In 1871, an order in council initiated a uniform land survey of the three Prairie Provinces as well as the railway belt of British Columbia. The land had to be accurately described and located through cadastral surveys before Letters Patent could be issued to a homesteader.
The Dominion Lands Act required that each homesteader provide proof that the land had increased in value through additions (cultivation, building construction, etc.) costing labour and/or capital. The Dominion Lands Act stipulated the improvements that had to be made to a land grant before a homesteader would receive a Letters Patent from the Crown.