ART. 96] CONDEMNATION OF LAND. 2081

to ascertain the fact or facts stated in said petition to be
unknown by him, and has failed to ascertain them.

1888, art. 96, 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.

Ibid. 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 the said lands or other real property
ought not to be had, it shall ₍dismiss said petition, at the cost
of the United States; but if it shall determine that condemna-
tion of the land in said petition described ought to be had by
the United States, it shall pass an order directing the clerk of
said court, under his hand and the seal of said court, to issue
a warrant to the sheriff of the county wherein said land lies,
requiring him to summon a jury of twenty inhabitants of said
county not interested in the land to be valued to meet on or
near the land to be valued on a day named in said summons,