The St. Johns herald., 1888-08-16
COpP,S LAsD REVIEW.
Some Recent Decisions by the Sec
 retary of the Fnteri0r---Oid Ru- lingS ReSciRded and Greater Lib eralIty Toward Settlers Shown.
Written for the St. Johns Herali.
WASHINGTON. Aug. 9, 1888.

W -ASA~A~'~' A~N'f | Secretary Villas seems not to take it for granted that the con- structions of law and departmental decisions of the past have been cor rect and for the best interests ofall concerned.
 Since the preemp:ion and home stead laws first became operative, it has been the rule of the General Land Office and Department of the Interior that the laws intended that each settler should acquire title to 160 acres of land, and that where entries were made for parts Of fractional sections, although all of the subdivisions applied for by the entryman might lie within the boundary lines of technical quar- ter section, the entry must be re- stricted to that number of such subdivisions that nearest approxl- mated i'll area the magic 160 acres or nominal quarter section, and in many instances settlers have been required, after having made entries, to relinquish some one of the sub- divisions covered by their entries so that the excess over 160 acres should be as small as possible, and frequently under this rule settlers have been forced to take less than the 160 acres, the practice being to permit the entries for such tracts as come nearest-whether above or be- low that acreage.
 In homestead entries, where the land embraced exceeded the area Of 160 acres, the settler was required to make payment in cash or its equivalent in some kind of Land Scrip" for the "excess," as tke sur plusage is technically called, at the rate per acre at which the land was rated by the government.
 The Secretary has recently changed this practice, and a pre- emption or homestead settler may now enter all of the land within the limits of a quarter section as surveyed, regardless of the quanti- ty, it being held that the language of the law "shall be entitled to en- ter ore quarter section as surveyed may be entered, and that the refer ences to 160 acres are merely eX- planatory, not restrictive in char acter, or that they may apply to entries for subdivisions of sections not forming a quarter section as surveyed.
 The rule, it would appear, for the future is to be that settler may enter all of any quarter section, re- gardless of area, and without pay ment of excess; but if the settle ment be upon lands not embraced within the surveyed lines of, one quarter section, then the old rule of restriction as to area and require mcnt of excess payments will gov ern.
 It has also been decided that a precmptor may not be permitted to sub-divide the land covered by his filing into town lots and establish places of business and trade there on without waving his right of pre- emp:ion, and persons so doing will not be permitted to make payment tor and.p1riect title to the lana un- der the pre-emption law.
 It is held that a subsisting entry, though the land may have been abandoned by the settler prior to the attachment of rights under a railroad grant, is sufficient to ox- cept the land from the operation of the grant, and the act of selection or listing of the land on account of the railroad grant, confers no light under the grant and will not ope- rate to prevent the admission of an entry for the land under any of the laws relating to the disposal of