TENURE AND USE OF ARID GRAZING LANDS. 17 



road, with an "indemnity" strip of specified width outside of this, 

 from which selections could be made equal to the area of land already- 

 appropriated within the grant strip which would have come to the 

 grantee under the terms of the act. (See fig. 2.) These lands were 

 selected according to the terms of the act, but not all have yet been 

 patented. On unsurveyed land it is impossible to issue patent and 

 much of the land selected is unsurveyed at present. Considerable 

 areas of land originally granted were forfeited to the Government 

 because of failure to carry out the conditions of the grant. (See p. 65.) 



The original grantees have handled their lands in various ways. 

 Much of such land has been sold outright to all sorts of purchasers, 

 e. g., other railroads, land companies, lumber companies, stockmen, 

 etc. Considerable areas are still the property of the railroads and 

 are leased to various kinds of users. The right transferred by the 

 railroad company is only that which they shall themselves receive 

 after all Government proceedings relating thereto are complete. 

 Under certain conditions parts of these lands have been returned to 

 the Federal Government, and lieu land scrip, which may be placed 

 upon other Government land that is open for entry, has been issued 

 in exchange for it [7]. (See p. 65.) 



The effect of the railroad land-grant legislation is to produce a 

 checker-board arrangement of the land tenure in each township, the 

 odd-numbered sections belonging, either tentatively (pending survey) 

 or actually (patent having issued), to the railroad company or its 

 assigns, and the even-numbered sections belonging to some other 

 owner or to the National Government (see figs. 3, 4, and 5). 



Certain sections out of each township, particularly in the West, 

 were given at one time or another to a number of the States. These 

 lands are managed by the States for the benefit of their public schools, 

 and are usually referred to as State school lands. In New Mexico 

 and Arizona, sections 16, 36, 2, and 32 are the school sections, unless 

 they were appropriated before the laws granting them were made, 

 under which circumstances the State received the right to make lieu 

 selections (see figs. 3, 4, and 5). 



At various times, under one act or another, relatively large grants 

 of public land have been made to the different States, the proceeds 

 from the lease or sale of which are used for the support of the higher 

 educational and other institutions of the State. The administration 

 of these lands and the school lands is usually in charge of a State land 

 commissioner under laws passed by the State legislatures, and the 

 policies are different in different States. In general, it is possible to 

 lease any of such lands for longer or shorter periods, and some of them 

 may be bought outright 11 (see figs. 3, 4, and 5). 



11 For details see the annual reports of the State land commissioners of the different States. 

 60835°— 22— Bull. 1001 3 



