendation has refer
ence to lands west of the one hundredth
meridian. Pine and other timber lands
should be, the Commissioner thinks, sur
veyed Immediately that they may be sold
to actual purchasers to prevent, aSfar az
possible, the wasting of timber by reck-
less pre-emptors. A change in this man.
ner of making surveys is deemed advisa-
BILE; the chain and solar systems which
are in vogue are now regarded as among
the ruder appliances of engineering
science, and surveys made in this manner
are of no lasting use. The Office, more
over, is kept in Ignorance of the deposits
in the lands thus specifically surveyed,
and valuable mineral lands have been
disposed Of at the price fixed for ordi-
nary tillable lands at loss to the gov
eminent. Legislation on this point
is requested, and power and money
to carry such legislation into effect asked
for.
The Office has for several years past
urged upon Congress the propriety, as
we'll as the necessity, as a measure of
sound public policy, of a repeal of the
presumption laws; not, however, con-
templating an entire obliteration of all
the features of the presumption
system, but, rather, having in
view the unification of the whole subject
of settlement rights by merging the valua-
BILE features of the presumption with the
later homestead system.
After noting probable errors in the re-
vised statutes referring to public lands,
the Commissioner says that whenever a
town is founded on the public lands the
business exigencies of its inhabitants
prompt them to the exercise of the great
est diligence in obtaining title by patent
for the quantity of land to which they
may be entitled by reason of the number
of inhabitants included in the munich
pality. 1t frequently results that by the
growth of their numbers they would be-
come, within brief period (were it not
that they had exhausted their right of
entry), entitled to take the largest area
named in the law. lie is of the opinion
that municipalities should be allowed
additional entries to a certain maximum,
90 ehCii PoPutdVioh hoy ChUtiO thOhi'
This view of the case receives indorse-
ment of decision of the Supreme Court
in 1857.
Purchasers of government land seem to
be ignorant of the fact that govern
ment patent, signed, sealed, and deliv-
cred, constitutes the only available posi-
tive evidence of the transfer of title from
the United States to the individuals.
When the Commissioner entered Office he
was confronted by the fact that there are
remaining in the files of his and the
various local Offices between 100000 or
1000, 900 of uncalled for patents, covering
probably, not less than $50, 600, 900 of
acres, no small proportion of which being
lands purchased of the government more
than half century ago, and lying
in the States of Ohio, Indiana and
Illinois.
The report closes with request for
a stronger force, and more office room
also safe place for valuable records.