men, but the act of September 21, 1918 (40 Stat. L., 965) greatly widened the authority for resurveys.

Copies of township plats are placed in the various departments for official use. More than two thousand copies were disposed of for this purpose in 1920, 10 and more than seventeen thousand were sold for private use.

Local offices are supplied with diagrams of township plats so that anyone may procure them for a nominal sum. These show the status of the land, but not much in detail. Consequently, there is always great demand at the local offices for copies of actual plats of particular townships which illustrate the topography and the various features. One copy is printed on tracing cloth and returned to the Surveyor-General so that from it he can always make a blue print. Originals of these plats are made by the Surveyor-General who sends it to the local office. Here it is photolithographed for official use and made available for sale to the public. In 1919, there were sold, 14,000 copies.

Surveys of Land Grants to States and Territories. Grants are made to the states for such purposes as education, recovery of swamp lands, reclamation, etc. These lands must first be surveyed and recorded by the Land Office.

Surveys of Abandoned Military Reservations. Frequently military reservations are abandoned, and they must then be disposed of by the General Land Office. First, they must be surveyed, and plats must be prepared. Then the lands are appraised and sold at public sale for cash at a price not less than the appraised value. Some tracts are sold in the smallest legal subdivision, but better financial results are usually attained when they are sold in larger combinations of sub-divisions. In either case the survey is rather simple, as most of the military reservations contain less than five thousand acres. 10 In references of the various years, the fiscal year is implied.

In case there is some evidence of oil or mineral on the military reservations, the Geological Survey may be requested to examine the land.

Surveys of Mineral Claims. Mineral claims are surveyed by the General Land Office when they are subject to disposition and their survey is not otherwise provided for. In 1920, there were four hundred of such surveys, embracing eighteen hundred lodes. 11

Surveys within Railroad Land Grants. Lands are surveyed within the limits of the various railroad grants. By 1921 the survey of nearly all of such lands had been completed, so that this work is no longer the great task that it has been.

Surveys of Indian Reservations. Ever since 1864 12 the General Land Office has had the direction and control of surveys of Indian reservations. This work is executed at the request of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs, and is carried out on the same plan as is the survey of other public lands. Many of the ceded lands are then offered for public sale. In 1920, 196,000 acres of Indian land were sold. Sometimes townsites in Indian reservations are surveyed, plated, and sold in lots. Maps which are to be used in the opening of Indian reservations are drafted in the Land Office.

Surveys of Agricultural Lands. When certain lands are deemed adaptable to agriculture, dry farming, or irrigation, they are surveyed preparatory to disposal.

Fragmentary Surveys. In many of the public-land states it is necessary to conduct surveys of fragmentary portions of the public domain. This results from the practice of Congress

11 A history of the United States mineral land activities is outlined by James F. Callbreath in his Government control of minerals on the public lands, 64 Cong. I sess., S. doc. 430.

12 Act of April 8, 1864, R. S. 2115.

in abolishing the Surveyor-General's office as soon as the survey of their assignment nears completion. The remaining fragments of unsurveyed lands are then relegated to the immediate jurisdiction of the Commissioner of the General Land Office. The latter office then

handles all matters relating to necessity for field work arising in the several inactive public-land states, and takes final action on reports of examinations or approval of field notes and plats of surveys. All matters of execution of the field work, such as preparation of necessary instructions to the surveyor, outfitting and organization of the field parties, settlement of accounts, supervision of the work while in progress, and preparation of the reports, field notes, and plats, are accomplished direct by the field surveying service. The closest coöperation exists between the central office (General Land Office) and the field surveying service; all duplication of work is avoided and the time and expense involved are reduced to a minimum.13

Surveys of Private Land Claims. Surveys are authorized by Congress to be made of private land claims which have been finally confirmed, whenever they are requested by the claimants, who bear the expense of the surveys.

Retracement Surveys. Congress has appropriated for "retracements and re-marking of state boundaries as shall be found necessary in order to close the public land lines there

on.'

