“ But instead of doing so, it left the homesteader who had acquired a possessory title to avail himself of the same rights that were open to others holding lands by title absolute or inchoate. In both cases there was right of possession, and in both cases wrongs against possession could be redressed. Such seems to have been the practical construction of the statute since its passage, twenty-eight years ago, for we are cited to no case in which a prosecution has been instituted, in a Federal court, against one interfering with the possession of a homesteader after entry and before patent. ”

“ Every person being the head of a family . . . who has made or hereafter makes a settlement in person on the public lands subject to pre-emption, and who inhabits and improves the same, and who has erected or shall erect a dwelling thereon, is authorized to enter with the register of the land office . . . any number of acres not exceeding 160 . . . upon paying to the United States the minimum price of such land. ”

“ Rep. 305; Light v. United States, 220 U.S. 535, 55 L. ed. 573, 31 Sup. Ct. Rep. 485. Many availed themselves of this privilege, and the cattle of different owners fed together on the open prairie, no one claiming that thereby any exclusive right had been acquired. ”