The results of these efforts are so largely in the nature of
reforms in the processes and methods of our land system as to prevent
adequate estimate; but it appears by a compilation from the reports of
the Commissioner of the General Land Office that the immediate effect in
leading cases which have come to a final termination has been the
restoration to the mass of public lands of 2,750,000 acres; that
2,370,000 acres are embraced in investigations now pending before the
Department or the courts, and that the action of Congress has been asked
to effect the restoration of 2,790,000 acres additional; besides which
4,000,000 acres have been withheld from reservation and the rights of
entry thereon maintained.
I recommend the repeal of the preemption and timber-culture acts, and
that the homestead laws be so amended as to better secure compliance
with their requirements of residence, improvement, and cultivation for
the period of five years from date of entry, without commutation or
provision for speculative relinquishment. I also recommend the repeal of
the desert-land laws unless it shall be the pleasure of the Congress to
so amend these laws as to render them less liable to abuses. As the
chief motive for an evasion of the laws and the principal cause of their
result in land accumulation instead of land distribution is the facility
with which transfers are made of the right intended to be secured to
settlers, it may be deemed advisable to provide by legislation some
guards and checks upon the alienation of homestead rights and lands
covered thereby Until patents issue.
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