I shall divide my discussion under the heads of (1) agricultural lands; (2) mineral lands—that is, lands containing metalliferous minerals; (3) forest lands; (4) coal lands; (5) oil and gas lands; and (6) phosphate lands.
I feel that it will conduce to a better understanding of the problems presented if I take up each class and describe, even at the risk of tedium, first, what has been done by the last administration and the present one in respect to each kind of land; second, what laws at present govern its disposition; third, what was done by the present congress in this matter; and fourth, the statutory changes proposed in the interest of conservation.
Agricultural Lands
Our land laws for the entry of agricultural lands are now as follows:
The original homestead law, with the requirements of residence and cultivation for five years, much more strictly enforced than ever before.
The enlarged homestead act, applying to non-irrigable lands only, requiring five years' residence and continuous cultivation of one fourth of the area.
The desert-land act, which requires on the part of the purchaser the ownership of a water right and thorough reclamation of the land by irrigation, and the payment of $1.25 per acre.
The donation or Carey act, under which the state selects the land and provides for its reclamation, and the title vests in the settler who resides upon the land and cultivates it and pays the cost of the reclamation.
The national reclamation homestead law, requiring five years' residence and cultivation by the settler on the land irrigated by the government, and payment by him to the government of the cost of reclamation.
There are other acts, but not of sufficient general importance to call for mention unless it is the stone and timber act, under which every individual, once in his lifetime, may acquire 160 acres of land, if it has valuable timber on it or valuable stone, by paying the price of not less than $2.50 per acre fixed after examination of the stone or timber by a government appraiser. In times past a great deal of fraud has been perpetrated in the acquisition of lands under this act; but it is now being much more strictly enforced, and the entries made are so few in number that it seems to serve no useful purpose and ought to be repealed.
The present congress passed a bill of great importance, severing the ownership of coal by the government in the ground from the surface and permitting homestead entries upon the surface of the land which, when perfected, give the settler the right to farm the surface, while the coal beneath the surface is retained in ownership by the government and may be disposed of by it under other laws.
