25 



Claims 



Forest officers, in reporting on homestead entry claims, will remember that 

 mere colorable compliance with the provisions of the homestead entry law 

 by a claimant, in the matter or residence and cultivation, is not a sufficient 

 compliance to justify patent. Periodical visits of short duration to the land 

 to keep alive the fiction of residence, and meager improvements and cultiva- 

 tion do not indicate good faith, which is an essential requirement to entitle 

 a claimant to patent. In reporting on homestead entry claims, especially such 

 as are moderately or heavily timbered or where the claimant evidently desires 

 the land for some other use than for a home and for cultivation, every fact 

 relating to the claimant's occupancy of the land should be detailed, in order 

 that his good faith may be determined. If necessary, an insert sheet may be 

 used in Form 655. 



Facts bearing upon the following points should be clearly and fully set 

 forth in the report : 



-The habitable character of the claimant's house at all seasons; its size, 

 furnishings, and value, and character and value of all other buildings and im- 

 provements; amount of tillable land and amount plowed and cultivated each 

 year; the disposal of the crop; water supply; presence or absence of stock 

 and domestic fowls; employment and circumstances of the claimant and his 

 physical and financial ability further to improve and clear the land for cul- 

 tivation from year to year; the amount of land embraced in the entry 

 which is agricultural in character if land is denuded of timber; the char- 

 acter, situation, and altitude of the land, and whether, if on a steep hillside, 

 it can be made to produce paying crops or support at any time the claimant 

 and his family ; quality, kind, size, and value of standing timber on the claim ; 

 remoteness of the claim from the nearest town and means of access to it; 

 presence of sawmills in the vicinity of the claim; whether the claimant fol- 

 lowed the clearing of timber areas by cultivation as rapidly as his means and 

 ability permitted; the character and kind of fences, or ditches, if any; the 

 dates, duration, nature, and purpose of claimant's absence from the claim; 

 where he lived or stayed during such absence and how he was employed, and 

 the disposal of his stock, if any, during that time ; the residence of claimant's 

 family during the time of claimant's residence on or absence from the land. 

 In brief, Forest officers should report every circumstance which would deter- 

 mine whether the claim is the permanent home of the claimant, to the exclu- 

 sion of a home elsewhere, or whether the primary purpose in making an entry 

 was to acquire title to the land for the purpose of disposing of the timber on 

 it by sale, immediately or shortly after final proof, or for a purely speculative 

 purpose, or for some other use than residence and cultivation. 



Special Uses 



Supervisors' Permits Dams, Reservoirs, and Conduits. Many supervisors 

 continue to issue special-use permits for dams, reservoirs, and conduits without 

 first referring the applications to the Supervising Engineer of the Reclamation 

 Service, as required on page 8 of the circular of instructions on special uses, 

 dated July 19, 1907. The report accompanying the Forester's copies of super- 

 visors' permits for dams, reservoirs, and conduits must always show that the 

 permits are approved by the Supervising Engineer. The present addresses of 

 the Supervising Engineers of the Reclamation Service are as follows : 



Southern Division : Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, Colorado River drainage 

 in Wyoming, and California south of Tehachapi L. C. HILL, Phoenix, Ariz. 



