32 CLASSIFICATION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. 



section for 40 miles on either side of the right of way. Neither of 

 these grants contained restrictions as to the use to be made of the 

 lands, but certain of the later grants required the lands to be sold 

 only to actual settlers at prices not to exceed $2.50 an acre. The last 

 of the railroad grants was made to the Texas Pacific Railroad Co. 

 on March 3, 1871 (16 Stat, 573). Since that time Congress has 

 consistently refused to grant lands, either to States or to corporations, 

 in aid of internal improvements. 



All the railroad grants were restricted to lands containing no 

 minerals except coal and iron. These two were given to the rail- 

 roads because of their use in the construction and operation of 

 the roads. In certain cases the railroads were permitted to select 

 other lands in lieu of those which, normally constituting a part 

 of the grant, proved to be valuable for minerals other than 

 coal and iron or to be included within Indian or military res- 

 ervations or national forests or to have been covered by valid settle- 

 ment. The right to make these lieu selections is usually sold by the 

 railroads in the form of "scrip," which may be filed on any vacant 

 unreserved nonmineral land. 



NECESSITY FOB LAND CLASSIFICATION. 



A study of the land laws shows the absolute necessity of some 

 form of segregation of the lands into classes as a prerequisite to their 

 disposition. Agricultural entry may not be made on lands contain- 

 mg valuable minerals, nor coal entry on lands containing gold, silver, 

 or copper ; lands included in desert entries or selected under the Carey 

 Act must be desert lands; enlarged-homestead lands must not be 

 susceptible of successful irrigation ; placer claims must not be taken 

 for their timber value or their control of watercourses; and lands 

 included in building-stone, petroleum, or salt placers must be more 

 valuable for those minerals than for any other purpose. So through 

 the whole scheme of American land laws runs the necessity for 

 determining the use for which each tract is best fitted. 



No specific financial provision has ever been made for a systematic 

 classification of the entire public domain into classes representing 

 the highest use for each area. Such a scheme, with proper provision 

 for revisions whenever necessitated by changing conditions or in-- 

 creased knowledge, would be of immense value in the administration 

 of the public domain, and if it had been initiated when the major 

 portion of the public-land laws were in process of formation it would 

 have saved to the public natural resources of immense value. It can 

 hardly be questioned that the National Academy of Sciences had in 

 mind such a systematic classification of the entire public domain 

 when it recommended the creation of the Geological Survey, but the 



