Instructions Under the Three-Year 



Homestead Law 



DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 



General Land Office 



(CIRCULAR NO. 278.) 



Washington, November 1, 1913. 

 The following instructions under the "three-year homestead law" of June 6, ISli 

 (37 Stat., 123), will supersede those contained in Circular No. 208, dated February 13^ 

 1913 (41 L. D., 379). Paragraphs 5 and 6, relating to reduction of cultivation, are 

 identical with the instructions approved by the Acting Secretary of the Interior oa 

 September 6, 1913, promulgated by Office Circular No. 269 dated September 15, 1913. 



Residence. 



(1) By the act of June 6, 1912 (37 Stat., 123), the period of residence necessary 

 to be shown in order to entitle a person to patent under the homestead laws is. 

 reduced from five to three years, and the period within which a homestead entry 

 may be completed is reduced from seven to five years. The three-year period of 

 residence, however, is fixed not from the date of the entry but "from the time of 

 establishing actual, permanent residence upon the land." It follows as a consequence 

 that credit can not be given for constructive residence for the period that may elapse 

 between the date of the entry and that of establishing actual, permanent residence 

 upon the land. 



(2) Honorably discharged soldiers and sailors of the War of the Rebellion and 

 also of the Spanish War and the suppression of the insurrection in the Philippines,, 

 entitled to claim credit under their homestead entries for the period of their military 

 service, may do so after they have "resided upon, improved, and cultivated the land 

 for a period of at least one year" after they shall have commenced their improvements. 

 This is the requirement of Section 2305 of the Revised Statutes, which is in nowise 

 affected by the act of June 6, 1912. Respecting the cultivation to be required under 

 said section, it has been heretofore administered as requiring such showing as 

 ordinarily applies in other cases preliminary to final proof, and, as the new law 

 exacts showing of cultivation of at least one-eighth of the area before final proof, a. 

 showing should be exacted of a like amount for at least one year before final proof. 



Cultivation. 



(3) The law requires that the claimant "cultivate not less than oue-sixteehth of 

 the area of his entry, beginning with the second year of the entry, and not less than 

 one-eighth beginning with the third year of the entry, and until final proof, except 

 that in the case of entries under Section 6 of the enlarged-homestead laws, double 

 the area of cultivation herein provided shall be required, but the Secretary may, 

 upon a satisfactory showing, under rules and regulations prescribed by him, reduce 

 the required area of cultivation." 



(4) The enlarged-homestead acts here referred to (35 Stat, 639; 36 Stat., 531) 

 authorized entries of 320 acres of lands designated for this purpose by the Secretary 

 of the Interior, and require proof "that at least one-eighth of the area embraced in 

 the entry was continuously cultivated to agricultural crops, other than 

 native grasses, beginning with the second year of the entry, and that at 



-The law is supreme in Montana; there is no mob rule here. 



