LANDS HOMESTEADS. 41 



GENERAL HOMESTEAD LAWS. 



Rights of way over homestead claims. 



Sec. 2288. Any bona fide settler under the preemption, homestead, 

 or other settlement law shall have the right to transfer by warranty 

 against his own acts any portion of his claim for church, cemetery, 

 or school purposes, or for the right of way of railroads, telegraph, 

 telephones, canals, reservoirs, or ditches for irrigation or drainage 

 across it; and the transfer for such public purposes shall in no way 

 vitiate the right to complete and perfect the title to his claim. (As 

 amended Mar. 3, 1905, 33 Stat., 991.) 



Persons entitled to claims. 



Sec. 2289. Every person who is the head of a family, or who has 

 arrived at the age of twenty-one years, and is a citizen of the United 

 States, or who has filed his declaration of intention to become such, 

 as required by the naturalization laws, shall be entitled to enter one 

 quarter section, or a less quantity, of unappropriated public lands, 

 to be located in a body in conformity to the legal subdivisions of the 

 public lands ; but no person who is the proprietor of more than one 

 hundred and sixty acres of land in any State or Territory shall ac- 

 quire any right under the homestead law. And every person owning 

 and residing on land may, under the provisions of this section, enter 

 other land lying contiguous to his land, which shall not, with the 

 land so already owned and occupied, exceed in the aggregate one 

 hundred and sixty acres. (As amended Mar. 3, 1891, 26 Stat., 1098.) 



Mode of procedure. . 



Sec. 2290. That any person applying to enter land under the pre- 

 ceding section shall first make and subscribe before the proper officer 

 and file in the proper land office an affidavit that he or she is the 

 head of a family, or is over twenty-one years of age, and that such 

 application is honestly and in good faith made for the purpose of 

 actual settlement and cultivation, and not for the benefit of any other 

 person, persons, or corporation, and that he or she will faithfully 

 and honestly endeavor to comply with all the requirements of law 

 as to settlement, residence, and cultivation necessary to acquire title 

 to the land applied for ; that he or she is not acting as agent of any 

 person, corporation, or syndicate in making such entry, nor in col- 

 lusion with any person, corporation, or syndicate to give them the 

 benefit of the land entered, or any part thereof, or the timber thereon ; 

 that he or she does not apply to enter the same for the purpose of 

 speculation, but in good faith to obtain a home for himself, or her- 

 self, and that he or she has not directly or indirectly made, and will 

 not make, any agreement or contract in any way or manner, with any 

 person or persons, corporation, or syndicate whatsoever, by which 

 the title which he or she might acquire from the Government of the 

 United States should inure, in whole or in part, to the benefit of any 

 person, except himself, or herself, and upon filing such affidavit with 

 the register or receiver on payment of five dollars, when the entry 

 is of not more than eighty acres, and on payment of ten dollars, 

 when the entry is for more than eighty acres, he or she shall there- 

 upon be permitted to enter the amount of land specified. (As 

 amended Mar. 3, 1891, 26 Stat., 1098.) 



