UNITED STATES 3547

the use and benefit of the United States; and any such agent of the United
States may, for the purpose of ascertaining its bounds and quantity, enter
upon the lands, without injury thereto, which the United States may desire
to purchase for any of the purposes aforesaid.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 6. 1912, sec. 6. 1904, sec. 6. 1888, sec. 6. 1874, ch. 395, sec. 2.

6. Said petition shall state the bounds and quantity of the land to
which the United States desire to obtain title and the public purposes for
which said land is desired; and the names of the owner or owners thereof,
and where they respectively reside, and whether they are adults or under
age, find whether married or single, or non compos mentis; if said facts are
known to the agent filing said petition, or if said agent does not know any
fact which he is hereinbefore required, if known to him, to state, he shall
state in said petition that he does not know said fact.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 7. 1912, sec. 7. 1904, sec. 7. 1888, sec. 7. 1874, ch. 395, sec. 3.

7. Every such petition must be verified by an affidavit to be taken
before the clerk of said court, and annexed thereto, of the said agent of the
United States, that the statements therein contained are true to the best of
his knowledge and belief; and where said petition shall state that it is
unknown where any such owner resides or whether he is an adult or under
age, married, single, or non compos mentis, the said agent shall further
make affidavit that he has used all reasonable efforts to ascertain the fact
or facts stated in said petition to be unknown by him, and has failed to
ascertain them.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 8. 1912, sec. 8. 1904, sec. 8. 1888, sec. 8. 1874, ch. 395, sec. 4.

8. Upon the said petition, verified as aforesaid, being filed in the office
of said clerk, it shall be the duty of said clerk to give notice of the substance
and object of said petition by printed notice, to be published once a week
for three months in some newspaper printed in the city of Baltimore, and
also by like notice, to be published as aforesaid, in one newspaper printed
and published in the county where the land lies, if any newspaper be so
printed and published; such notice shall contain an accurate description
of the land to which the United States desire to obtain title, and. shall state
the names of the owners or supposed owners thereof, and the place or
supposed places of their residence, or that said places are unknown, and
whether said owners or any of them are feme covert, under age, or non
compos mentis, if such facts are known to the agent filing such petition,
and the public uses to which the United States desire to put the said land,
and shall require all persons interested in the said land to come forward
on a day to be specified in said notice, and file their objections, if any they
have, to the proposed condemnation of said land.

An. Code, 1924, sec. 9. 1912, sec. 9. 1904, sec. 9. 1888, sec. 9. 1874, ch. 395, sec. 5.

9. At the time specified in said notice, or at the earliest convenient day
thereafter, it shall be the duty of the said court to proceed to hear and
determine upon said petition, and the objections, if any, filed against the
proposed condemnation; and the said court may order such witnesses to
be summoned, and hear such evidence as may be produced before it by the
respective parties, to show the necessity or impropriety of the proposed
condemnation; and if the said court shall determine that condemnation of