The prices of the public lands have varied from time to time, and the methods of acquiring them are fixed according to circumstances. But the commonest method has been to allow actual settlers to enter upon and improve lands, allowing one hundred and sixty acres to each person so entering, the price to be paid being $1.25 per acre.

But by the homestead law, enacted in 1862, heads of families can enter upon and secure possession of one hundred and sixty acres of public land at the nominal price of $10 for the quarter-section, under certain regulations designed to restrict the conveyance of the public lands to actual settlers for homestead purposes.

Lands containing valuable mines of minerals are divided into small lots and sold at public auction.

Persons who have served the Nation in the army or navy are entitled, under certain conditions, to a portion of the public lands, the amount varying, according to the length of service, from twenty to one hundred and sixty acres. Written authority to enter upon and prove title to a given area of public lands is issued by the Government, and these documents are called land warrants; they entitle the

holder of the warrant, whoever he may be, to enter upon and occupy any public land that he may find unoccupied, his claim thereto being limited by the number of acres for which the warrant is issued.

To encourage the building of railroads and other means of public transportation, Congress has granted large tracts of public lands to corporations, on condition that said transportation lines shall be completed and equipped within a given limit of time, and that the building and management of said lines shall be to a certain extent under the supervision of the National Government.

To facilitate the survey and sale, or other disposal, of the public lands, the total area is divided into land districts, in each one of which is established a central office managed by a register and a receiver, assisted by subordinate officials. All business relating to the survey and purchase of public lands in each district must be transacted at the office for such district.

Papers are issued by government officers from time to time to certify to the claim of each purchaser, or settler, as his claim is matured. When title is finally acquired, a deed, or landpatent, signed by the President of the United

States, is issued to the lawful owner of the land so acquired.

The general management of the public lands, under the authority of Congress, is in the hands of the Commissioner of Public Lands, who is an officer of the Department of the Interior.

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CHAPTER XIV.

SUB-TREASURIES, MINTS, AND ASSAY

OFFICES

HE Government of the United States con

THE

ducts its own system of banking, keeps

its coin, bullion, and bank-notes in its own vaults, and in the form of checks, drafts, and warrants, issues its own notes against said cash.

In the Treasury building at Washington are the treasury vaults and the office where coin, bullion, etc., are kept, and where notes, checks, etc., are issued. But, for the convenience of the people who live in various parts of the Republic, sub-treasuries are established in several of the larger cities of the United States.

These sub-treasuries are, to all intents and purposes, branches of the main treasury at Washington, and are under the management and supervision of the Secretary of the Treas

ury.

The principal officer of a sub-treasury is called an Assistant Treasurer of the United

States. In the more important sub-treasuries, the Assistant Treasurer is aided in the discharge of his duties by subordinates.

It is the duty of an Assistant Treasurer to receive and pay out moneys of the United States Government, on the order of the Secretary of the Treasury; and it is his duty to keep safely in the vaults of the sub-treasury all deposits of coin, notes, etc., that the law may require or allow to be deposited with him to the credit of the Government of the United States.

The parent, or principal mint of the United States Government was established at Philadelphia while that city was the seat of government of the Republic. It has remained there ever since.

In order to bring the facilities of the United States system of mintage within the reach of all the people, and to save the expense of transporting coin and the precious metals over long distances, other mints have been established from time to time in several cities of the United States nearest to mines in which gold and silver are found. These mints were at first known as branches of the parent establishment at Philadelphia, but by the act of Congress of February 12, 1873, this distinction of branch