Public Lands Land Office was placed under the Depart- ment of the Interior. A Pre-emption Law au- thorized liny settler to purchase 160 acres after a fixed term of residence. Finally, the Homestead Act of 1862 (still in force with amendments) gave r6o acres of surveyed ag- ricultural land to adult citizens and heads of families upon proof of five years' residence and cultivation, without payment, except cer- tain fees ranging from $jo to $50, The Pre- emption and Homestead Laws fulfilled the first requisite of a sound public-land policy by creating a large class of small farmers, each cultivating his own land, liut they were ill adapted to the arid region w. of the looth meridian, where irrigation was, until the later application of 'dry-fanning1 methods, essen- tial to tillage. Without tillage the grazing of cattle or sheep was the only means of agri- cultural production, and vastly more than 160 acres was necessary to sustain sufficient live stock for the support of one family. Several laws were passed to meet the new conditions. In 1894, the Carey Act granted 1,000,000 acres to each of certain States for irrigation at State expense, and sale to actual settlers in i6o-acre tracts ut cost. This, in the main, has worked well, and additional grants have been made to several of the States. In 1902, the Federal Government undertook ('Reclamation Act') to build irrigation works on its own account, assessing the cost, on a uniform acreage basis, upon homesteaders taking up the land, payment to be made, in ten annual installments. In the beginning, mineral lands were re- served from sale and leased for royalties. The remoteness and inaccessibility of the fron- tier, the rudimentary social and political or- ganisation, and the complete ascendancy of unrestrained individualism combined to break down this system in the second quar- ter of the nineteenth century. Mineral lands were then taken up under the agricultural settlement laws. The priceless iron deposits of Minnesota, now held by the United States Steel Corporation, were sold for a nominal price, or jqven away; while the State, from the small fraction given to it, has accumulated a vast education fund. Surveyed coal lands were sold (Act of 1872) at not less than $20 per acre, if within 1$ miles of a railroad, and not less than $TO if raore remote. Each person was limited to one entry of itio acres for his own use. In 1906 all known deposits were withdrawn from sale by President Roosevelt, An act of Feb. 2$, 3:920, withdrew all mineral land con- 3868_______________________?ubl!5 Lands taining coal, oil, oil shale, gas, phosphate, and sodium, pending the enacting of a leasing bill and imposed a royalty burden of from 2 to 50 per rent. Timlx-i lands we're first taken up under the settlement laws. The wonderful white pine forces of the Lake States, which under con- servative rut (ing uould have been a per- petual source ol supply, passed into private ownership at nominal prices, or, seized with- out color or title, were ruthlessly swept away by axe and lire. Not until 1908 were such lands appraised and sold above the minimum price. The supply was then nearly exhausted. During the Roosevelt administration the Forest Service ran a race with the timber grabbers, and swept into National Forests, by Presidential proclamation, the greater part of their present area (about 17^000,000 acres) ; but tin* most valuable timber had been lost before the race began, lender an Act of 1901 the Forest Service could Iea