1905 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



131 



that this law should be modified in 

 essential particulars. 



Your Commission recommended last 

 year the repeal of the assignment 

 clause. This provision has been made 

 the convenient vehicle for evading the 

 spirit of the law and for facilitating 

 the acquisition of lands in large hold- 

 ings. The law limits the amount 

 which one person or association of 

 persons may hold, by assignment or 

 otherwise, prior to patent, to 320 acres 

 of such arid or desert lands. The 

 most common form of attempted evas- 

 ion of this requirement is for two or 

 three individuals to form themselves 

 into a corporation, each individual 

 member of the corporation securing, 

 by entry or assignment, 320 acres of 

 such lands and the corporation as such 

 320 acres. These same individuals 

 then form another corporation under 

 an entirely different name and procure 

 an assignment of another 320 acres, 

 and this process is continued indefi- 

 nitely. 



The General Land Office has within 

 the past year endeavored to put a stop 

 to this practice by holding that a cor- 

 poration or association of persons is 

 not qualified to receive a desert-land 

 entry by assignment where its individ- 

 ual members, either singly or in the 

 aggregate, are holding 320 acres of 

 such arid or desert lands. This rul- 

 ing, if enforced, will tend to lessen 

 the evils resulting from large holdings 

 prior to patent, but it is not deemed 

 possible to secure adequate control of 

 this question unless the law prohibits 

 assignments of desert-land entries. By 

 repealing that provision of the law and 

 requiring the claimant to show that 

 he has made the entry for his own 

 use and benefit and not for the 

 benefit of any other person or cor- 

 poration and that he has made no 

 agreement by which the title shall 

 inure to any other person or cor- 

 poration, the evils incident to large 

 holdings of such lands under the sanc- 

 tion of law will be materially lessened. 



It is a striking fact that these large 

 holdings of desert land are not re- 

 claimed and devoted to their best use. 



Three hundred and twenty acres of 

 irrigable land is entirely too much for 

 for economical handling by one per- 

 son. On the other hand, inspection 

 shows that in the same locality and 

 under the same climatic conditions the 

 homestead entries, where not com- 

 muted, are reclaimed and utilized. 



The desert-land act as it stands 

 upon the statute books appears to have 

 many features which commend it, but, 

 as before stated, the practices govern- 

 ing it have largely nullified its good 

 features, and the resulting evils can- 

 not be fully overcome without legisla- 

 tion. 



The area of the desert entry should 

 be cut down from 320 acres to not ex- 

 ceeding 1 60 acres, and discretion 

 should be given to the Secretary of 

 the Interior to cut it down still further 

 where it is apparent that intensive cul- 

 tivation is practicable. A farm of 320 

 acres, if irrigated, is entirely too large 

 for a single family, and its possession 

 simply prevents other settlers from 

 coming into the country. Further- 

 more, it makes land monopoly easy 

 and induces speculation. 



Actual living at home on the land 

 for not less than two years should be 

 required before patent. Your Com- 

 mission cannot understand why any 

 settler should be given both a home- 

 stead and a desert entry, either of which 

 without the other should suffice, under 

 the law, to furnish him a home. The 

 desert-land law should be a means of 

 settlement, and actual bona fide resi- 

 dence should be rigidly required. 



The actual production of a valuable 

 crop should be required on not less 

 than one-fourth of the area of the en- 

 try. At present, as a rule, the greater 

 part of the desert entries are never 

 actually watered. Hundreds of desert 

 entries were examined by mmbers of 

 the Commission in the last year, and 

 the great majority of them were found 

 to be uninhabited, unirrigated, unculti- 

 vated, and with no improvements 

 other than a fence. This applies both 

 to desert entries upon which final 

 proof is now being offered and to 



