440 BUFFALO LAND. 



land embraced in his declaratory statement at the last-named 

 price, viz.: $1.25 per acre. 



Final proof and payment can not be made until the party 

 has actually resided upon the land for a period of at least six 

 months, and made the necessary cultivation and improvements 

 to show his good faith as an actual settler. This proof can be 

 made by one witness. 



The party who makes the first settlement in person upon a 

 tract of public land is entitled to the right of pre-emption, 

 provided he subsequently complies with all the requirements of 

 the law — his right to the land commences from the date he 

 performed the first work on the land. 



When a person has filed his declaratory statement for a tract 

 of land, and afterward relinquishes it to the Government, he 

 forfeits his right to fiile again for another tract of land. 



The assignment of a pre-emption right is null and void. 

 Title to public land is not perfected until the issuance of the 

 patent from the General Land Office, and all sales and transfers 

 prior to the date of the patents are in violation of law. 



The Act of March 27, 1854, protects the right of settlers on 

 sections along the lines of railroads, when settlement was made 

 prior to the withdrawal of the lands, and in such case allows 

 the lauds to be pre-empted and paid for at $1.25 per acre, by 

 furnishing proof of inhabitancy and cultivation, as required 

 under the Act of September 4, 1841. 



The Homestead Act of May 20, 1862, provides "that any 

 person who is the head of a family, or who has arrived at the 

 age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United States, 

 or who shall have filed his declaration of intention to become 

 such, as required by the naturalization laws of the United 

 States, and who has never borne arms against the United 



