§ 206. Party Contesting Pre-emption Entry to be Allowed Thirty Days after Notice of Cancellation to Make Entry.-In all cases where any person has contested, paid the land-office fees, and procured the cancellation of any pre-emption entry, he shall be notified by the register of the land office of the district in which such land is situated of such cancellation, and shall be allowed thirty days from date of such notice to enter such lands; and the register shall be entitled to a fee of one dollar for giving such notice, to be paid by the contestant, and not to be reported. Act of May 14, 1880.

§ 207. Publication of Notices of Contest in Pre-emption Cases. The notices of contest provided by law under the pre-emption laws shall be printed in some newspaper printed in the county where the land in contest lies; and if no newspaper be printed in such county, then in the newspaper printed in the county nearest to such land.

20 Stat. 91; 14 Op. Att. Gen. 601.

§ 208. Extension of Time in Certain Cases to Persons in Military and Naval Service.-Where a pre-emptor has taken the initiatory steps required by law in regard to actual settlement, and is called away from such settlement by being engaged in the military or naval service of the United States, and by reason of such absence is unable to appear at the district land office to make before the register or receiver the affidavit, proof, and payment, respectively, required by the preceding provisions of this chapter, the time for filing such affidavit and making final proof and entry or location shall be extended six months after the expiration of his term of service, upon satisfactory proof by affidavit, or the testimony of witnesses, that such pre-emptor is so in the service, being filed with the register of the land office for the district in which his settlement is made.

13 Stat. 35; R. S. 2268.

§ 209. Death before Consummating Claim; Who to Complete, etc.-Where a party entitled to claim the benefits of the preemption laws dies before consummating his claim, by filing in due time all the papers essential to the establishment of the same, it shall be competent for the executor or administrator of the estate of such party, or one of the heirs, to file the necessary papers to complete the same; but the entry in such cases shall be made in favor of the heirs of the deceased pre-emptor, and a patent thereon shall cause the title to inure to such heirs, as if their names had been specially mentioned.

5 Stat. 620; R. S. 2269.

§ 210. Pre-emption Entries of Insane Persons Confirmed in Certain Cases. In all cases in which parties who regularly initiated claims to public lands as settlers thereon, according to the provisions of the pre-emption laws, have become insane or shall hereafter become insane before the expiration of the time during which their residence, cultivation, or improvement of the land claimed by them is required by law to be continued in order to entitle them to make the proper proof and perfect their claims, it shall be lawful for the required proof and payment to be made for their benefit by any person who may be legally authorized to act for them during their disability, and thereupon their claims shall be confirmed and patented, provided it shall be shown by proof satisfactory to the commissioner of the general land office that the parties complied in good faith with the legal requirements up to the time of becoming insane.

Act of June 8, 1880.

§ 211. Non-compliance with Laws caused by Vacancy in Office of Register or Receiver not to Affect, etc.-Whenever the vacancy of the office, either of register or receiver, or of both, renders it impossible for the claimant to comply with any requisition of the pre-emption laws within the appointed time, such vacancy shall not operate to the detriment of the party claiming, in respect to any matter essential to the establishment of his claim; but such requisition must be complied with within the same period after the disability is removed as would have been allowed had such disability not existed.

5 Stat. 620; R. S. 2270.

§ 212. No Pre-emption of Lands Sold but not Confirmed by Land Office. The provisions of this chapter shall be so construed as not to confer on any one a right of pre-emption, by reason of a settlement made on a tract theretofore disposed of, when such disposal has not been confirmed by the general land office on account of any alleged defect therein.

5 Stat. 534; R. S. 2271.

§ 213. Purchase by Private Entry after Expiration of Preemption Right.-Nothing in the provisions of this chapter shall be construed to preclude any person, who may have filed a notice of intention to claim any tract of land by pre-emption, from the right allowed by law to others to purchase such tract by private entry after the expiration of the right of pre-emption. 5 Stat. 621; R. S. 2272.

$214.

When More than One Settler, Rights of; Appeals to

Commissioner and Secretary of Interior.-When two or more persons settle on the same tract of land, the right of pre-emption shall be in him who made the first settlement, provided such person conforms to the other provisions of the law; and all questions as to the right of pre-emption arising between different settlers shall be determined by the register and receiver of the district within which the land is situated; and appeals from the decision of district officers, in cases of contest for the right of pre-emption, shall be made to the commissioner of the general land office, whose decision shall be final, unless appeal therefrom be taken to the secretary of the interior.

5 Stat. 456; 11 Id. 326; R. S. 2273.

§ 215. Settlements of Two or More Persons on Same Subdivision before Survey.-When settlements have been made upon agricultural public lands of the United States, prior to the survey thereof, and it has been or shall be ascertained, after the public surveys have been extended over such lands, that two or more settlers have improvements upon the same legal subdivision, it shall be lawful for such settlers to make joint entry of their lands at the local land office, or for either of said settlers to enter into contract with his co-settlers to convey to them their portion of said land after a patent is issued to him, and, after making said contract, to file a declaratory statement in his own name, and prove up and pay for said land, and proof of joint occupation by himself and others, and of such contract with them made, shall be equivalent to proof of sole occupation and pre-emption by the applicant; provided, that in no case shall the amonnt patented under this section exceed 160 acres, nor shall this section apply to lands not subject to homestead or preemption entry.

