The surveys accepted during the year were for the following areas: The chief recommendations made by the surveyors-general are summarized in the Commissioner's report, which presents the needs of the different sections of the country in the matter of surveys. The statute expressly requires that preference shall be given in favor of surveying townships occupied in whole or in part by actual settlers, and that the surveys shall be confined to lands adapted to agriculture and to lines of reservation. In some sections of the country it is difficult to determine what is agricultural land, and, as stated in the report of the surveyor-general of Arizona What would be agricultural land if water was brought onto the land may be at the present moment the most barren of desert lands, and consequently, though agricultural in point of soil, not agricultural in the practical sense of the word. UNITED STATES MAPS AND PLATS. In the report for the year ending June 30, 1889, particular attention was called to the recommendation of the Commissioner, that an appropriation be made sufficient to continue the reproduction, by photolithography, of the worn, defaced, and needed plats on file in that office. He now recommends that at least $25,000 be appropriated for that purpose, and states The demand for copies of the official plats of surveys from General Government and State officials, from individuals and corporations, and for office use is great and constantly increasing. There are about 24,000 of such plats that need to be reproduced, and unless the appropriation for such service is increased it will be many years before the work can be completed, and this delay is a serious inconvenience to the Government and all concerned. PRIVATE LAND CLAIMS. The officers provided for in the act of Congress approved March 3, 1891 (26 Stats., 854), entitled "An act to establish a court of private land claims and to provide for the settlement of private land claims in certain States and Territories," have been duly appointed; the court has been organized, and due notice given as provided by law. The first session of the court will be held at Denver, Colo., on Tuesday, November 17, 1891. The claims that will come before this court for settlement are of Spanish and Mexican origin, and involve lands within the cession by Mexico to the United States by the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo and the subsequent Gadsden purchase. The court is the result, in part at least, of the previous most earnest recommendations of the present and other Secretaries of this Department as approved by the President. It will greatly lighten the labors of the Commissioner and Secretary, and do complete, if tardy, justice to the people of the several states and territories over which its jurisdiction extends. By sections 16, 17, and 18 of the act establishing this court recognition is given to a class of small holdings, not to exceed 160 acres in each case, by persons, or their " ancestors, grantors, or their lawful successors in title or possession," who became citizens of the United States by reason of the treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, etc. The Commissioner estimates that there are from fifteen to twenty thousand claims of this character. In his annual report for 1890, the Secretary presented the obstacles, to private entries, met by settlers on these former Spanish possessions. It was then said: The population of New Mexico when acquired by the United States was 80,000 and some of the wealthy held large tracts of land, but the people were, for the most part, very poor. From the days of Charles V of Spain to the annexation, wherever it was thought proper to found settlements, the viceroys and residents gave, in the name of the Emperor, lands, house lots, and waters, in conformity with the disposition of the land. Under the Republic of Mexico the colonization laws and regulations became a very complete system, well adapted to the people and the country, and were intended to bestow upon each one without land a portion of the public domain. Because of the system of irrigation practiced, the lands cultivated, sloping down the hills, were of irregular shape and apt to be separated by divisions among heirs and subsequent union of ownership of separate parcels by marriage, without consolidation of the tracts themselves. This prevents entries now of these tracts under the existing land laws of the United States, because the lands are not deemed to be according to our system of surveys and the claimants do not reside on many of the tracts cultivated. The Commissioner quotes from the last annual report of the sur veyor-general of New Mexico, showing the necessity of further legislation in relation to these claims. There is a map presented exhibiting the nature of these settlements, and in connection with it the surveyorgeneral remarks: It is evidently the intention of the law to enable the people to get title to the little irregularly-shaped pieces of land which they have occupied and cultivated from time immemorial. This is accomplished by section 16, where the land is unsurveyed, but the greater part of the settled portions of the Territory is surveyed land. How can a landholder on surveyed land comply with the law? As a sample of the manner in which land has become divided up during generations and is now held in the Spanish settlements throughout this Territory, I have prepared the following diagram of a portion of the township lying immediately west of the city of Santa Fé. The section and quarter-section lines are indicated by dotted lines, and the boundaries of the different owners by full lines. These little strips of land, the smallest of which is but 20 varas or 55 feet wide, are held only by the title of uninterrupted and peaceable possession, reaching back 60 years or more. These lands were segregated from the Mexican domain, and are held by the right of prescription under the laws, usages, and customs of Spain and Mexico. The treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo covers such cases, and obliges the United States to respect them. To disregard them now would be to confiscate their homes and commit a wanton injustice. How can Casme Carillo, for instance, who owns a strip of 50 varas or 84 rods wide, amounting to 40 acres, on which is his home and his little cultivation near the river, and running back across three sections over the hills where he gets his firewood; how can this landholder have a survey of his strip made, connecting his lines with corners of the public survey, and by filing such survey and making proofs of the facts enter this strip at the local land office? If he can do so, full instructions should be issued to the register how to proceed in such cases. If he can not, under the law, enter his land, it is earnestly requested that the Department ask for such an amendment of the law as will enable him to do so. It is unworthy of the Government to tender to this people justice and free titles to their lands, and then couple with this liberal offer conditions that they can not comply with, and further exact that their homes shall