

NATIONAL FOBEST MANUAL - LAWS. 



the payment to the receiver of the additional sum of one dollar per 

 acre for a tract of land not exceeding six hundred and forty acres to 

 any one person, a patent for the same shall be issued to him: Pro- 

 vided, That no person shall be permitted to enter more than one tract 

 of land and not to exceed six hundred and forty acres, which shall be 

 in compact form. 



SEC. 2. That all lands exclusive of timber lands and mineral lands 

 which will not, without irrigation, produce some agricultural crop, 

 shall be deemed desert land, within the meaning of this act, which 

 fact shall be ascertained by proof of two or more credible witnesses 

 under oath, whose affidavits shall be filed in the land office in which 

 said tract of land may be situated. 



SEC. 3. 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, Wyoming, Arizona, New Mexico, 

 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. 



47 



What are des- 

 ertlands - 



Law applicable 

 spates m certam 



Act March 3, 1891 (26 Stat., 1095), amending desert land law. 



SEC. 2. That an act to provide for the sale of desert lands in certain 

 States and Territories, approved March third, eighteen hundred and 

 seventy-seven, is hereby amended by adding thereto the following 

 sections: 



"SEC. 4. That at the time of filing the declaration hereinbefore re- 

 quired the party shall also file a map of said 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. Persons 

 entering or proposing to enter separate sections or fractional parts of 

 sections of desert lands may associate together in the construction of 

 canals and ditches for irrigating and reclaiming all of said tracts, and 

 may file a joint map or maps showing their plan of internal improve- 

 ments. 



"SEC. 5. That no land shall be patented to any person under this act 

 unless he or his assignors shall have expended in the necessary irriga- 

 tion, reclamation, and cultivation thereof, by means of main canals and 

 branch ditches, and in permanent improvements upon the land, and 

 in the purchase of water rights for the irrigation of the same, at least 

 three dollars per acre of whole tract reclaimed and patented in the 

 manner following: Within one year after making entry for such tract 

 of desert land as aforesaid, the party so entering shall expend not less 

 than one dollar per acre for the purposes aforesaid; afid he shall in 

 like manner expend the sum of one dollar per acre during the second 

 and also during the third year thereafter, until the full sum of three 

 dollars per acre is so expended. Said party shall file during each year 

 with the register, proof, by the affidavits of two or more credible wit- 

 nesses, that the full sum of one dollar per acre has been expended in such 

 necessary improvements during such year, and the manner in which 

 expended, and at the expiration of the third year a map or plan showing 

 the character and extent of such improvements. If any party who has 

 made such application shall fail during any year to file the testimony 

 aforesaid, the lands shall revert to the United States, and the twenty-five 

 cents advanced payment shall be forfeited to the United States, and 

 the entry shall be canceled. Nothing herein contained shall prevent 

 a claimant from making his final entry and receiving his patent at an 

 earlier date than hereinbefore prescribed, provided that he then makes 

 the required proof of reclamation to the aggregate extent of three dollars 

 per acre: Provided, That proof be further required of the cultivation of 

 one-eighth of the land. 



"SEC. 6. That this act shall not affect any valid rights heretofore 

 accrued under said act of March third, eighteen hundred and seventy- 

 seven, but all bona fide claims heretofore lawfully initiated may be 

 perfected, upon due compliance with the provisions of said act, in the 

 same manner, upon the same terms and conditions, and subject to the 

 same limitations, forfeitures, and contests as if this act had not been 



Maps showing 



Expenditure of 



* 



of ex ~ 

 ** 



Cultivation. 



Existing rights 

 ' 



