The Agricultural Entry Act allowed Federal lands containing minerals, petroleum,

nitrate Nitrate is a polyatomic ion A polyatomic ion, also known as a molecular ion, is a covalent bonded set of two or more atoms, or of a metal complex, that can be considered to behave as a single unit and that has a net charge that is not zer ...

, phosphate, potash, oil, gas, and asphalt to be leased to private developers, as long as such deposits in specially zoned lands were left alone. The

Federal government A federation (also known as a federal state) is a political entity characterized by a union of partially self-governing provinces, states, or other regions under a central federal government (federalism). In a federation, the self-governin ...

reserved the right to abrogate whatever uses the surrounding lands had been developed for in the event that it was deemed necessary for deposit procurement.

References

63rd United States Congress United States federal public land legislation {{US-law-stub