17 Stat. 609; R. S. 2274.

§ 216. Settlements before Survey on Sections 16 or 36, Deficiencies thereof.-Where settlements, with a view to pre-emption, have been made before the survey of the lands in the field, which are found to have been made on sections 16 or 36, those sections shall be subject to the pre-emption claim of such settler; and if they, or either of them, have been or shall be reserved or pledged for the use of schools or colleges in the state or territory in which the lands lie, other lands of like quantity are appropriated in lieu of such as may be patented by preemptors; and other lands are also appropriated to compensate deficiencies for school purposes, where sections 16 or 36 are frac

tional in quantity, or where one or both are wanting by reason of the township being fractional, or from any natural cause whatever.

11 Stat. 385; 18 Id. 202; R. S. 2275.

§ 217. Selections to Supply Deficiencies of School Lands.—The lands appropriated by the preceding section shall be selected, within the same land district, in accordance with the following principles of adjustment: For each township, or fractional township, containing a greater quantity of land than three quarters of an entire township, one section; for a fractional township containing a greater quantity of land than one half and not more than three quarters of a township, three quarters of a section; for a fractional township containing a greater quantity of land than one quarter and not more than one half of a township, one half-section; and for a fractional township containing a greater quantity of land than one entire section and not more than one quarter of a township, one quarter-section of land. 4 Stat. 179; 11 Id. 385; 18 Id. 202; R. S. 2276.

§ 218. Military Bounty Land Warrants Receivable for Pre-emption Payments.-All warrants for military bounty lands, which are issued under any law of the United States, shall be received in payment of pre-emption rights at the rate of $1.25 per acre, for the quantity of land therein specified; but where the land is rated at $1.25 cents per acre, and does not exceed the area specified in the warrant, it must be taken in full satisfaction thereof.

10 Stat. 3; R. S. 2277.

§ 219. Agricultural-college Scrip Receivable in Payment of Preemptions.-Agricultural-college scrip, issued to any state under the act approved July 2, 1862, or acts amendatory thereof, shall be received from actual settlers in payment of pre-emption claims in the same manner and to the same extent as authorized in case of military bounty land warrants, by the preceding section.

16 Stat. 186; R. S. 2278.

§ 220. Pre-emption Limit along Railroad Lines.-No person shall have the right of pre-emption to more than 160 acres along the line of railroads within the limits granted by any act of congress.

10 Stat. 244; 18 Id. 519; R. S. 2279.

§ 221. Pre-emption Rights on Lands Reserved for Grants Found Invalid. Any settler on lands heretofore reserved on account

of claims under French, Spanish, or other grants, which have been or may be hereaf cared the supreme court of the United States to be invalid, shall be entitled to all the rights of pre-emption granted by the preceding provisions of this chapter, after the lands have been released from reservation, in the same manner as if no reservation had existed.

10 Stat. 244; R. S. 2280.

§ 222. Pre-emption Rights on Lands Reserved for Railroads.All settlers on public lands, which have been or may be withdrawn from market in consequence of proposed railroads, and who had settled thereon prior to such withdrawal, shall be entitled to pre-emption at the ordinary minimum to the lands settled on and cultivated by them; but they shall file the proper notices of their claims, and make proof and payment as in other

cases.

10 Stat. 269; 16 Id. 279; 18 Id. 519; R. S. 2281.

§ 223. Right of Additional Location by Pre-emptors within Limits of Forfeited Railroad Grants.-Where any actual settler, who shall have paid for any lands situate within the limits of any grant of lands by congress to aid in the construction of any railroad, the price of such lands being fixed by law at doubleminimum rates, and such railroad lands having been forfeited to the United States, and restored to the public domain for failure to build such railroad, such person or persons shall have the right to locate, on any unoccupied lands, an amount equal to their original entry, without further cost, except such fees as are now provided by law in pre-emption cases; but when such location is made upon double-minimum lands, one half the amount only shall be taken.

18 Stat. 519.

§ 224. Confirmation of Pre-emption Entries within Railroad Limits Made Prior to Receipt of Notice of Withdrawal at Local Office.-All pre-emption entries, or entries in compliance with any law of the United States, of the public lands, made in good faith, by actual settlers, upon tracts of land of not more than 160 acres each, within the limits of any land grant, prior to the time when notice of the withdrawal of the lands embraced in such grant was received at the local land office of the district in which such lands are situated, or after their restoration to market by order of the general land office, and where the preemption laws have been complied with, and proper proofs thereof have been made by the parties holding such tracts or