90 The Condition of the Western Farmer. [368 



School land was for a long time leased by the state, but 

 has in comparatively recent years been sold to lessees on the 

 appraisement of residents of the county, most of it at seven 

 dollars an acre. 



The state still holds unsold one quarter section within the 

 township. The general government retains the title to three 

 pieces of land, containing in all three hundred and twenty 

 acres; this fact being due to the delay of the occupants in 

 complying with the conditions required as a preliminary to 

 the transfer of the legal title. 



Certain technical terms that are used in this connection 

 throughout the paper perhaps stand in need of explanation. 

 An " entry " is the settlement upon government land in one 

 of the three methods described above. " Proving up " is the 

 expression commonly used for completing the proof that the 

 government requirements have been fulfilled. It is a neces- 

 sary preliminary to the transfer of title to the settler. A 

 " soldiers' declaratory statement " is a paper stating that the 

 signer had been a soldier and intends to make a regular 

 entry for a designated piece of land. It is one of the few 

 entries that can be made by proxy, and serves as a bar to other 

 entries upon the land for six months after it has been filed. 



In early years settlers now and then abandoned their 

 claims; the land would then simply lie open for a new entry 

 by the first person who chose to take it. If an occupant sold 

 his claim before having acquired full title, he would enter a 

 formal " relinquishment " on the records of the land office, 

 and the purchaser would then make a new entry for the land. 

 In order to avoid taxation, or sometimes for other reasons, 

 it was not uncommon when the time for " proving up " had 

 almost expired, for a settler to have his own claim canceled 

 by relinquishment. His right as to the kind of entry which 

 he had before made was now exhausted, but he could imme- 

 diately make a new entry of some other kind, and thus retain 

 his interest in the land. He could thus continue till he had 

 exhausted his rights under the land laws, which up to '79 

 allowed the settler to take in the aggregate 400 acres, and 



