PUBLIC LANDS OOMMISSIOTT. 7 



The act of March 3, 1891 (26 Stat, 1095), permits the assignment of 

 entries, and to invalidate an entry the illegal intent must assume some 

 tangible form prior to entry. The mere fact that a contract to sell is 

 made after the entry, or any other arrangement whereby the lands are 

 held for some other person, does not warrant cancellation. This 

 feature of the law is the chief objection that might be urged against it. 



The right to assign an entry is not in harmony with the fundamental 

 principle underlying the public-land laws that entries should be made 

 for the exclusive benefit of the entryman and not for the benefit of 

 any other person, and its existence practically abrogates the restriction 

 of the act limiting one person to one entry in a compact form, the 

 only actual limitation being to 320 acres, which might embrace a num- 

 ber of noncontiguous tracts taken by assignment. 



The interest of the Government and of the actual settler will be pro- 

 tected and promoted by a repeal of so much of the act of March 3, 1891, 

 as permits the assignment of desert-land entries. 



AGEICULTTJRAL LAND IN FOREST KESEBVES. 



However carefully the boundaries of forest reserves may be selected, 

 it is practically inevitable that more or less agricultural land should be 

 included. Such land usually lies in the narrow valleys of the rivers. 

 Its occupa,tion for agricultural purposes is in the interest of the region 

 in which it lies and of the settlers who would make homes upon it. 

 The presence of the latter in the reserves would, under wise laws, 

 operate distinctly for the protection and general advantage of the 

 reserves. It is essential to the prosperity of the public-land States 

 both that the forest reserves should be maintained and that all of the 

 land within their borders should be put to its best use. To exclude all 

 agricultural lands by Presidential proclamation is not feasible, because 

 of their small area, scattered location , and irregular boundaries. There- 

 fore we recommend that such lands be opened to agricultural entry in 

 the following way: 



That the Secretary having supervision of forest reserves may, upon 

 application or otherwise, ascertain, list, and describe, by metes and 

 bounds or otherwise, lands within such reserves which are chiefly 

 valuable for agriculture, and that the lands so listed may, at the expi - 

 ration of ninety days from the filing of such lists in the land oflSce of 

 the land district in which they are situated, be disposed of to actual 

 settlers under the homestead laws only, in tracts not exceeding 160 

 acres in area and not exceeding 1^ miles in length; that when such 

 lands are ascertained and listed upon the application of any person 

 qualified to make' homestead entry, such applicant may settle upon and 

 enter such lands thirty days after the date of such fiiling; that no per- 

 son settling upon, entering, or occupying such lands shall thereby have 

 a right to use any other lands within such reserve for grazing or other 

 purposes; that any entryman desiring to obtain patent to any lands, 

 described by metes and bounds, entered by him under the provisions 

 of this act, may do so by filing, with the required proof of residence 

 and cultivation, a plat and field notes of the lands entered, made by or 

 under the direction of the United States surveyor-general, showing 

 accurately the boundaries of such lands, which shall be distinctly 

 marked by monuments on the ground, and shall post a copy of such 

 plat, together with a notice of the time and place of offering proof, in 

 30623—05 2 



