Land

In the most general sense, comprehends any ground, soil or earth whatsoever; as meadows, pastures, woods, moors, waters, marshes, furzes, and heath. Co. Litt. 4a. The word "land" includes not only the soil, but everything attached to it, whether attached by the course of nature, as trees, herbage, and water, or by the hand of man, as buildings and fences. Mott v. Palmer, 1 N. Y. 572; Nessler v. Neher, 18 Neb. 649, 26 N. W. 471; Higgins Fuel Co. v. Snow, 113 Fed. 433, 51 C. C. A. 267; Lightfoot v. Grove, 5 Heisk. (Tenn.) 477; Johnson v. Richardson, 33 Miss. 464; Mitchell v. Warner, 5 Conn. 517; Myers v. League, 62 Fed. 659, 10 C. C. A. 571, 2 Bl. Comm. 16, 17. Land is the solid material of the earth, whatever may be the ingredients of which it is composed, whether soil, rock, or other substance. Civ. Co.de Cal. § 659. Philosophically, it seems more correct to say that the word "land" means, in law, as in the vernacular, the soil, or portion of the earth's crust; and to explain or justify such expressions as that "whoever owns the land owns the buildings above and the minerals below," upon the view, not that these are within the extension of the term "land," but that they are so connected with it that by rules of law they pass by a conveyance of the land. This view makes "land," as a term, narrower in signification than "realty;" though it would allow an instrument speaking of land to operate co-extensively with one granting realty or real property by either of those terms. But many of the authorities use the expression "land" as including these incidents to the soil. Abbott.
—Accommodation lands. In English law. Lands bought by a builder or speculator, who erects houses thereon, and then leases portions ef them upon an improved ground-rent.
—Bounty lands. Portions of the public domain given or donated to private persons as a bounty for services rendered, chiefly for military service.
—Certificate lands. In Pennsylvania, in the period succeeding the revolution, lands set apart in the western portion of the state, which might be bought with the certificates which the soldiers of that state in the revolutionary army had received in lieu of pay. Cent. Diet.
—Crown lands. In England and Canada, lands belonging to the sovereign personally or to the government or nation, as distinguished from such as have passed into private owner-ship. Demesne lands. see Demesne.
—Donation lands. Lands granted from the public domain to an individual as a bounty, gift, or donation; particularly, in early Pennsylvania history, lands thus granted to soldiers of the revolutionary war.
—Fabric lands. In English law, lands given towards the maintenance. rebuilding, or repairing of cathedral and other churches
—General land office. An office of the United States government, being a division of the department of the interior, having charge of all executive action relating to the public lands, including their survey, sale or other disposition, and patenting; constituted by act of congress in 1812 (Rev. St. § 446 [U. S. Comp. St. 1901, p. 255]) and presided over by an officer styled "commissioner of the general land office."
— Land certificate. Upon the registration of freehold land under the English land transfer act, 1875, a certificate is given to the registered proprietor, and similarly upon every transfer of registered land. This registration supersedes the necessity of any further registration in the register counties. Sweet.
—Land court. In American law. A court formerly existing in St. Louis, Mo., having a limited territorial jurisdiction over actions concerning real property, and suits for dower, partition, etc.
— Laud damages. See Damages.
—Land department. That office of the United States government which bas jurisdiction and charge of the public lands, including the secretary of the interior and the commissioner of the general land office and their subordinate officers, and being in effect the department of the interior considered with reference to its powers and duties concerning the public lands. See U. S. v. Winona & St. P. R. Co., 67 Fed. 956, 15 C. C. A. 96 ; Northern Pac. R. Co., v. Barden (C. Ct) 46 Fed. 617.
—Land district. A division of a state or territory, created by federal authority, in which is located a United States land office, with a "register of the land office" and a "receiver of public money," for the disposition of the public lands within the district. See U. S. v. Smith (C. C.) 11 Fed. 491.
—Land-gabel. A tax or rent issuing out of land. Spelman says it was originally a penny for every house. This land-gabel, or land-gavel, in the register of Domesday, was a quit-rent for the site of a house, or the land whereon it stood; the same with what we now call "ground-rent" Wharton.
—Land grant. A donation of public lands to a subordinate government, a corporation, or an individual; as, from the United States to a state, or to a railroad company to aid in the construction of its road.
—Land offices. Governmental offices, subordinate to the general land office, established in various parts of the United States, for the transaction of local business relating to the survey, location, settlement, pre-emption, and sale of the public lands. See "General land office," supra -Land-poor. By this term is generally understood that a man has a great deal of unproductive land, and perhaps is obliged to borrow money to pay taxes; but a man "land-poor" may be largely responsible. Mat-teson v. Blackmer, 46 Mich. 397, 9 N. W. 445.
—Land-reeve. A person whose business it is to overlook certnin paris of a farm or estate ; to attend not only to the woods and hedge-timber, but also to the state of the fences, gates, buildings, private roads, drift-ways, and water-courses ; and likewise to the stocking of commons, and encroachments of every kind, as well as to prevent or detect waste and spoil in general, whether by the tenants or others; and to report the same to the manager or land steward. Enc. Lond.
