It is important to settlers to bear in mind that it requires two witnesses to make final proof under the Homestead Act, who can testify that the settler has resided upon and cultivated the tract for five years from the date of his entry.
Patents are not issued for lands until from one to two years after date of location in the District Office. No patent will be delivered until the surrender of the duplicate receipt, unless such receipt should be lost, in which case an affidavit of the fact must be filed in the Register's Office, showing how said loss occurred, also that said certificate has never been assigned, and that the holder is the bona fide owner of the land, and entitled to said patent.
By a careful examination of the foregoing requirements, settlers will be enabled to learn without a visit to the Land Office the manner in which they can secure and perfect title to public lands under the Pre-emption Act of September 5, 1841, and Homestead Act of May 20, 1862.
THE STATE OF KANSAS.
Our sojourn on the plains impressed our party with a strong belief that Kansas, at no distant day, will be one of the richest garden spots on the continent. I have more particularly described the central portion of the State, but both Northern and Southern Kansas are equally as fertile and desirable.
The United States Land Offices in Kansas are located at the following places: Topeka, Humboldt, Augusta, Salina, and Concordia. The rapidity with which Kansas is being settled may readily be inferred from the fact that 2,000,000 acres of its land were sold during one year, 1870.
In our note-book, I find the outline of a speech delivered by the Professor in Topeka, and I quote a single paragraph as fitly expressing the common sentiment of our entire number:
"Gentlemen, great as your State now is in extent of territory and natural resources, she will soon have a corresponding greatness in the means of development, and in a self-supporting population. 1870 holds in her lap and fondles the infant; 1880 will shake hands with the giant. The whole surface of your land, gentlemen, is one wild sea of beauty, ready to toss into the lap of every venturer upon it, a farm. The genius which rewards honest industry stands on the threshold of your State, with countless herds and golden sheaves, smiling ready welcome to all new-comers, of whatever creed or clime."
The emigrant has already been told what it will cost him to obtain government land. If this adjoins railroad tracts, he can secure what is desired of the latter at from two to ten dollars per acre.