^ , C. A. SCHENCK. 



Sixth : The Mining Laws distinguish between :- 



1. placer mines, which are open to entry in tracts not exce- 

 eding 160 acres, obtainable at $2.50 per acre; 



2. lode mines, which are patented to the claimant in tracts 

 not exceeding about twenty acres, on payment of $5.00 per acre. 



In both cases, the claimant must have invested on his claim' 

 $500 for labor and improvements before issue of patent. Mining 

 entries are permitted in the national forests as if the land were 

 vacant. 



In the Lake states, further in Missouri, Kansas, and Alabama, 

 mineral land is either sold at public auction or opened to entry 

 like agricultural land. 



Seventh: The Carey Act, of August 18th. 1894, donates to 

 each arid land state one million acres, providing, however, that 

 the state should see to the reclamation of that land by irrigation. 



Eighth : The Swamp Land Acts, the oldest dating back to Sep- 

 tember 28th. 1850, grant to the public land states all the swamp 

 land found within their boundaries. 



Under these Acts, and under the Carey Act given under 

 "Seventh," the states benefited select "so-called deserts" and 

 "so-called swamp-land" to be patented by the United States 

 to the individual state. The state selections amount to many 

 hundred thousands of acres annually. 



Ninth: The Forest Reserve Act, of June 4th. 1897, permits 

 the exchange of private land found within national forests for 

 any vacant land outside the national forests ("lieu" selections; 

 "scrip" land). The scrip law was repealed in 1905; but the scrip 

 continues to exist. 



Tenth: Railroad grants. Many of the Western and all of the 

 trans-continental railroads were given huge land grants, so as to 

 help and induce the construction of such railroads. Title was 

 not passed to the railroads immediately, owing to the lack of 

 surveys. As time goes on, the railroads obtain proper title 

 by proper patents for the lands in question. There are 79 rail- 

 road grants, and each grant has some feature peculiar to itself. 

 The area covered by these grants was 197 million acres originally, 

 or about ten per cent of the area of the United States. The 

 failure of the grantees to construct the roads has reduced the 

 acreage to approximately 155 million acres now-a-days. 



