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THE PUBLIC LANDS

"Doing a land office business" is a descriptive American phrase which has earned a well-deserved place in our vocabulary. The land laws which served the Nation's growth so well in the past do not adequately meet today's needs. The land offices continue to do a land office business processing papers leading to leases and permits but not to the disposition of the public lands to private ownership. In the heavy disposal era patents of lands to individuals under homestead and sale acts alone averaged over 5 million acres a year compared to about 200,000 acres a year now.

The total acreage of the United States covers 2.3 billion acres. There were 1.8 billion public domain acres incorporated into the national estate by the Federal Government and today there remains an estate of about 770 million acres.

This residual Federal holding is in two parts-716 million acres of original public domain lands and 57 million acres of subsequently acquired lands.

Out of the 716 million public domain acres, the Bureau of Land Management administers 485 million acres. There are 175 million acres in 27 States plus 309 million acres in Alaska that are the remaining public domain. It is these 485 million acres which form the central core of the public lands where review is needed to determine the effectiveness of existing law-the need for public land law revision.

The Homestead Act, the Small Tract and Public Sale Acts, the desertland entry, and the other "public land laws" are directed primarily to these lands.

The other public domain lands withdrawn for national forests, parks, and wildlife refuges or other withdrawn areas are not open generally to entry under the public land laws even though they are technically public domain lands. They are not included in this review. Under the Federal disposition policies dating from 1785, the States received about one-third of a billion acres, granted for the most part when a territory became a State of the Union. Public and private sales, scrip locations, and sales of town lots accounted for the disposal of another one-third of a billion acres. Homesteads, both sold and granted, including desert entries, and military bounty grants to veterans, embrace one-third of a billion acres. The railroads, mainly between 1850 and 1870 received 95 million acres and in the era just after that some 25 million acres went under the Timber and Stone and Timber Culture Acts.

VERY FEW PUBLIC ACRES ARE STILL OPEN FOR PRIVATE ACQUISITION

There is a great deal of confusion over which of the "public lands" or the "public domain" are actually susceptible to disposal. For

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example, none of the 57 million acres of acquired lands are open to entry under the public land laws. Their legal status makes the land laws inapplicable and they usually have been acquired by the Federal Government for a specific purpose. The 200 million acres of public domain which has by law been incorporated into the national forests, parks, wildlife refuges, and other public land reservation are dedicated to specific public purposes and are exempt generally from applications under the "land laws."

A third major breakout of public lands was accomplished by the 1934 Taylor Grazing Act. In theory, on those 167 million acres of public domain lands permitted grazing may be displaced and the lands open to sale, homesteading, and other disposal after classification. However, as a practical matter, most of these lands are best suited to grazing, or do not meet the criterion of the disposal statutes. The public sale laws are so drawn that it is often not even possible for grazing users to secure title to "permit" lands if it were in their economic interest for them to do so and the public interest to pass the title.

Public land surveys are often required before lands can be acquired. There are 358 million acres in Alaska plus 113 million acres in 11 Western States which have not yet been surveyed. Most of these unsurveyed lands are in national forests and parks which are not available under the public land laws for private acquisition. To a minor extent, the absence of surveys may inhibit private acquisition of land otherwise available.

All of these factors-surveys, reservations into forest and park, suitability of land, the remoteness of areas, and the vagaries of the vast number of land laws-create a formidable barrier to the passage of title. In acreage, the "available" public lands thus shrink when the practical tests are applied.

There is also a great deal of confusion over which of the public land laws may be applicable to a particular tract.

Present law does not require designation of lands for specific purpose before application is made, thus the Government often gets applications filed under laws which contain requirements the lands or the applicant could not meet.

The agricultural entry acts are based upon entry upon land selected by the applicant, usually 160 acres, establishment of a residence, and the placing of a part of the land in agricultural production. In 1962, only 55,000 acres went into private hands via homestead patents and 49,000 acres via desert land entries.

In some States, a homestead applicant has only a 1-out-of-100 chance of getting a patent. The major problems are the paucity of truly agricultural land; the drift from the small family farm; and the low crop yield of the few tracts still having some agricultural potential. The key problem area involves whether the land is or is not truly agricultural. The availability of water is also a major controlling factor in the West.

Public sale laws have resulted in disposals of about 100,000 acres a year, of which 10 percent is sold under the Small Tract Act in 5 acre or less size lots.

The major public sales law is so circumscribed that many tracts desirable for private development cannot be obtained because the law requires that they be mountainous, or rough for cultivation.

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