be confiscated at the end of 2 years if these impossible conditions are not complied with. Justice requires that this law be amended as soon as possible, so as to allow the entry of lands in pieces of the shapes in which they are actually held. The impossibility of describing the small holdings by legal subdivi sions is apparent, and it is recommended that Congress be asked at its next session to enact such further legislation as will make available to this class of persons the privilege intended to be granted them, and that the period within which such claim must be filed under the law be extended. CONTESTS. The Commissioner's report shows a marked decrease in the amount of work pending in the contest division. The unappealed cases are practically up to date, and the appealed cases have been reduced to 321. RAILROAD LAND GRANTS. The matter of the adjustment of railroad land grants, as contemplated by the act of March 3, 1887, presents for decision many varied and important questions, and from the numerous interests presented and the large values involved, much care and research are necessary for a proper disposition of the same, and from the magnitude of the work progress is necessarily slow. The chief causes of delay are lack of surveys and the mineral complications; that is, the actual conditions of the lands inside railroad limits with regard to mineral deposits. The position of the Department on this question is that the discovery of the mineral character of land at any time prior to the issuance of patent therefor effectually excludes such land from a railroad grant that contains a provision reserving all mineral lands therefrom. Some of the United States circuit courts have held that the right of the company attached at the date when the line of its road was definitely fixed, and that lands that were not then known to be mineral lands would pass under the grant. The subject is discussed at length in the Secretary's opinions, to be found in Decisions of the Department relating to Public Lands, vol. 11, p. 238, and vol. 10, p. 365. The Supreme Court of the United States must eventually settle the question. In the mean time patents will be refused for all lands deemed to be mineral within the provision of the statutes. Adjustments of the grants to aid in the construction of railroads have been approved by the Department in a number of cases and others are in progress. The list of railroad selections awaiting examination at the close of the fiscal year amounted to 28,846,577.56 acres; the selections for wagon roads amounted to 305,246.67 acres; making 29,151,824.23 acres embraced in pending lists of selections for railroad and wagonroad construction. By the act of Congress approved September 29, 1890, all lands heretofore granted to any state or to any corporation to aid in the construction of a railroad opposite to and conterminous with the portion of any such railroad not completed and in operation at the date of the passage of said act were forfeited, and proper instructions have been issued to the local officers of the districts in which the forfeited lands lie, ordering their restoration to the public domain, except in certain cases where questions are pending that may affect the amount. The passage of this act relieves from suspension many cases involv ing lands in railroad limits where a portion or all of the road was built, although out of time. The benefits resulting will redound to the settlers, who have long ago purchased their farms from the railroad companies, and are now cultivating the soil. The adjustments are due to these citizens rather than to the original grantees, the railroad companies, and the work will be dealt with on this basis. RIGHT OF WAY TO RAILROADS. The whole number of railroad companies claiming the right of way over the public lands, under the general right-of-way act approved March 3, 1875, or under special acts, is 392, of which the articles of incorporation filed by thirty-two companies were approved during the last year. ACT OF MARCH 3, 1891, REPEALING TIMBER-CULTURE AND PREEMPTION LAWS. This act makes many important changes in the system of laws for the disposal of the public lands, the principal of which are the repeal of the timber-culture and preemption laws; the modification of the desertland law of March 3, 1877; the amendment of the homestead laws; granting of the privilege to cut timber from the public lands in certain states and territories, under certain restrictions; the inhibition against public sale of any part of the public lands, except abandoned military or other reservations, isolated tracts, and mineral and other lands the sale of which is specially authorized by Congress. In it provision is made for the disposal of public lands in Alaska for manufacturing and commercial purposes and for town sites, and for the adjustment of conflicting town-site and mineral claims; right of way for the construction of canals and ditches for irrigation purposes are granted, and the President is authorized to set apart and reserve lands where, to preserve timber, he shall deem it advisable. Instructions have been issued for the guidance of the local officers, under this act, construing its provisions and giving such directions as were deemed advisable to give effect to the measure. The effects of this statute as to irrigation and upon the public timber have already been discussed in this report. VACANT PUBLIC LANDS. The following table, showing the vacant public lands of the United States, by states and territories, surveyed and unsurveyed, is designed to inform correspondents and the general public as to the amount and location of the public lands remaining subject to disposition: Recapitulation of vacant lands in the public land States and Territories. Acres. Acres. 11, 342, 214 43,718, 791 15,972, 982 5,552, 531 799, 230 29,041, 065 3,000 101, 389 3,939, 520 63, 581, 770 395,000 23,859, 748 15,449, 440 10, 323, 530 2,271, 489 14,428, 799 9,061, 192 28, 511, 147 14, 968, 800 Acres. 947, 310 55, 061, 005 4.998, 398 52, 299, 499 42, 167, 030 3,468, 381 33, 781, 851 6,000 799,078 1,243, 118 781, 816 6,819, 975 1, 201, 280 1,023, 898 74,372, 769 11, 460, 436 a 53, 689, 524 54,893, 679 16, 135, 440 3,502, 406 39, 220, 151 14,085, 394 35,428, 987 20, 401, 691 1,003, 133 50,842, 434 285, 280, 251 12,048, 350 294,027, 773 a 579, 664, 683 a This aggregate is exclusive of Ohio, Indiana, and Illinois, in which, if any public land remains, it consists of a few small isolated tracts; it is exclusive of the Cherokee Strip, containing 8,044,644 acres, and all other lands owned or claimed by the Indians in the Indian Territory west of the ninety-sixth degree of longitude, contemplated to be made a part of the public domain by the fourteenth section of the act of March 2, 1889 (25 Ü. S. Stats., 1005), and it is also exclusive of Alaska, containing 577,390 square miles, or 369,529,600 acres, of which not more than 1,000 acres have been entered under the mineral laws, and includes 356,659 acres of mineral land in Nevada, u addition to the quantities given under the head surveyed land and unsurveyed land in the foregoing table. |