coal, or lands selected by the said States under any law of the United States donating lands for internal improvements, education, or other purposes: And provided further, That none of the rights conferred by the act approved July twenty-sixth, eighteen hundred and sixty-six, entitled "An act granting the right of way to ditch and canal owners over the public lands, and for other purposes," shall be abrogated by this act; and all patents granted shall be subject to any vested and accrued water rights, or rights to ditches and reservoirs used in connection with such water rights, as may have been acquired under and by the provisions of said act; and such rights shall be expressly reserved in any patent issued under this act.

SEC. 2. That any person desiring to avail himself of the provisions of this act shall file with the register of the proper district a written statement in duplicate, one of which is to be transmitted to the General Land Office, designating by legal subdivisions the particular tract of land he desires to purchase, setting forth that the same is unfit for cultivation, and valuable chiefly for its timber or stone; that it is uninhabitated; contains no mining or other improvements, except for ditch or canal purposes, where any such do exist, save such as were made by or belonged to the applicant, nor, as deponent verily believes, any valuable deposit of gold, silver, cinnabar, copper, or coal; that deponent has made no other application under this act; that he does not apply to purchase the same on speculation, but in good faith to appropriate it to his own exclusive use and benefit, and that he has not, directly or indirectly, made any agreement or contract, in any way or manner, with any person or persons whatsoever, by which the title which he might acquire from the Government of the United States should inure, in whole or in part, to the benefit of any person except himself; which statement must be verified by the oath of the applicant before the register or the receiver of the land office within the district where the land is situated; and if any person taking such oath shall swear falsely in the premises, he shall be subject to all the pains and penalties of perjury, and shall forfeit the money which he may have paid for said lands, and all right and title to the same; and any grant or conveyance which he may have made, except in the hands of bona fide purchasers, shall be null and void.

SEC. 3. That upon the filing of said statement, as provided in the second section of this act, the register of the land office shall post a notice of such application, embracing a description of the land by legal subdivisions, in his office, for a period of sixty days, and shall furnish the applicant a copy of the same for publication, at the expense of such applicant, in a newspaper published nearest the location of the premises, for a like period of time; and after the expiration of said sixty days, if no adverse claim shall have been filed, the person desiring to purchase shall furnish to the register of the land office satisfactory evidence, first, that said notice of the application prepared by the reg ister as aforesaid was duly published in a newspaper as herein required; secondly, that the land is of the character contemplated in this act, unoccupied and without improvements, other than those excepted, either mining or agricultural, and that it apparently contains no valuable deposits of gold, silver, cinnabar, copper, or coal; and upon payment to the proper officer of the purchase money of said land, together with the fees of the register and the receiver, as provided for in case of mining claims in the twelfth section of the act approved May tenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-two, the applicant may be permitted to enter said tract, and, on the transmission to the General Land Office of the papers and testimony in the case, a patent shall issue thereon: Provided, That any person having a valid claim to any portion of the

land may object, in writing, to the issuance of a patent to lands so held by him, stating the nature of his claim thereto; and evidence shall be taken, and the merits of said objection shall be determined by the officers of the land office, subject to appeal, as in other land cases. Effect shall be given to the foregoing provisions of this act by regulations to be prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office.

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SEC. 6. That all acts and parts of acts inconsistent with the provi sions of this act are hereby repealed.

Approved, June 3, 1878. (20 Stat., 89.)

[No. 7.]

CHANGE OF PRE-EMPTION FILING TO HOMESTEAD ENTRY.

AN ACT for the relief of settlers on the public lands under the pre-emption laws.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any person who has made a settlement on the public lands under the pre-emption laws, and has subsequent to such settlement changed his filing in pursuance of law to that for a homestead entry upon the same tract of land, shall be entitled, subject to all the provisions of the law relating to homesteads, to have the time required to perfect his title under the homestead laws computed from the date of his original settlement heretofore made, or hereafter to be made, under the pre-emption laws.

Approved, June 14, 1878. (20 Stat., 113.)

[No. 8.]

TIMBER CULTURE.

AN ACT to amend an act entitled "An act to encourage the growth of timber on the western prairies."