—Land steward. A person who overlooks or has the management of a farm or estate.
—Land tax. A tax laid upon the legal or beneficial owner of real property, and apportioned upon the assessed value of his land.
—Land tenant. The person actually in possession of land ; otherwise styled the "terre-tenant."
—Land titles and transfer act. An English statute (38 & 39 Viet. c. 87) providing for the establishment of a registry for titles to real property, and making sundry provisions for the transfer of lands and the recording of the evidences thereof. It presents some analogies to the recording laws of the American states.
—Land waiter. In English law. An officer of the custom-house, whose duty is, upon landing any merchandise, to examine, taste, weigh, or measure it, and to take an account thereof. In some ports they also execute the office' of a coast waiter. They are likewise occasionally styled "searchers" and are to attend and join with the patent searcher in the execution of ali cockets for the shipping of goods to be exported to foreign parts; and, in cases where drawbacks on bounties are to be paid to the merchant on the exportation of any goods, they, as well as the patent searchers, are to certify the shipping thereof on the debentures. Enc. Lond.
—Land-warrant. The evidence which the state, on good consideration, gives that the person therein named is entitled to the quantity of land therein specified, the bounds and description of which the owner of the warrant may fix by entry and survey, in the section of country set apart for its location and satisfaction. Neal v. President, etc., of East Tennessee College, 6 Yerg. (Tenn.) 205.
—Mineral lands. In the land laws of the United States. Lands containing deposits of valuable, useful, or precious minerals in such quantities as to justify expenditures in the effort to extract them, and which are more vni-uable for the minerals they contain than for agricultura] or other uses. Northern Pac. R. Co., v. Soderberg, 188 U. S. 526. 23 Sup. Ct. 365, 47 L. Ed. 575; Deffeback v. Hawke, 115 U. S. 392, 6 Sup. Ct. 95, 29 In Ed. 423; Davis v. Wiebbold. 139 U. S. 507, 11 Sup. Ct. 628, 35 L. Ed. 238; Smith v. Hill, 89 CaL 122, 26 Pac. 644; Merrill v. Dixon, 15 Nev. 406.
—Place lands. Lands granted in aid ol a railroad company which are within certain limits on each side of the road, and which become instantly fixed by the adoption of the line of the road. There is a well-defined difference between place lands and "indemnity lands." See Indemnity. See Jackson v. La Moure Co.unty, 1 N. D. 238, 46 N. W. 449.
—Public lands. The general public domain; unappropriated lands; lands belonging to the United States and which are subject to sale or other disposal under general laws, and not reserved or held back for any special governmental or public purpose. Newhali v. Sanger, 92 U. S. 763. 23 In Ed. 769 ; U. S. v. Garretson (C. C ) 42 Fed. 24; Northern Pac. It, Co., v. Hinchman (C. C.) 53 Fed. 526; State v. Telegraph Co, 52 La. Ann 1411, 27 South. 796
—School lands. Public lands of a state set apart by the state (or by congress in a territory) to create, by the proceeds of their sale, a fund for the establishment and maintenance of public schools.
—Seated land. Land that is occupied, cultivated, improved, reclaimed, farmed, or used as a place of residence. Residence without cultivation, or cultivation without residence, or both together, impart to land the character of being seated The term is used, as, opposed to "unseated land," in Pennsylvania tax laws. See Earley v. Euwer, 102 Pa. 340 ; Stoetzel v. Jackson, 105 Pa. 567 ; Kennedy v. Daily, 6 Watts (Pat) 272; Coal Co v. Faies; 55 Pa. 98.
—Swamp and overflowed lands. Lands unfit for cultivation by_ reason of their swampy character and requiring drainage or reclamation to render them available for beneficial use. Such lands, when constituting a portion of the public domain, have generally been granted by congress to the several states within whose limits they lie. See Miller v. Tobin (C. C.) 18 Fed 614; Keeran v. Allen, 33 Cal. 546; Hogaboom v. Ehrhardt, 58 Cal, 233; Thompson v. Thornton, 50 Cal. 144,
— Tide lands. Lands between high and low water mark on the sea or any tidal water; that portion of the shore or beach covered and uncovered by the ehb and flow of the tide. Ron-dell v. Fay, 32 Cal. 354; Oakland v. Oakland Water Front Co.., il8 Cal. 160, 50 Pac. 277; Andrus v. Knott. 12 Or. 501, 8 Pac. 763; Walker v. State Harbor Com'rs, 17 Wall. 650. 21 It Ed. 744.
—Unseated land. A phrase used in the Pennsylvania tax laws to describe land which, though owned by a private person, has not been reclaimed, cultivated, improved, occupied, or made a place of residence. See Seated Land, tupra. And see Stoetzel v. Jackson, 105 Pa. 507; McLeod v. Lloyd, 48 Or. 260, 71 Pac. 799.