Another abuse during the period was the free use of the school lands for pastures. This was the " free grass" policy which had always been followed in Texas. An unsuccessful attempt was made in 1881 to introduce the lease system.2 The attempt was again made in 1882 to end the "free grass" policy, but it was bitterly opposed by the stockmen and defeated.3 The interests of the school fund, the stockmen, and the farmers were involved in the proposed change in policy. While there should have been no free grass, the cattle industry was too important to the state to be discouraged. The ranches represented great wealth to the state, and their owners had been the pioneers of law and order in their dealings with the Indians, marauding Mexicans and other thieves. The stockmen contended that if the lease policy should be adopted, it should be one of long leases, otherwise they would not be justified in digging wells on the unwatered lands or of building fences and in other ways making the land suitable for use. Long leases under this policy, however, would retard settlement and condemn the cattle country to a meager population and incomplete development.4 The school fund was interested in getting as much revenue as possible, and since sale to settlers would be slow the largest immediate revenue would be gained by leasing to stockmen or selling immense tracts to land corporations. There was general opposition, however, to the sale of lands to land corporations.

These defects in the land laws and policies confronted the legislature which met in 1883. The act of February 8, 1883, withdrew from sale all the school lands, and the act of April 12, 1883, established a new system for the classification, sale and lease of the lands, and did away with the necessity of consulting two different acts as had been necessary during the preceding four years. The changes made affected principally the prices of land, the maximum amounts purchasable, and the lease of pasture lands.1 The administration of the lands was given to a board called the State Land Board, which was made up of state officials acting in an ex-officio capacity.2 Agricultural and pasture lands were to be classified into watered and unwatered, and the minimum price put on watered land was $3 per acre, on unwatered land, $2 per acre. The maximum of agricultural or watered land which could be purchased by one person was fixed at 640 acres, and the maximum of unwatered land at 4,480 acres. The minimum amount which could be purchased was 160 acres of agricultural land and 80 acres of timber land. A corporation was not permitted to acquire title to more than 640 acres of land in any one county. Agricultural land could be sold only to settlers, and purchasers of such land were required to swear that they would settle upon the land within six months. The actual occupancy, use, and improvement of the land for three consecutive years were required of a purchaser before a patent was issuable to him; though it was provided that the purchaser could sell after the payment of the first installment of the principal, and it was not specifically stated that the vendee should be an actual settler. The land board inserted as a part of the contract for purchase that the purchaser should occupy the land within ninety days after the award of the land to him, that occupation should continue for three consecutive years, and that abandonment of the land or sale to other than an actual settler during the three years of required occupancy should work a forfeiture of the land and payments.3 The land board appointed some one to represent the state in each county or land district. Bids for the purchase of land were made to this representative, and the land went to the highest bidder.1 One-thirtieth of the purchase price was payable down, and the remainder was payable in twenty-nine installments with interest at 5 per cent. Failure to settle upon the land within the prescribed six months worked a forfeiture of the land and of the money paid on it. Forfeiture occurred also if the interest should not be paid by March 1, but there was nothing to prevent the postponement of the payment of the annual installments of the principal until the whole sum was due.

1 The Galveston News, May 19, 1882. Land Office Report, 1882. 2The Galveston News, February 22, 1881.

3 The Galveston News, March 22, 24, April 22, and May 19, 1882. 4The Galveston News, September 27, 1882.

1 Laws of 1883, p. 85.

2 The constitutionality of the land board was upheld in Arnold v. State, 71 Tex., 239 (1888). For the resolutions passed by the land board see Sayles, op. cit., pp. 363-390.

3 Report of the State Land Board, 1885, p. 8. In 1889 the legislature validated the titles of venders and assignees in cases where the original purchaser failed to comply with the law and the requirements of the land board as to settlement; Laws of 1889, p. 107.

The legislation of 1883 provided also for the leasing of the public lands for pastures. The minimum rental was fixed by law at four cents an acre, and the maximum period of a lease at ten years; and the leased land was made subject at any time to purchase for settlement. These conditions for leasing fell short of what the stockmen wanted. They had asked for a maximum rental of two cents an acre and a minimum period of lease of twenty years.2

The legislation of 1883 was primarily for the benefit of the small settler and not for the large speculative buyer and the cattleman. This purpose was indicated by the limitations on the amount of land which could be purchased and by the provisions in the law in regard to leases. The provisions of the law were not proof, however, against large holdings, since these could be accumulated through purchase by friends, relatives and figureheads, and by transfers subsequent to the statutory three years.3 So insufficient was the legislation to ensure good faith on the part of purchasers for settlement that the land board in 1883 refused to put on the market the watered lands.4

1 The first method of bidding prescribed by the land board was one of written bids registered with the surveyor of the county and open to inspection; Resolution No. 1, October 23, 1883. This method was succeeded by one of competitive bidding at public outcry; Resolution No. 7, February 9, 1884. A sale under the first method was held to be void.

2 Proceedings of the Stockmen's Convention, in the Galveston News, February 7 and 10, 1883.

3 The Galveston News, April 25, 1883.

4 Report of the State Land Board, 1885.