The New North West

Homestead Regulations.
Mr. Strait, of Minnesota, proposed the following new regulations as to homestead settlers:
That from and after the passage of this act, the even sections within the limits of any grant of public lands to any railroad company, or to any military road company, or to any State in aid of any railroad or military road, shall be open to settlers under the homestead laws to the extent of 160 acres of each settler; and any person who has, under existing laws, taken a homestead on any even section within the limits of any railroad or military road land grant, and who, by existing laws, shall have been restricted to eighty acres, may enter under the homestead laws, an additional eighty acres adjoining the land embraced in his original entry; or, if such person so elect, he may surrender his entry to the United States for cancellation, and thereupon be entitled to enter lands under the homestead laws the same as if the surrendered entry had not been made. And any person so making an additional entry of eighty acres, or new entry, after the surrender and cancellation of his original entry, shall be permitted to do so without payment of fees and commission; and the residence and cultivation for the same length of time upon and of the land embraced in his original entry, and shall be deducted from the five years' residence and cultivation required by law. Provided, That in no case shall patent issue upon an additional or new homestead entry under this act until the person has actually and in conformity with the homestead laws, occupied, resided upon, and cultivated the land embraced therein at least one year.