48 UNITED STATES FOREST POLICY 



« 



Agricultural college scrip was often sold outright in large blocks. 

 One company claimed to have bought over 3,000,000 acres of the 

 scrip issued to Kentucky, Indiana, Maryland, North Carolina, New 

 Hampshire, Massachusetts, Ohio, and Pennsylvania — two fifths of the 

 entire amount of scrip granted to these states. 



THE PREEMPTION, COMMUTATION HOMESTEAD, AND DESERT 



LAND LAWS 



Some of the general land laws of the Federal government proved 

 quite as iniquitous as the grants to the states. The Preemption Law 

 and the commutation clause of the Homestead Act were both used a 

 great deal by timbermen ; and in 1877, the Desert Land Law gave one 

 other means of securing timber. ^^ 



Preemption rights had been recognized in certain cases even as 

 early as 1799, but the general Preemption Act dates from 1841.^^ 

 Originally this system, by allowing title to go to actual settlers, had 

 put a premium on home making; but when the Homestead Act was 

 passed in 1862, there was no further need for the Preemption Law, 

 and since, under its provisions, no permanent residence was required, 

 it was used extensively by timbermen and others to gain title to public 

 lands. 



In recognition of the fact that misfortune or change of circum- 

 stances might befall a settler. Congress provided by a clause in the 

 Homestead Act that any claimant, after six months' residence and 

 cultivation, might "commute" his entry, that is, purchase the land 

 at $1.25 per acre instead of getting it free at the end of five years 

 of residence and cultivation. There was no such thing as a separate 

 and distinct law allowing entry with intent to commute. The appli- 

 cant had to swear that he was taking the land in good faith, for the 

 purpose of making a home; but the commutation clause allowed him 

 to buy the land if his original plans should change. Like the Pre- 

 emption Law, the commutation clause of the Homestead Act was 

 often, perhaps generally, used fraudulently. (See pages 79, 80.) 



Less important than the Preemption Law and the commutation 

 clause of the Homestead Act, in promoting the alienation of timber 



82 Stat. 19, 377. 



83 5f/!a«. 1, 728; 5, 453. 



