NATIONAL FOREST RESOURCES 227 



Interior for opening to entry in accordance with 

 the provisions of the Act. Agricultural lands 

 listed by the Secretary of Agriculture are opened 

 by the Secretary of the Interior to homestead entry 

 in tracts not exceeding 160 acres at the expiration 

 of 60 days from the filing of the lists in the local 

 Land Office. Notice of the filing of the list is 

 posted in the local Land Office and is published for 

 a period of not less than four weeks in a local news- 

 paper. The Act provides that the person upon 

 whose application the land is examined and listed, 

 if a qualified entryman, shall have the preference 

 right of entry. To exercise this preference right, 

 application to enter must be filed in the local Land 

 Office within 60 days after the filing of the list in 

 that office. The entrjonan can perfect his title to 

 the land within a certain period of years by fulfill- 

 ing certain conditions of residence and cultivation. 

 By the Act of June 6, 1912, known as the "Three 

 Year Homestead Act," the period of residence 

 necessary to be shown in order to entitle a person to 

 patent under the Homestead laws is reduced from 

 5 to 3 years and the period within which a home- 

 stead entry may be completed is reduced from 7 to 

 5 years. The new law requires the claimant to 



