95 



been cultivated, to comply with provisions of the three-year homestead 

 law, the following letter was written by the Associate Forester, and all 

 district foresters should be guided thereby : 



I ana informally advised that the General Land Office has held in 

 a number cases that the provisions of the act of June 6, 1912, 

 with reference to cultivation, must be complied with where home- 

 stead entry is made subsequent to the date of the passage of the 

 act. It has also been learned informally that all requests for 

 reduction of area required to be under cultivation, in case of en- 

 tries under the act of June 6, 1912, are, for the present, being 

 transmitted to the Field Service of the General Land Office for 

 investigation and report before action is taken thereon by the Sec- 

 retary of the Interior. While the Forest Service does not desire 

 to invite criticism unnecessarily, it is, nevertheless, its duty to 

 report the facts in reference to such claims. In the letter of trans- 

 mittal to the chief of Field Division, a statement should be in- 

 cluded to the effect that the protest is made ; only because of the 

 provisions of the act of June 6, 1912, with regard to cultivation, by 

 all claimants who have made entry subsequent to that date, and 

 that if later the proper authorities should decide that such com- 

 pliance is not necessary in the case of squatters who were precluded 

 from making entry prior to that date solely because of the unsur- 

 veyed s1j,atus of the lands, no objection to the patenting of the 

 claim would be offered by the Forest Service. 



Settlement Indians in National Forests Entitled to Allotments, 



Pursuant to a letter dated December 4, 1912, from the First Assistant 

 Secretary of the Interior (Land Allotments, 113664-12 W.A.M.), the 

 following circular letter was addressed to District Foresters under date 

 of December 7, 1912 : 



I will be very glad if you will instruct the supervisors of the 

 National Forests in your district, and they, in turn, their rangers 

 and other field officers, that whenever they have knowledge of a 

 tract of agricultural land within the Forest that is occupied by an 

 Indian, or upon which an Indian has made improvements, they 

 make report thereof to you. Such report should contain the name 

 of the Indian, if it is known, the nature of the occupancy, and the 

 character, extent, and value of the improvements, so far as the 

 same can be given, in a general way witnout a detailed examination 

 being made. Such report should then be transmitted by you to the 

 Commissioner of Indian Affairs, reference being made in the letter 

 of transmittal to the First Assistant Secretary's letter of December 

 4, 1912, and to these instructions. A copy of these instructions 

 has been forwarded to the Secretary of the Interior for his infor- 

 mation. 



Settlement Construction Act of August 10, 1912. 



The Solicitor has agreed that the provision of the Agricultural ap- 

 propriation act that no lands listed under the act of June 11, 1906, 

 shall pass from the Forest until patent issues may be considered as 

 retroactive. The suspension of Manual Amendment No. 136 is v there- 

 fore withdrawn and that amendment is now in full force and effect. 



