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The proof must set forth specifically and in detail all the facts of the case, showing when cultivation was commenced, the acts performed, amount of land plowed, cultivated, and planted, what was done in each year, the total number of trees planted, the total number growing, and their size and condition at date of proof, and any other facts or circumstances material to the case (Forms 4-093, 4-385, and 4-386, pp. 251 and 253). While the law does not prescribe that any definite number of trees, seeds, or cuttings shall be planted, or that any particular number shall be growing at date of final proof, this information should be furnished to enable this office to judge of the claimant's good faith. Contests may be instituted against timber-culture entries for illegality or fraud in the inception of the entry, for failure to comply with the law after entry, or for any sufficient cause affecting the legality or validity of the claim. (See rule 1 et seq. of Rules of Practice, approved August 13, 1885.)

Contestants of timber-culture entries since the adoption of the foregoing rules of practice are not required to file an application to enter the land at the time of the initiation of contest, but the successful contestant secures a preference right of entry under the second section of the act of May 14, 1880, 21 Stat. L., 140. (This regulation overrules the decision in Bundy v. Livingstone, 1 L. D., rev. ed., 152.)

No land acquired under the provisions of the act of June 14, 1878, will in any event become liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted prior to the issuing of the final certificate therefor.

Claimants and witnesses making final proof must in all cases state their place of actual residence, their business or occupation, and their post-office address. It is not sufficient to name the county and State or Territory where a party lives, but the town or city must be named, and if residence is in a city the street or number must be given.

Nothing herein will be construed to have a retroactive effect in cases where the official regulations of this Department in force at the date of entry were complied with.

DESERT LANDS.

The act of March 3, 1877, entitled "An act to provide for the sale of desert lands in certain States and Territories" (19 Stat. L., 377; Appendix No. 4, p. 145), contained three sections. By the act of March 3, 1891, (26 Stat. L., 1095; Appendix No. 45, p. 204), five sections were added thereto, numbered from 4 to 8. The first section provides for the reclamation of such lands by "conducting water upon the same." The second section provides "that all lands, exclusive of timber lands and mineral lands, which will not, without artificial irrigation, produce some agricultural crop shall be deemed desert lands within the meaning of this act;" and the third section provides that "this act shall only apply to and take effect in the States of California, Oregon, and Nevada, and the Territories of Washington, Idaho, Montana, Utah, Arizona, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Dakota, and the determination of what may be considered desert-land shall be subject to the decision and regulation of the Commissioner of the General Land Office."

It is therefore prescribed as follows:

First. Lands bordering upon streams, lakes, or other natural bodies of water, or through or upon which there is any river, stream, arroyo, lake, pond, body of water, or living spring, are not subject to entry under the desert land-law until the clearest proof of their desert character is furnished.

Second. Lands which produce native grasses sufficient in quantity, if unfed by grazing animals, to make an ordinary crop of hay in usual seasons are not desert lands.

Third. Lands which will produce an agricultural crop of any kind in amount to make the cultivation reasonably remunerative are not desert. Fourth. Lands containing sufficient moisture to produce a natural growth of trees are not to be classed as desert lands.

By the fourth section the party making entry is required at the time of filing the declaration to file also a map of the land, which shall exhibit a plan showing the mode of contemplated irrigation, and which plan shall be sufficient to thoroughly irrigate and reclaim said land and prepare it to raise ordinary agricultural crops, and shall also show the source of the water to be used for irrigation and reclamation. Provision is made that persons may associate together in the construction of canals and ditches for irrigating and reclaiming tracts entered or proposed to be entered by them, and that they may file a joint map or maps showing their plan of internal improvements.

By the fifth section it is required that the entryman shall expend, for the purpose of the statute, at least $3 per acre-$1 per acre during each year for three years-and shall file proof thereof during each year, such proof to consist of his affidavit, corroborated by the affidavits of two or more witnesses, showing that the full sum of $1 per acre has been expended during such year and the manner in which expended (Forms 4-074b and 4-074c, p. 262), and at the expiration of the third year a map or plan showing the character and extent of improvements; that failure to file the required proof during any year shall cause the land to revert to the United States, the money paid to be forfeited, and the entry to be canceled; and it is provided that the party may make his final entry and receive his patent at any time prior to the expiration of the three years on making the required proof of reclamation, of expenditure to the aggregate amount of $3 per acre, and of the cultivation of one-eighth of the land.

The sixth section provides that entries made prior to the date of the amendatory act of March 3, 1891, may be perfected according to the provisions of the act of March 3, 1877, as originally enacted, or, at the option of the claimant, may be perfected under the law as amended, so far as applicable, and repeals all acts or parts of acts in conflict with the act as amended.

