78 CLASSIFICATION OF THE PUBLIC LANDS. 



foot of a shaft of that depth, even if, away from the foot of the 

 shaft, the coal is more than 2,000 feet below the surface. If the 

 shaft is 1,200 feet deep the coal can be mined back 20,000 minus 

 (■1,200X7.5) =11,000 feet. If the coal is at the depth limit at the 

 foot of the shaft it can be mined back 20,000 minus (2,000XT.5) = 

 5,000 feet, or approximately 1 mile in any direction. 



OIiASSrPICATION BT 40-AOB.E TBAOTS OR LOTS. 



In ordinary practice coal land is disposed t)f by parcels composed 

 of " smallest legal subdivisions," which are ordinarily quarter-quarter 

 sections, or 40 acres, except along the north and west sides of town- 

 ships and in areas bordering meandered rivers or lakes, where the 

 tracts are usually irregular in size and shape and are called lots. 



The price of a tract that is wholly underlain by coal is the price 

 per acre multiplied by the number of acres. The price of a tract 

 that is only in part underlain by coal is the price of the coal per acre 

 multiplied by the number of acres it underlies. To obtain the sale 

 price per acre of the 40-acre tract or lot, the amount obtained by the 

 above computation is divided by 40 or by a figure representing the 

 actual acreage, but no land must be appraised at a price below the 

 minimum fixed by law. Thus if 24 acres of a 40-acre tract is under- 

 lain by coal valued at $50 an acre the price of the " forty " is 24 times 

 $50=$1,200, or $30 an acre ($l,200-^40=$30).. The value of the coal 

 in some lands, however, is so small that to charge even the minimum 

 price for them would make the price of the coal abnormally high. For 

 example, to take an actual case : Five acres of a 40-acre tract is under- 

 lain by coal 2 feet thick, the total value of which under the regulations 

 is about $100. The tract is within 15 miles of a railroad, and there- 

 fore if it is all sold as coal land it must be sold at the rate of $20 an 

 acre— that is, the whole tract must be sold for $800. The coal land 

 in the forty is therefore segregated from the agricultural land, the line 

 of division following the 10 or 2| acre subdivision. The two por- 

 tions of the forty thus segregated are treated as separate lots. The 5 

 acres of coal land is sold for $100, its value, and the noncoal tract is 

 subject to disposal as nonmineral land. Such a division of the forty 

 into two lots, one coal and the other noncoal, is made only along the 

 outcrop of the coal and only within so short a distance from known 

 corners that little doubt can arise as to the exact position of the 

 outcrop. 



OXraciSOP COAL AITD BTJBNED OOAIi. 



In coal-mining practice it has been found that the coal along the 

 outcrop and for a distance back of it ranging from 30 to 100 feet or 

 more, the distance depending on the amount of cover, is more or less 

 influenced by weathering, which materially decreases its value. Diffi- 