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That the act entitled "An act to amend the act entitled 'An act to encourage the growth of timber on western prairies,"" approved March thirteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, be, and the same is hereby amended so as to read as follows: That any person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United States, who shall plant, protect, and keep in a healthy, growing condition for eight years ten acres of timber, on any quarter section of any of the public lands of the United States, or five acres on any legal subdivision of eighty acres, or two and one-half acres on any legal subdivision of forty acres or less, shall be entitled to a patent for the whole of said quarter section, or of such legal subdivision of eighty or forty acres, or fractional subdivision of less than forty acres, as the case may be, at the expiration of said eight years, on making proof of such fact by not less than two credible

witnesses, and a full compliance of the further conditions as provided in section two: Provided further, That not more than one quarter of any section shall be thus granted, and that no person shall make more than one entry under the provisions of this act.

SEC. 2. That the person applying for the benefits of this act shall, upon application to the register of the land district in which he or she is about to make such entry, make affidavit, before the register or the receiver, or the clerk of some court of record, or officer authorized to administer oaths in the district where the land is situated; which affidavit shall be as follows, to wit: I, -, having filed my application, number, for an entry under the provisions of an act entitled "An act to amend an act entitled 'An act to encourage the growth of timber on the western prairies,"" approved eighteen hundred and seventy, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I am the head of a family (or over twenty-one years of age), and a citizen of the United States (or have declared my intention to become such); that the section of land specified in my said application is composed exclusively of prairie lands, or other lands devoid of timber; that this filing and entry is made for the cultivation of timber, and for my own exclusive use and benefit; that I have made the said application in good faith, and not for the purpose of speculation, or directly or indirectly for the use or benefit of any other person or persons whomsoever; that I intend to hold and cultivate the land, and to fully comply with the provision of this said act, and that I have not heretofore made an entry under this act, or the acts of which this is amendatory. And upon filing said affidavit with said register and said receiver, and on payment of ten dollars if the tract applied for is more than eighty acres, and five dollars if it is eighty acres or less, he or she shall thereupon be permitted to enter the quantity of land specified; and the party making an entry of a quarter section under the provisions of this act shall be required to break or plow five acres covered thereby the first year, five acres the second year, and to cultivate to crop or otherwise the five acres broken or plowed the first year; the third year he or she shall cultivate to crop or otherwise the five acres broken the second year, and to plant in timber, seeds, or cuttings the five acres first broken or plowed, and to cultivate and put in crop or otherwise the remaining five acres, and the fourth year to plant in tim. ber, seeds, or cuttings the remaining five acres. All entries of less quantity than one quarter section shall be plowed, planted, cultivated and planted to trees, tree seeds, or cuttings, in the same manner and in the same proportion as herein before provided for a quarter section: Provided, however, That in case such trees, seeds, or cuttings shall be destroyed by grasshoppers, or by extreme and unusual drouth, for any year or term of years, the time for planting such trees, seeds, or cuttings shall be extended one year for every such year that they are so destroyed: Provided further, That the person making such entry shall, before he or she shall be entitled to such extension of time, file with the register and receiver of the proper land office an affidavit, corroborated by two witnesses, setting forth the destruction of such trees, and that, in consequence of such destruction, he or she is compelled to ask an extension of time, in accordance with the provisions of this act: And provided further, That no final certificate shall be given, or patent issued, for the land so entered, until the expiration of eight years from the date of such entry; and if, at the expiration of such time, or at any time within five years thereafter, the person making such entry, or, if he or she be dead, his or her heirs or legal representatives, shall prove by two credible witnesses that he or she or they have planted, and, for

not less than eight years, have cultivated and protected such quantity and character of trees as aforesaid; that not less than twenty-seven hundred trees were planted on each acre, and that at the time of making such proof there shall be then growing at least six hundred and seventy-five living and thrifty trees to each acre, they shall receive a patent for such tract of land.

SEC. 3. That if at any time after the filing of said affidavit, and prior to the issuing of the patent for said land, the claimant shall fail to comply with any of the requirements of this act, then and in that event such lands shall be subject to entry under the homestead laws, or by some other person under the provisions of this act: Provided, That the party making claim to said land, either as a homestead settler or under this act, shall give, at the time of filing his application, such notice to the original claimant as shall be prescribed by the rules established by the Commissioner of the General Land Office; and the rights of the parties shall be determined as in other contested cases.