The seventh section provides that at any time after filing the declaration, and within the period of four years thereafter, upon making satisfactory proof of the reclamation and cultivation of the land according to the legal requirements, and that he or she is a citizen of the United States, and upon payment in full therefor, a patent shall issue for the land to the applicant or his assigns. It limits the amount of land that may be held by any person or association of persons by assignment or otherwise, prior to the issue of patent, to 320 acres as the maximum; providing, however, that this section shall not apply to entries made prior. Provision is made therein for contests on sufficient grounds, and that on proof thereof the entry shall be canceled and the lands and money paid therefor forfeited to the United States.

By the eighth section the provisions of the original act and the amendments are extended to Colorado.

By the same section the right to make desert-land entry is restricted to resident citizens of the State or Territory in which the land sought is located, whose citizenship and residence must be duly shown. (Forms 4-274, 4-372a, and 4-373a, pp. 257, 260, and 262.)

By the first section of the act of July 26, 1894 (28 Stat. L., 123), it is provided that the time for making final proof and payment for all lands located under the homestead and desert-land laws of the United States, proof and payment of which have not yet been made, be, and the same is hereby, extended for the period of one year from the time proof and payment would become due under existing laws and by act of August 4, 1894 (28 Stat. L., 226), it is enacted

That in all cases where declarations of intention to enter desert lands have been filed, and the four years' limit within which final proof may be made had not expired prior to January first, eighteen hundred and ninety-four, the time within which such proof may be made in each such case is hereby extended to five years from the date of filing the declaration; and the requirement that the persons filing such declarations shall expend the full sum of one dollar per acre during each year toward the reclamation of the land is hereby suspended for the year eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and such annual expenditure for that year, and the proof thereof, is hereby dispensed with: Provided, That within the period of five years from filing the declaration satisfactory proof be made to the register and receiver of the reclamation and cultivation of such land to the extent and cost and in the manner provided by existing law, except as to said year eighteen hundred and ninety-four, and upon the payment to the receiver of the additional sum of one dollar per acre, as provided in existing law, a patent shall issue as therein provided.

Under these acts final proof on all entries made prior to August 4, 1894, may be made at any time within five years from date of entry.

1. The amount of land which might be entered by any one person under the desert-land law was fixed by the act of March 3, 1877, at the maximum of one section, or 640 acres. Under the act of August 30, 1890 (26 Stat. L., 391), no person could be permitted to enter thereafter more than 320 acres in the aggregate under all the land laws, which is construed by the seventeenth section of the act of March 3, 1891 (26* Stat. L., 1095; Appendix No. 45, p. 209), not to include the amount of mineral lands entered in the prescribed maximum. Parties initiating claims are required to make affidavit to show observance of such inhibition (see Form 4-102b, p. 235). Under the amendatory act of March 3, 1891, above, no person is entitled to hold under assignment or otherwise, prior to the patent, more than 320 acres entered as desert land, but this will not affect entries made prior to the approval of the amendatory act.

Assignees must properly prove their assignments by filing in the local office an affidavit and a certified copy of the instrument under which they claim, and must make affidavit of the amount of land held. (Form 4-074a, p. 261.)

2. Under the act of March 3, 1877, it was held that desert-land entries were not assignable, and that the transfer of such entries, whether by deed, contract, or agreement, vitiated the entry. This is changed by the seventh section of the act of March 3, 1877, as amended by the act of March 3, 1891, above, which recognizes assignments after entry and before patent; but an entry made in the interest or for the benefit of any other person, firm, or corporation, or with intent that the title shall be conveyed to any other person, firm, or corporation, is illegal. 3. It has been held that the price of lands sought to be entered under the provisions of the act of March 3, 1877, was controlled and fixed by the provisions of section 2357 of the Revised Statutes, but it is now held that the price of lands sought to be entered under the provisions of said act of 1877 as amended by section 2 of the act of March 3, 1891, is to be $1.25 per acre, without regard to the situation of such land in relation to railroad grants. (14 L. D., 74.)

4. A party desiring to avail himself of the privileges of the desertland act must file with the register and receiver of the proper district

land office a declaration under.oath showing that the applicant is a citizen of the United States, or has declared his intention to become such, and a resident of the State or Territory in which the land sought is located. It must also be set up that the applicant has not previously exercised the right of entry under the provisions of this act, and that he intends to reclaim the tract of land applied for by conducting water thereon within four years from date of his declaration. The declaration must also contain a description of the land applied for, by legal subdivision if surveyed, or if unsurveyed as nearly as possible without a survey, by giving, with as much clearness and precision as possible, the locality of the tract with reference to the already established lines of survey, or to known and conspicuous landmarks, so as to admit of its being readily identified when the lines of survey come to be extended.

