LAND PATENT.
After public lands have been entered at the land office and a certificate of entry ob tained, they are private-property, the govern ment agreeing to make a conveyance as soon as it can, and in the meantime holding the naked legal fee in trust for the purchaser, who has the equitable title; Wisconsin C. R. Co. v. Price County, 133 U. S. 496, 10 Sup. Ct. 341, 33 L. Ed. 687; and they cease to be public ; Hastings & D. R. Co. v. Whitney, 132 U. S. 357, 10 Sup. Ct. 112, 33 L. Ed. 363.
Courts have power to protect the private rights of a party who has purchased in good faith from the government, against the interference or appropriations of cor rective resurveys made by the land depart ment subsequently to such purchase ; Cragin v. Powell, 128 U. S. 699, 9 Sup. Ct. 203, 32 L. Ed. 566. The power to make and correct surveys of the public lands belongs to the political department of the government, and while the lands are subject to the supervi sion of the general land office, its decisions in such cases are unassailable by the courts, except by a direct Proceeding; Cragin v. Powell, 128 U. S. 699, 9 Sup. Ct. 203, 32 L. Ed. 566 ; Knight v. Land Ass'n, 142 U. S. 161, 12 Sup. Ct. 258, 35 L. Ed. 974.
The land department has full jurisdiction over matters involving the rights of parties to a patent for public selected under the act of Congress of June 4, 1897, in lieu of lands relinquished in a forest reservation; Cosmos Exploration Co. v. Oil Co., 190 U. S. 301, 23 Sup. Ct. 692, 47 L. Ed. 1064. By vir tue of this jurisdiction, the general land de partment has power to review and set aside (though not arbitrarily) the decision of lo cal officers relating to those questions where such officers have power to make those deci sions in the first instance; id.; Guaranty Say. Bank v. Beadow, 176 U. S. 448, 20 Sup. Ct. 425, 44 L. Ed. 540 ; Hawley v. Diller, 178 U. S. 476, 20 Sup. Ct. 986, 44 L. Ed. 1157.
Persons entering on lands, whether "va cant" or "public land," or land acquired by the government of the United States under a foreign grant, are to be deemed trespas sers ; Boyreau v.. Campbell, 1 McAll. 119, Fed. Cas. No. 1,760; and an agreement to sell and transfer their possession and im provements is an illegal and void agreement to continue the trespass, and a note given for the purchase money of an improvement on vacant lands of the United States is for an illegal consideration, and no action will lie upon it; Merrell v. Legrand, 1 How.
(Miss.) 150; Stafford v. Anders, 8 Fla. 34; and a trespasser of land from the govern ment is entitled to improvements thereon at the time of the purchase, and if the party . . . . who made them should afterwards remove them he is liable In an action of trespass; Welborn v. Spears, 32 Miss. 138. The occu pancy of the public lands of the United States constitutes, at least so far as tres passes by a stranger are concerned, a ten ancy at will, and not a tenancy from year to year ; Duncan v. Potts, 5 Stew. & P. (Ala.) 82, 24 Am. Dec. 766. A person .cultivating public lands to which he has no title is not protected by the doctrine of emblements, and a purchaser from the United States is entitled to all crops growing upon the land at the time ; Boyer v. Williams, 5 Mo. 335, 32 Am. Dec. 324 ; but a person by entry upon such land acquires no title to timber cut prior to, and lying upon the land at, the time of his entry ; Keeton v. Audsley, 19 Mo. 362, 61 Am. Dec. 560.
In addition to the methods of disposing of the public domain to actual purchasers or settlers upon it, congress has disposed of immense quantities of land in various other ways. For example, grants made in aid of the construction of railroads, either granted directly to the road itself or to a state as a trustee for the use of the road. Large quan tities of land have alsd been granted to the states as they were admitted into the Union, for educational, charitable, and other pur poses. A large amount of the public domain has also been taken up under land bounties for military and naval services prior to 1861 and subsequent, and also by the granting of lands for town sites and county seat pur poses. An interesting account of this legis lation will be found in Donaldson's History of the Public Domain. See also Barringer & Adams, Mines and Mining; ABANDON MENT; INDIANS; IRRIGATION; MINES AND MIN ING; PATENT; LAND GRANT; LAND WARRANT; LAND OFFICE; LAND PATENT.