SEC. 4. That no land acquired under the provisions of this act shall, in any event, become liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted prior to the issuing of the final certificate therefor.

SEC. 5. That the Commissioner of the General Land Office is hereby required to prepare and issue such rules and regulations, consistent with this act, as shall be necessary and proper to carry its provisions into effect; and that the registers and receivers of the several land offices shall each be entitled to receive two dollars at the time of entry, and the like sum when the claim is finally established and the final certificate issued.

SEC. 6. That the fifth section of the act entitled "An act in addition to an act to punish crimes against the United States, and for other purposes," approved March third, eighteen hundred and fifty-seven, shall extend to all oaths, affirmations, and affidavits required or authorized by this act.

SEC. 7. That parties who have already made entries under the acts approved March third, eighteen hundred and seventy-three, and March thirteenth, eighteen hundred and seventy-four, of which this is amendatory, shall be permitted to complete the same upon full compliance with the provisions of this act; that is, they shall, at the time of making their final proof, have had under cultivation, as required by this act, an amount of timber sufficient to make the number of acres required by this act.

SEC. 8. All acts and parts of acts in conflict with this act are hereby repealed.

Approved, June 14, 1878. (20 Stat., 113.)

[No. 9.]

PRIVATE LAND CLAIM INDEMNITY SCRIP.

AN ACT defining the manner in which certain land scrip may be assigned and located, or applied by actual settlers, and providing for the issue of patents in the name of the locator or his legal representatives.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That whenever, in cases prosecuted under the acts of Congress of June twenty-second, eighteen hundred and sixty, March second, eighteen hundred and sixty-seven, and the first section of the act of June tenth, eighteen hundred and seventytwo, providing for the adjustment of private land claims in the States

of Florida, Louisiana, and Missouri, the validity of the claim has been, or shall be hereafter, recognized by the Supreme Court of the United States, and the court has decreed that the plaintiff or plaintiffs is or are entitled to enter a certain number of acres upon the public lands of the United States subject to private entry at one dollar and twentyfive cents per acre, or to receive certificate of location for as much of the land the title to which has been established as has been disposed of by the United States, certificate of location shall be issued by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, attested by the seal of said office, to be located as provided for in the sixth section of the aforesaid act of Congress of June twenty-second, eighteen hundred and sixty, or applied according to the provisions of the second section of this act; and said certificate of location or scrip shall be subdivided according to the request of the confirmee or confirmees, and as nearly as practicable in conformity with the legal divisions and subdivisions of the public lands of the United States, and shall be, and are hereby declared to be, assignable by deed or instrument of writing, according to the form and pursuant to regulations prescribed by the Commissioner of the General Land Office, so as to vest the assignee with all the rights of the original owners of the scrip, including the right to locate the scrip in his own

name.

SEC. 2. That such scrip shall be received from actual settlers only in payment of pre-emption claims or in commutation of homestead claims in the same manner and to the same extent as is now authorized by law in the case of military-bounty land warrants.

SEC. 3. That the register of the proper land office, upon any such certificate being located, shall issue, in the name of the party making the location, a certificate of entry, upon which, if it shall appear to the satisfaction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office that such certificate has been fairly obtained, according to the true intent and meaning of this act, a patent shall issue, as in other cases, in the name of the locator or his legal representative.

SEC. 4. That the provisions of this act respecting the assignment and patenting of scrip and its application to preemption and homestead claims shall apply to the indemnity certificates of location provided for by the act of the second of June, eighteen hundred and fifty-eight, entitled "An act to provide for the location of certain confirmed private land claims in the State of Missouri, and for other purposes."

Approved, January 28, 1879. (20 Stat., 274.)

[No. 10.

SPECIAL SURVEY DEPOSITS.

AN ACT to amend section twenty-four hundred and three of the Revised Statutes of the United States, in relation to deposits for surveys.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That section twenty-four hundred and three of the Revised Statutes of the United Statse be, and is hereby, amended so as to read as follows:

SEC. 2403.1 Where settlers make deposits in accordance with the provisions of section twenty-four hundred and one, the amount so

Further amended by acts of August 7, 1882 (22 Stat., 327; Appendix No. 24, p. 181), and August 20, 1894 (28 Stat., 423; Appendix No. 54, p. 233).