5. Attention is called to the terms of this declaration (Form 4-274, p. 257), which are such as require a personal knowledge by the entrymen of lands intended to be entered. The required affidavit can not be made by an agent nor upon information and belief, and the register and receiver must reject all applications in which it does not appear that the entryman made the averments contained in the sworn declaration upon his own knowledge derived from a personal examination of the lands. The blanks in the declaration must be filled in with a full statement of the facts of his acquaintance with the land and how he knows its character as alleged. Said declaration must be corroborated by the affidavits of two reputable witnesses who are acquainted with the land and with the applicant, and who must clearly state their acquaintance with the premises, and the facts as to the condition and situation of the land upon which they base their judgment (Form 4-074, p. 258).

6. Applicants and witnesses must in all cases state their places of actual residence, their business or occupations, and their post-office addresses. It is not sufficient to name the county and State or Territory where a party lives, but the town or city must be named, and if a residence is in a city the street and number must be given. The register and receiver will note the post-office address on their tract books.

7. The declaration and corroborating affidavits may be made before the register or receiver of the land district or before any commissioner of the United States circuit court having jurisdiction over the county or parish in which the land is situated, or before the judge or clerk of any court of record of such county or parish, and if the lands are in an unorganized county then the affidavits may be made in an adjacent county. In the Territories the proof may be made before a United States court commissioner, as provided by act of March 2, 1895 (see Appendix No. 65, p. 221). (Act of May 26, 1890, 26 Stat. L., 121; Appendix No. 39, p. 196; circular June 25, 1890, 10 L. D., p. 687, and Secretary's decision of October 2, 1890, case of Edward Bowker, 11 L. D., 361.) The depositions of applicant and witnesses in making final or yearly proof must be taken in the same manner. The affidavits of applicant and witnesses must in every instance, either of original or yearly or final proof, be made at the same time and place and before the same officer.

S. When proof of the character of the land has been made as above required to the satisfaction of the district officers, the applicant will pay the receiver the sum of 25 cents per acre for the land applied for, the register will receive and file his declaration, and the register and receiver will jointly issue, in duplicate, a certificate (Form 4-199, p. 259), acknowledging the receipt of the money paid and showing the filing of

the declaration, one of which will be delivered to the applicant, and the other filed by the register and receiver with the declaration and proof. These certificates will be numbered in the order issued, and the register will keep a record thereof showing the number, date, amount paid, name of applicant, and description of the land applied for, in each case of original entry, and in addition he will note the same upon his plats and records as in cases of ordinary entries. A similar record will be kept of the yearly proofs made and the maps or plans filed from time to time, under the fifth section, and the yearly proofs and plans will be forwarded to the General Land Office by special letter. At the end of each month an abstract of the declarations filed and certificates issued under this act during the month will be transmitted, accompanied by the declarations, plans and proofs filed, and the retained copy of certifi cate in each case. On final proofs and payment being made according to the sixth and seventh sections, a final certificate and receipt will be issued.

9. Surveys of desert-land claims can not be made in advance of the regular progress of the public surveys. After a township has been surveyed the claim must be adjusted to the lines of the survey. Final proof on entries made prior to August 1, 1887, can be made without publication of notice to do so (9 L. D., p. 672). Publication of notice of intention to make final proof must be made in all cases of entries instituted since that time. When the land has not been surveyed the notice must contain a description of the land as nearly as possible without a survey, by giving, with as much clearness and precision as possible, the locality of the tract, with reference to the already established lines of survey, or to known and conspicuous landmarks, so as to admit of its being readily identified.

When final proof has been submitted on an entry upon unsurveyed land, if no objections exist, the register and receiver will approve the same and forward it to this office without collecting the purchase money and without issuing the final papers. When the land shall have been surveyed they will require the party to make proof, in the form of au affidavit, corroborated, showing the legal subdivisions of his claim. When this has been done they will correct their records to make them describe the land by legal subdivisions, and if the proof submitted to this office has been found satisfactory, and if no objection exists in their office, will issue final papers upon payment of the amounts due. (Circular of April 20, 1891, 12 L. D., 376.)

10. Persons making desert-land entries must acquire a clear right to the use of sufficient water for the purpose of irrigating the whole of the land, and of keeping it permanently irrigated. A person who makes a desert-land entry before he has secured a water right does so at his own risk; and as one entry exhausts his right of entry, such right can not be restored or again exercised because of failure to obtain water to irrigate the land selected by him.

11. The source and volume of the water supply, how acquired and how maintained, the carrying capacity of the ditches, and the number and length of all ditches on each legal subdivision of the land must be specifically shown. Applicant and witnesses must each state in full what has been done in the matter of reclamation and improvement, and by whom, and must each answer fully and of their own personal knowledge the questions propounded in the final proof depositions. They must state specifically whether they at any time saw the land effectually irrigated, for without knowledge thus derived the fact of recla mation remains a matter of conjecture. (Case of Charles H. Schick, 5 L. D., 151.)

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