STATE LANDS 65 



Those who wish to have any particular tract of State land offered for 

 sale should mtike this formal application on blanks which will be supplied 

 by the State Land Office for that purpose, but any one may bid on' land thus 

 offered without previous application. The receipt of such application with 

 the fee of 50 cents insures the land being- offered at the next sale held in 

 the county in which the land is located. Applications must be filed at least 

 five weeks prior to the date of the sale, and advance notices of the sale are 

 mailed to all applicants. Except coal and timber land, or land which has 

 been reserved for the completion of an irrig-ation enterprise, all of the State 

 land ho'lding-s are subject to sale at any time, but unless application to buy 

 is filed. State land will not be offered for sale. 



The terms upon Avhich these lands are sold are exceptionally liberal ; 

 fifteen per cent of the purchase price in cash must be paid on the day of 

 sale and the balance miay be paid in twenty equal annual installments 



bearing- interest at the rate of 5% per year. The exception to- 

 Easy this rule is that a purchase of Sioo.oo or less must be paid in 

 Terms for full at the sale. Payments of one or more annual installments 

 Buyers. may be made on any settlement day, and the purchaser may 



thus complete his payments at any time and secure absolute- 

 title to his land and save interest on deferred payments. 



State lands can be sold only to citizens of the United States, or those 

 who have declared their intention to become such, or domestic corporations, 

 actual settlers or persons, who will improve the land or to the United States 

 Reclamation Service. All State land is sold at public auction held at the 

 court house in the county in v.-hich the land is located, after a description of 

 the land, place, time and terms of sale has been advertised for four con- 

 secutive weeks in a paper published in the county. 



The State Board of Land Commissioners ma}^ sell land in such parcels 

 as is deemed best, provided that each quarter section or such portion 

 thereof as belongs to the State shall be offered for sale separately. Smaller 

 tracts may be sold when impossible to sell otherwise, or when 

 How Much thereby a larg^er price may be obtained. Not more than 160 

 Can Be acres of land classified as agricultural and susceptible of irriga- 



Purchased. tion, nor more than 320 acres classified as ag-ricukural not sus- 

 ceptible of irrig-ation. and not more than 640 acres classified as 

 grazing land can be sold to one person or corporation. 



No security for deferred payments is required, and a certificate of pur- 

 chase is issued after the approval of each sale. Assignments of such certifi- 

 cates of purchase ma}- be made upon forms which will be supplied by the 

 State Land Department, executed in original and duplicate, and sworn to 

 before a notary public. If the assignor is unmarried the assignment must 

 so recite; if married, man and wife must ioin in the instrument. 



State land in a city or town, or within three miles thereof miav be 

 divided into lots or tracts of five acres or less and sold as are other State 

 lands. 



-Montana people are intelligent, self-reliant and resourceful. 



