THREE- YEAR HOMESTEA D LA W 293 



suows or raius, as affording sufficient moisture for the production of crops one year 

 with another. The presence or absence of springs or permanent streams on or in 

 the immediate vicinity of the land should be shown. The natural products of the 

 land without tillage, and the effect of tillage on the soil, should be shown, as well 

 as the use to which the land is best adapted. It is desirable that the entryman should, 

 wherever practicable, know in advance what, if any, reduction can properly be made, 

 and, therefore, as a general regulation governing applications for reduction in area 

 of cultivation, it is directed that all entrymen who desire a reduction shall file 

 applications therefor during the first year of the entry and. upon forms to be prepared 

 and furnished by the Commissioner of the General Land Office and distributed 

 through the land offices, which will be forwarded, without action, to the Chief of the 

 Field Division, and report made in accordance with Circular 195, on Form 4 — 007b. 

 Applications for reduction in area of cultivation will be acted upon by the 

 Commissioner of the General Land Office, who may In appropriate cases defer action 

 until final proof, but his decision in granting or refusing applications for reduction 

 in area shall be subject to review, upon appeal, by the Secretary of the Interior. 



Exceptions. 



(7) The requirements as to cultivation do not apply to entries made for lands 

 within a reclamation project, under the act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat., 388), nor to 

 entries made' in the State of Nebraska under the act of April 28, 1904 (33 Stat., 547), 

 commonly known as the Kinkaid Act. In such instances the existing requirements 

 as to cultivation made by the acts named continue in force. 



Permissible Absence From the Homestead. 



(9) The law clearly requires that the homestead entryman shall establish an 

 actual residence upon the laud entered within six months after the date of entry. 

 Where, owing to climatic reasons, sickness, or other unavoidable cause, residence can 

 not be commenced within this period, the Commissioner of the General Land Office 

 may, within his discretion, allow the settler such additional period, not exceeding 

 in the aggregate 12 months, within which to establish his residence. It is not 

 meant thereby that because, for the reasons stated, residence may not be commenced 

 within the six-month period, that the settler is authorized to delay the commence- 

 ment of residence beyond the required period and after the cause no longer exists. 

 An application for such extension must, as a general rule, be filed in the land office 

 for the district in which the land lies w'ithin six months from date of entry. It 

 must be in the form of an affidavit, corroborated by two persons having actual 

 knowledge of the facts, and should set forth in detail the grounds upon which 

 extension of time is asked. Including a statement as to the probable duration of the 

 hindering causes and when residence may reasonably be expected to be established. 

 The oath of the applicant and witnesses may be executed before any officer authorized 

 to administer oaths and having a seal of office. 



These applications will be forwarded by the local officers to the General Land 

 Office by special letter and will be acted upon with as little delay as possible. 

 Should an extension of time be granted it will relate back to the date of entry and 

 protect the entryman from contest on the ground of failure to establish residence 

 within the usual six months unless it shall be further charged and shown that the 

 order of extension was fraudulently obtained. Should a contest be filed against a 

 homestead entry solely on the ground of failure of the entryman to establish residence 

 within six months from date of entry and the records show that an application for 

 extension of time is pending before the General Land Office, the local officers will 

 suspend action on the contest pending the disposition of the application for extension, 

 but should the further charge be made that entryman has materially misrepresented 

 the facts in connection with his application for extension, the local officers will 

 promptly report the contest to the Commissioner of the General Land Office and 

 await instructions. 



The failure of an entryman to apply for an extension of time will not forfeit 

 his right to show, in defense of a contest, the existence of conditions which might 

 have been made the basis for such an application. 



(10) After the establishment of residence the entryman is permitted to be 

 absent from the land for one continuous period of not more than five months in 

 each year following, provided that upon absenting himself for such period he has 

 filed in the local land office notice of the beginning of such intended absence. He 

 must also file notice with the local land office upon his return to the land following 

 such period of absence. A second period of absence immediately following the first 

 period, even though the two periods occur in different years reckoned from the date 



— Bigness was born in Montana. 



