10 MISC. PUBLICATION 135, U. S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE 
ascertain as to the location and extent of lands within permanent or 
temporary forest reserves, except the following counties in the State 
of California, Inyo, Tulare, Kern, San Luis Obispo, Santa Barbara, 
Ventura, Los Angeles, San Bernardino, Orange, Riverside, and San 
Diego; which are chiefly valuable for agriculture, and which, in his 
opinion, may be occupied for agricultural purposes without injury 
to the forest reserves, and which are not needed for public purposes, 
and may list and describe the same by metes and bounds, or other- 
wise, and file the lists and descriptions with the Secretary of the 
Interior, with the request that the said lands be opened to entry in 
accordance with the provisions of the homestead laws and this act. 
Upon the filing of any such list or description the Secretary of 
the Interior shall declare the said lands open to homestead settlement 
and entry in tracts not exceeding one hundred and sixty acres in area 
and not exceeding one mile in length, at the expiration of sixty days 
from the filing of the list in the land office of the district within 
which the lands are located, during which period the said list or de- 
scription shall be prominently posted in the land office and advertised 
for a period of not less than four weeks in one newspaper of general 
circulation published in the county in which the lands are situated: 
Provided, That any settler actually occupying and in good faith 
claiming such lands for agricultural purposes prior to January first, 
nineteen hundred and six, and who shall not have abandoned the 
same, and the person, if qualified to make a homestead entry, upon 
whose application the land proposed to be entered was examined and 
listed, shall each in the order named, have a preference right of set- 
tlement and entry: Provided further, That any entryman desiring to 
obtain patent to any lands described by metes and bounds entered by 
him under the provisions of this act shall, within five years of the 
date of making settlement, file, with the required proof of; residence 
and cultivation, a plat and field notes of the lands entered, made by 
or under the direction of the United States surveyor general, show- 
ing accurately the boundaries of such lands, which shall be distinctly 
marked by monuments on the ground, and by posting a copy of such 
plat, together with a notice of the time and place of offering proof, in 
a conspicuous place on the land embraced in such plat during the 
period prescribed by law for the publication of his notice of intention 
to offer proof, and that a copy of such plat and field notes shall also 
be kept posted in the office of the register of the land office for the land 
district in which such lands are situated for a like period; and further, 
that any agricultural lands within forest reserves may, at the dis- 
cretion of the Secretary, be surveyed by metes and bounds, and that 
no lands entered under the provisions of this act shall be patented 
under the commutation provisions of the homestead laws, but set- 
tlers, upon final proof, shall have credit for the period of their actual 
residence upon the lands covered by their entries. 
Settlement forbidden. 
Src. 5. That nothing herein contained shall be held to authorize 
any future settlement on any lands within forest reserves until such 
lands have been opened to settlement as provided in this act, or to 
in any way impair the legal rights of any bona fide homestead settler 
who has or shall establish residence upen public lands prior to their 
inclusion within a forest reserve. 
