OFFICIAL REGULATIONS CONCERNING THE SELEC- 

 TION OF DESERT LANDS BY CERTAIN STATES. 



UNDER THE CAREY LAW.) 



SECTION 4 of the act of August 18, 1894, entitled, 

 "An act making appropriations for sundry civil 

 expenses of the government for the fiscal year 

 ending June 30, 1895, and for other purposes" (28 

 Stat., 372-422), authorizes the Secretary of the Inte- 

 rior, with the approval of the President, to contract 

 and agree to patent to the States of Washington, 

 Oregon, California, Nevada, Idaho, Montana, Wyo- 

 ming, Colorado, North Dakota and South Dakota, or 

 any other States, as provided in the act, in which may 

 be found desert lands, not to exceed 1,000,000 acres 

 of such lands to each State, under certain con- 

 ditions. 



The text of the act is as follows: 



Section 4. That to aid the public land States in 

 the reclamation of the desert lands therein, and the 

 settlement, cultivation and sale thereof in small 

 tracts to actual settlers, the Secretary of the Interior, 

 with the approval of the President.be, and hereby is, 

 authorized and empowered, upon proper application 

 of the State, to contract and agree, from time to time, 

 with each of the States in which there may be sit- 

 uated desert lands as denned by the act entitled "An 

 act to provide for the sale of desert land in cer- 

 tain States and Territories,' 1 approved March 3d, 

 1877, and the act amendatory thereof, approved 

 March 3d, 1891, binding the United States to donate, 

 grant and patent to the State, free of cost for survey 

 or price, such desert lands, not exceeding 1,000,000 

 acres in each State, as the State may cause to be irri- 

 gated, reclaimed and occupied, and not less than twen- 

 ty acres of each IGOacre tract cultivated by actual set- 

 tlers, within ten years next after the passage of this 

 act, as thoroughly as is required of citizens who may 

 enter under the said desert land law. 



Before the application of any State is allowed or 

 any contract or agreement is executed or any segre- 

 gation of any of the land from the public domain is 

 ordered by the Secretary of the Interior, the State 

 shall file a map of the said land proposed to be irri- 

 gated which shall exhibit a plan showing the mode of 

 the 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, and the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior may make necessary regula- 

 tions for the reservation of the lands applied for by 

 the States to date from the filing of the map and 

 plan of irrigation, but such reservation shall be of no 

 force whatever if such map and plan of irrigation 

 shall not be approved. That any State contracting 

 under this section is hereby authorized to make all 

 necessary contracts to cause the said lands to be re- 

 claimed, and to reduce their settlement and cultiva- 

 tion in accordance with and subject to the provisions 

 of this section ; but the State shall not be authorized 

 to lease any of said lands, or to use or dispose of the 

 same in any way whatever, except to secure their re- 

 clamation, cultivation and settlement. 



As fast as any State may furnish satisfactory proof 

 according to such rules and regulations as may 

 be prescribed by the Secretary of the Interior, 

 that any of said lands are irrigated, reclaimed, 



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and occupied by actual settlers, patents shall be 

 issued to the State or its assigns for said lands 

 so reclaimed and settled; provided that said States 

 shall not sell or dispose of more than 160 acres 

 of said lands to any one person, and any surplus of 

 money derived by any State from the sale of said 

 lands in excess of the cost of their reclamation, shall 

 be held as a trust fund for, and be applied to, the re- 

 clamation of other desert lands in such State. That 

 to enable the Secretary of the Interior to examine 

 any of the lands that may be selected under the pro- 

 visions of this section, there is hereby appropriated 

 out of any moneys in the treasury, not otherwise ap- 

 propriated, $1,000. 



1. The second paragraph of the section requires 

 that the State shall first file a map of the land selected 

 and proposed to be irrigated, which shall exhibit a 

 plan showing the mode of contemplated irrigation 

 and the source of the water. In accordance with the 

 requirements of the act, the State must give full data 

 to show that the proposed plan will be sufficient to 

 thoroughly irrigate and reclaim the land and prepare 

 it to raise ordinary agricultural crops; for which pur- 

 pose a statement of the amount of water available 

 for the plan of irrigation will be necessary. The 

 other data required cannot be fully prescribed, as it 

 will depend upon the nature of the plan submitted. 

 All information necessary to enable this office to 

 judge of its practicability for irrigating all the land 

 selected must be submitted. 



2. The map must be on tracing linen, in duplicate, 

 and must be drawn to a scale not greater than 1,000 

 feet to one inch. A smaller scale is desirable, if the 

 necessary information can be clearly shown. 



3. The map and field notes in duplicate must be 

 filed in the local land office for the district in which 

 the land is located. A plan and field notes covering 

 tracts selected in several land districts need be filed 

 but once in duplicate; one copy in the other districts 

 will be sufficient. The map and field notes must 

 show the connections of termini with public survey 

 corners, the connections with public survey corners 

 wherever section or township lines are crossed by 

 the irrigation works proposed, and must show full 

 data to admit of retracing the lines of the survey of 

 irrigation works on the ground. 



4. The map should bear an affidavit of the engineer 

 who made or supervised the preparation of the map 

 and plan, form 1, page 7, and also of the officer au- 

 thorized by the State to make its selections under the 

 act, form 2, page 7. 



5. The map should indicate clearly the tracts se- 

 lected, which must all be desert lands as defined by 

 the acts of 1877 and 1891, and the decisions and reg- 

 ulations of this office therein provided for. The lan- 

 guage of the former act, and the decisions thereun- 

 der, are as follows : "All lands exclusive of timber 

 lands and mineral lands, which will not, without arti- 

 ficial irrigation, produce some agricultural crop, shall 

 be deemed desert land.' 1 It is prescribed also 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, 