." 14 Examples of such surveys are those of the TexasNew Mexico boundary line which was executed in 1911, and that of the New Mexico-Colorado line, executed in 1918. Recommendations have frequently been made for the survey of other state boundary lines.

Surveys have been made of islands which belong to states. Sometimes it is necessary to make retracements for identification of previously established lines and to establish title, thus requiring new surveys.

18 Annual Report, 1920, p. 22. 14 41 Stat. I., 909.

Resurveys. The making of resurveys became one of the most important activities of the General Land Office through the operation of the act of March 3, 1909 (35 Stat. L., 845) which provided that "the Secretary of the Interior may in his discretion cause to be made, as he may deem wise under the rectangular system . . . such resurveys or retracements of the surveys of public lands as, after full investigation, he may deem essential to properly mark the boundaries of the public lands remaining undisposed of." For sixty years prior to this act, however, the Land Office had been active in resurveys. This was due to the fact that

Imperfect methods and instruments were used in the earlier surveys. Errors were occasionally made in both the field work and in the office record; corner monuments decayed, and in some cases were willfully removed, but, more regrettable than any of these, is the fact that in some instances frauds were perpetrated upon the government by some of the earlier contracting deputies whose work did not extend beyond the making of a paper record upon which their accounts were paid. Then, too often, the earlier settlers disregarded the official surveys and erected their fences and made other improvements in a careless manner. It is not surprising to find under these conditions that the necessity for resurveys was felt at an early date, and that in time provision was made for the necessary relief. The first appropriation for resurveys was made in the early forties. On March 3, 1842 (5 Stat. L., 429), 15,000 was appropriated for retracing certain old surveys in the State of Alabama. On March 3, 1843 (5 Stat. L., 643) the retracing of certain old surveys in the State of Mississippi was provided for, and March 3,1845 (5 Stat. L., 762) correction of surveys in Michigan, resurveys in Alabama to supply field notes destroyed by fire, and resurveys in Florida to replace the field marks obliterated by Indians and others were authorized. The first appropriation, however, for resurveys of a general character was made by the act of August 7, 1882 (22 Stat. L., 327). This act provided that certain moneys therein referred to might be employed in making such resurveys in Louisiana as might be found necessary by the Commissioner of the General Land Office and that he might also, in his dis

cretion, make resurveys of other portions of the public lands. The annual appropriation for surveying the public lands for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1888 (24 Stat. L., 527), was, however, the first of the annual appropriation acts to include resurveys. The Commissioner of the General Land Office in his annual report for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1883, stated that the necessity for the resurveys of townships, which had been erroneously surveyed, or where the evidences of the corners marking the surveys had become obliterated, was recognized, but the annual appropriation for the surveying service was not deemed applicable to such work. On July 7, 1884 (23 Stat. L., 211), a general appropriation of $10,ooo was secured for resurveys, and since that time funds have been regularly appropriated, or otherwise made available for

such work.

The constantly increasing demands for resurveys involved such a responsibility and burden in segregating the deserving cases from those that possessed no merit, that Congress by the act of March 3, 1909 (35 Stat. L., 845), clothed the Secretary of the Interior with authority to mark the boundaries of the public lands remaining undisposed of. This shifted the burden and responsibility to the Commissioner of the General Land Office of not only making the resurveys but also determining the townships that are eligible for survey.

The question then arose of fixing a fair and reasonable rule for determining whether the lands in the township taken as a whole were public or private lands where a portion was of one class and a portion of the other. As a rule of fair reason the Department adopted 50 per cent as the dividing line and prohibited the resurvey of a township where more than half its area had been disposed of. This rule, however, was not original [with the Department] as Congress had in various special cases, particularly in the act of May 29, 1908, recognized the 50 per cent basis as a reasonable and fair

one.

Large numbers of townships found their way to resurvey through the provisions of this act and the regulations thereunder (Circular 520), but the restrictions placed upon the availability of the surveying appropriation for resurveys, and the 50 per cent rule above referred to, resulted in the rejection of those applications for the resurveys of townships where the Government's holdings were less than a moiety, and settlers