CabwACEY hr RR. LL: 
THE LAND SYSTEM NEEDED FOR THE ARID 
REGION. 
The growth and prosperity of the Arid Region will depend largely 
upon a land system which will comply with the requirements of the con- 
ditions and facts briefly set forth in the former chapter. 
Any citizen of the United States may acquire title to public lands by 
purchase at public sale or by ordinary ‘private entry”, and in virtue of 
preémption, homestead, timber culture, and desert land laws. 
Purchase at public sale may be effected whensthe lands are offered at 
public auction to the highest bidder, either pursuant to proclamation by the 
President or public notice given in accordance with instructions from the 
General Land Office. If the land is thus offered and purchasers are not 
found, they are then subject to “private entry” at the rate of $1.25 or $2.50 
per acre. For a number of years it has not been the practice of the Gov- 
ernment to dispose of the public lands by these methods; but the public 
lands of the southern states are now, or soon will be, thus offered for sale. 
Any citizen may preémpt 160 acres of land, and by settling thereon, 
erecting a dwelling, and making other improvements, and by paying $1.25 
per acre in some districts, without the boundaries of railroad grants, and 
$2.50 within the boundaries of railroad grants in others, may acquire title 
thereto. The preémption right can be exercised but once. No person can 
exercise the preémption right who is already the owner of 320 acres of land. 
Any citizen may, under the homestead privilege, obtain title to 160 
acres of land valued at $1.25 per acre, or 80 acres valued at the rate of 
$2.50, by payment of $5 in the first case and $10 in the last, and by 
residing on the land for the term of five years and by making certain 
improvements. 
AR 
