The legislation of April, 1874, provided for the sale of the school, university and asylum lands.1 Preference in purchase was accorded actual settlers, they being given six months from the date of the act within which to make application to purchase. Settlement on the asylum and university lands was required within six months, and on the school lands within twelve months. It was provided that if the university lands were not purchased by actual settlers they should be open to purchase by non-settlers. The maximum amount of land purchasable was 160 acres, except that there was no limit to university lands purchasable by persons who were not actual settlers. The minimum purchasable was 80 acres, except that it was 160 acres for purchasers of university lands who were not actual settlers. The minimum value placed on all the lands was $1.50 an acre, and appraisal of their value by local commissioners was prescribed. One-tenth of the purchase price was payable down, the remainder in installments of one-tenth, with interest at 10 per cent. The acts of 1874 providing for the sale of the school, university and asylum lands were in effect until 1879.

While the laws contemplated sale to actual settlers, they were not drawn so as to insure this. They were otherwise defective.2 Purchasers were able to enter into possession of land by making a first payment, and often valuable timber lands belonging to the school fund were stripped and abandoned before purchase was completed.3

The public land not held by the special funds and which was vacant and unappropriated was not on the market before 1879, but was open to homestead, railroad, and other scrip claimants. Throughout this period each head of a family without a homestead was entitled under the usual conditions of three years settlement and payment of fees to 160 acres, each single man to 80 acres of public land.1 New railroads received grants at the rate of sixteen sections per mile.2 Grants were made somewhat liberally, it not wastefully for the improvement of rivers and bayous, and for the construction of canals and ditches.3

1 Laws of 1874, pp. 72, 142, 146. Laws of 1876, p. 75.

2 Land Office Report, 1877, p. 3. Ibid., 1878, p. 3. Ibid., 1896-8, p. 15.

3 Ibid., 1878.

The Constitution of 1876 (Art. 14, sec. 4) prohibited the sale of certificates of land at the land office except to actual settlers, and the amount purchasable was limited to 160 acres. The Revised Statutes of 1879 (Art. 3924) granted to the actual settler the right to purchase up to 160 acres, but the right of preemption could not be acquired by one who has already the owner of land.4

1879 ended the purely developmental policy of administering the unappropriated public lands. The unappropriated lands in the Panhandle counties and scrap lands in organized counties were appropriated, first, to the amount of 3,050,000 acres to the erection of a state capitol; second, to the payment of the public debt; and, third, to the increase of the endowment of the school fund.5 The minimum price fixed on these lands was fifty cents an acre. This price while not too little at the time for the land on the frontier was below the value of the scrap land.6 The land legislation of 1879 shows small results until after 1880. The receipts under the fifty cents act were only $5,718.77 up to September 1, 1880.

The receipts from sales of land belonging to the school, university and asylum funds were:

1 Constitution of 1876, art. 14, sec. 6. Laws of 1876, p. 197. 2Constitution of 1876, art. 14, sec. 3. Laws of 1876, p. 153. 3Laws of 1874, p. 169. Ibid., p. 185. Laws of 1875, p. 22. Ibid., p. 77. 4Sayles, op. cit, p. 297. Gambrell v. Steele, 55 Tex., 582 (1881). 5 Constitution of 1876, art. 16, sec. 57. Laws of 1879, pp. 9, 11. Laws of 1879, Spec. Sess., p. 48.

6 Land Office Report, 1879-1880.

Over one-half of the receipts, or $322,450, was from sales of university lands set apart in 1839 and lying in Callahan, Collin, Cooke, Fannin, Grayson, Hunt, Lamar, McLennan, and Shackelford counties.