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Show HOMESTEADING, 1862-1882 399 cleared of Indian rights which were not open to either homestead or preemption entry. Railroad and state grants not received or located in 1867 were to come out of these figures. The estimates of land in California and Dakota Territory are much too high. b Open only to homestead entry. There was considerable land open to entry in Kansas east of the 97th meridian when the homestead law was adopted. This was increased by 145,000 acres offered the following year. However, this offered land was quickly snapped up by speculators using the agricultural college scrip. At the previous rate of growth one could have expected the frontier to advance swiftly in ensuing years to the 99th meridian, beyond the point where ordinary farming techniques would work well and where larger farm units might be needed. It was questionable whether the 160-acre homestead unit was suited to the dryer portions of the Great Plains. The movement for closing all offered land to unlimited purchasing had been strong, though unsuccessful in 1862, but if it had succeeded and if the preemption law had been repealed, the 160-acre unit would have been the basic size for farms as settlement moved westward, so far as government policy was concerned. The retention of preemption after 1862 assured more flexibility in the land system. Congress was averse to making the land system rigid by eliminating preemption, closing out all cash sales, and making home-steading the only route to ownership. In the Homestead Act it had made careful provision to safeguard all existing preemption rights, by allowing those who prior to the adoption of the act had filed a declaratory application for a preemption to retain that right and also to gain a homestead right, or to change a preemption claim into a homestead. Thereafter settlers could gain ownership of 320 acres by entering land in both ways. A final step that shows how strongly committed Congress was to continuing both the preemption and homestead privileges was its action in throwing open to preemption all public lands to which the Indian title had been extinguished.26 Unfortunately, preemption entries continued to appear on the tract books as cash sales and without detailed examination of them it is impossible to determine what proportion of cash sales were in fact preemption entries. In later years the Commissioners of the General Land Office came to believe that the part of the land system most subject to abuse was the Preemption Act of 1841. It produced a huge number of contested cases that kept officials constantly busy hearing appeals, reading reports of investigating agents, and rendering decisions. Land lawyers and members of Congress frequently intervened in cases, asking for reconsideration and reversal of decisions and carrying appeals to the Commissioner, the Secretary of the Interior, and to the courts. But despite the enormous number of contests and disputed cases to which it gave rise, Congress had no intention of repealing preemption which had now been on the statute books for many years. Timber Culture Act Congress was not content for long to limit entries of land to homestead and preemption claims. In 1873 it adopted the Timber Culture Act allowing settlers a third quarter-section if they would plant 40 acres in trees and cultivate them. Residence was not required on the tract, as it was on both preemption and homestead claims, so settlers could have two claims proceeding toward title at the same time. Ten years, later 8, were required for final proof. Subsequent amendments reduced the number of acres to 10 required to be planted in trees, and eased the path to ownership. The purpose of the act was 26 Cong. Globe, 37th Cong., 2d sess., April 17, May 29, 1862, pp. 1711, 2432, 2439. |