Title 7, AgricultureRelease 119-102

§302 Method of Apportionment and Selection; Issuance of Land Scrip

Title 7 › CHAPTER 13 — AGRICULTURAL AND MECHANICAL COLLEGES › SUBCHAPTER I — COLLEGE-AID LAND APPROPRIATION › § 302

Last updated Aug 21, 2026|Official source

Summary

Divide the surveyed land among the States into sections or smaller parts, each at least one-quarter of a section. If a State has public land for sale inside it at $1.25 per acre, its share must come from those lands. If a State lacks enough such land, the Secretary of the Interior will issue land scrip for the missing acres. The State must sell that scrip and use the money only as the law allows. People who get the scrip may claim unowned public land sold at $1.25 per acre or less, but no one may locate more than 1,000,000 acres in a single State. No locations could be made before July 2, 1863.

Full Legal Text

Title 7, §302

Agriculture, Source: USLM XML via OLRC

The land aforesaid, after being surveyed, shall be apportioned to the several States in sections or subdivisions of sections, not less than one-quarter of a section; and whenever there are public lands in a State subject to sale at private entry at $1.25 per acre, the quantity to which said State shall be entitled shall be selected from such lands within the limits of such State, and the Secretary of the Interior is directed to issue to each of the States in which there is not the quantity of public lands subject to sale at private entry at $1.25 per acre, to which said State may be entitled under the provisions of this subchapter, land scrip to the amount in acres for the deficiency of its distributive share; said scrip to be sold by said States and the proceeds thereof applied to the uses and purposes prescribed in said sections, and for no other use or purpose whatsoever: Provided, That in no case shall any State to which land scrip may thus be issued be allowed to locate the same within the limits of any other State, or of any Territory of the United States, but their assignees may thus locate said land scrip upon any of the unappropriated lands of the United States subject to sale at private entry at $1.25, or less, per acre: And provided further, That not more than one million acres shall be located by such assignees in any one of the States: And provided further, That no such location shall be made before July 2, 1863.

Reference

Citations & Metadata

Citation

7 U.S.C. § 302

Title 7, Agriculture

Last Updated

Aug 21, 2026

Release point: 119-102