Flora K. Smith.
Answer.—Each of the States has its own laws in regard to the rights of aliens. In Iowa aliens, that is persons of foreign birth who have not been naturalized by their own act or that of their parents, may acquire, inherit, hold, and dispose of property, real or personal, precisely as if they were citizens. The same is true in most of the States. In Pennsylvania alien friends may buy lands not exceeding 5,000 acres, nor in net annual income $20,000, and hold the same as citizens may, but there are certain differences between them and citizens in the matter of real estate conveyances, inheritance, etc. A will prevents the property of an alien from escheating to the State in case of non-appearance of heirs; and, as in the case of citizens, transcends the statute and common law as to the division of property among the heirs of persons who die intestate, i. e. without testamentary wills.
LAND WARRANTS.
Cove, Oregon.
Is there anything to prevent a person from locating a land warrant on public lands in this State? For what wars were land warrants given, and what are they worth?
James M. Selders.
Answer.—Military bounty land warrants are issued by the Commissioner of Pensions for services in the several wars before the year 1855. No warrants are issued for services during the war for the Union; but soldiers can be credited on homestead entries for the terms of their enlistments, up to four years of the time of residence required as a condition of title in cases of ordinary homesteaders. These warrants call for 40, 60, 80, 120, or 160 acres of land, as the case may be, and being assignable can be located by any purchaser. They should be bought only of responsible dealers, with a written guarantee that, in case of error or defect, the settler will not lose anything thereby. The market price of such warrants is from $1 to $1.20 per acre. There is no reason why these cannot be used in paying for public lands in Oregon as well as in other States or Territories. Applications must be made as in cash cases, but accompanied with a warrant duly assigned as payment for the land. Yet where the land is $2.50 per acre, as the warrant pays only for land at $1.25 per acre, the remaining $1.25 per acre must be paid in cash. However, a tract of eighty acres, rated at $2.50 per acre, for example, can be paid for by two eighty-acre warrants without any cash, except fees chargeable by land officers, as follows: For a forty-acre tract, 50 cents each to Register and Receiver; for sixty acres, 75 cents each; for eighty acres, $1; and so on.
NOON BY CLOCK AND BY SUN-DIAL.