114 



REPORT OF THE COMMISSIONER OF FOR- 



BS3BRY. . 



- 



HARRISBURG, PA., Jan. 5, 1899. 

 HON. THOMAS J. EDGE, Secretary of Agriculture : 



DEAR SIR: I have the honor to herewith present my preliminary re- 

 port for the year 1898: 



UNSEATED LANDS. 



What, in law, constitutes unseated land is hard to state. in a few 

 words. Merely making a small clearing does not remove the .tract 

 from the unseated land list and thereby render it capable of being sold 

 for taxes. But the cultivation of a few acres does, because it fur- 

 nishes presumptive evidence that the person so clearing and cultivat- 

 ing intends to make his home there. "Actual and permanent occu- 

 pancy of a tract for lumbering purposes renders it seated." Land 

 once classified as seated, but afterwards abandoned and allowed to 

 grow up in brush, is thereby liable to be sold for taxes as unseated 

 land, though "a mere temporary suspension of occupancy is not suffi- 

 cient for that purpose." Land "may be transferred from the seated 

 to the unseated list without notice to the owner." A portion of a 

 seated tract which is worthless cannot be abandoned and classified as 

 unseated land and sold for non-payment of taxes. The responsibility 

 for the taxes still remains in the owner, and the entire tract should 

 be assessed as seated land. 



If an intruder locates upon unseated land the fact of his occupancy 

 "gives it the character of seated land only to the extent of his claim, 

 but the improvement of any part of the tract, by the owner renders 

 the whole tract seated." 



"A sale of unseated lands, for taxes, will pass the title, though as- 

 sessed in a wrong name, or by a wrong number, if otherwise designated 

 so as to be capable of identification. The identity of the tract as- 

 sessed and sold is a question of fact for the jury." 



I have made the above statements and quotations from Brightly's 

 Purdon's Digest (Vol. 2, pages 2052 and 2053), in order at the outset to 

 give a clear view of the most important legal relations of unseated 

 lands, and also, if possible, to show under what circumstances lands 

 may be properly classed as unseated. 



I have already intimated that unseated lands may be sold for taxes. 

 All other real estate in this Commonwealth is exempt from sale for 



