46 



THE IRRIGATION AGE. 



come from imperfect storage of your seed stock. 

 You cannot control them in pits, and until you have 

 storage where you can control the temperature, you 

 will have continual trouble with seed potatoes. I 

 think some movement should be started here if 

 individuals are not in financial condition to build 

 an individual storage farmers could co-operate to 

 build a storage cellar together, and in that way even 

 up the marketing and control of your potatoes. 



"There is no industry now on the farm that 

 looks to me so bright as the potato industry. We 

 are dependent on the work of the American farmer. 



"If you can keep your soils free from disease 

 and follow the plans of Dr. Orton and Dr. Corbett 

 as to seed selection and plant work, and grow your 

 own seed on those methods, you will double your 

 output, and there is no crop grown on the American 

 farm that will make so much profit for capital and 

 labor as the potato business in the future. No- 

 where on the globe have you such favorable condi- 

 tions for growing the highest quality and greatest 

 yield of potatoes as you have in the Snake River 

 Valley, Idaho." 



Certainly these remarks were much appre- 

 ciated by we new people in this new and wonderful 

 agricultural section of southern Idaho. 



Yours truly, FRANK S. REID. 



MONTHLY DIGEST 



Of Important Points Recently Decided by the Sec- 

 tary of the Interior. 



HOMESTEADS. 



It is not residence within the meaning of the 

 homestead law for one to return occasionally to his 

 land while habitually absent engaged in a vocation 

 necessarily requiring his absence. 



An entry made upon land, subsequently with- 

 drawn but later restored, has the same effect upon 

 the entry as abandonment, and the entryman must 

 therefore be governed by the general homestead 

 laws. 



FINAL PROOF. 



The mere fact that final proof is regular does 

 not bar the land department from proceeding 

 against an entry for failure to comply with the law. 

 The final proof is merely claimant's assertion, which 

 is not conclusive upon the Government. 



The land department has ample authority to 

 investigate into the truth of final proof upon an 

 entry any time before patent issues. 



PRACTICE. 



The Department has the unquestioned power 

 and has long exercised the same to order a hear- 

 ing in any case irrespective of technical proced- 

 ure, where justice to the parties seems to the De- 

 partment to require that such hearing be had. 



The Department has ample authority, under 

 its supervisory power, to relieve against the in- 

 advertance, mistake or deceit which resulted in the 

 dismissal of a contest, notwithstanding the pen- 

 dency of a junior contest on the same land. 



The rules of practice have the force and effect 

 of laws, and when not complied with, the omis- 

 sion is at the peril of the one violating these rules. 



The Department cannot recognize the bind- 

 ing force upon it or upon the Commissioner of 

 the General Land Office of any stipulation en- 

 tered into at a hearing by special agents and at- 

 torneys for parties in interest, which may preclude 

 the consideration in the case of any question vital 

 to the validity or regularity of the claim. 



In making withdrawals and classification of 

 large areas of land, the Government finds it im- 

 practicable and unnecessary to determine as to the 

 status of each particular tract covered thereby, 

 and that frequently areas to which inchoate rights 

 are being asserted, and even patented tracts, are 

 included in such withdrawals and classifications. 

 The fact that a certain tract happens to be de- 

 scribed in a list of lands withdrawn or classified 

 does not of itself determine the ownership or in 

 any manner affect the title thereto. 



DESERT LANDS. 



The reclamation act of June 17th, 1907, only 

 permits homestead entries to be made on the ex- 

 press understanding that they will be reduced to 

 the area determined by the Secretary to be suffi- 

 cient for the support of a family. 



Public irrigable lands in reclamation projects 

 are, under the letter and spirit of the reclamation 

 laws, to be divided among as many families as the 

 lands will properly and reasonably support. The 

 assignment act of June 23rd, 1910, does not modify 

 this requirement, but, on the contrary, expressly 

 imposes it upon assignments. 



The reclamation required in desert land con- 

 templates proof of a water supply sufficient and 

 permanent as well as an irrigation system ade- 

 quate and substantial under usual conditions for 

 the raising of ordinary agricultural crops. 



In the Potato Country Roaring Fork Valley, Colorado. 



