The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-11-09
Cnder Desert Lama Act of
Marcf, 3, ls-?.

MFNI OF THE lNTERIgR,l |
LAND OFFICE,
Washington, ID. c. September 3, 1880.
To Registers and Receioers Uni d States
Land Offices:
GENTLEMEN 1t appears from evidence on
lille Ill this office that desert land entries have. |
IN many cases, been made in narrow longitu- |
dinal tracts along the margin of streams,
without reference to the requirement of the |
act OF congress of March 3, 1877, that each
tract shall be in compact foIm."
1t is also authoritatively represented that. !
under the practlce of locating meanueling
sections on the streams, large quantities Of
lay lands have been taken up in certain dis
trlcts, irrespective of the restriction in said
act combining desert entries to Glands which
will not, without irrigation, produce some
agricultural CROP
The act of March 8, 1877, authorizes any
qualified person, upon the payment of twenty
nve cents per acre, to file a declaration under
oath of his intention to reclaim ga tract of
desert land, not exceeding one s%ection,'' by
conducting water upon the same within three
years thereafter. 1t defines the right to the
use OF water conducted on or to ''any tract
of desert land of six hundred and forty acres"
The declaration of intention shall particularly
describe "said section," if surveyed, and, if
unsulveyed, shall describe the same as nearly
as possible without a survey. At any time
dlleI GuIce YEARS, upon satisfactory PROOF OF
the reclamation Of "said tract" and the pay
ment "of the additional sum of one dollar
per acre for a tract of land not exceeding six
hundred and forty acres to any one person, a
patent for the same shall be issued to him !:
P~rOrided, That no person shall lie permitted
to enter more than one tract of land, and not
to exceed SIX hundred and forty acres, which
shall be in compact FORM
The law allows The entry Of a tract Of des-
at l>..l - ;r- - I...l -l .l Y--1,
acres. 1t must be in compact form. These
are the essential conditions ~ILiatI,c TO the
quantity and situation Oh the land that may
be entered unG"" this act. Hence, desert ell
tries are not 1t -'"ttd to specific technical
sections, but to the Quantity Of land embraced
III u technical section. The land mus also
be III "cOlnpact form
The requirement Of cOnIrt2tncSs o. form
will be held to bc complied with ousurr'yeu
lands when a section, OF part thereof, IS de-
sGG4bcd by lc&al subdivisions compact with
each other, as nearly in The form OF atcchni-
cal section RS the situation Of the land and
its relation TO other lands Will admit Of, al
though parts o. I've u more sections be taken
to make up tEp quantity Or equivalent u 0G2
sectioE Bat entries Which s}tow Ul0A tiNeir
face an absolute departure tiuiA all rcasoMa-
bic requirements Of cumVActntsS, and hHlng
merely contagious by }hn joining Of ends to
each other, will not be admitted. WAclnv' on
surveyed OF on u!,SuGv2ye2i l1iids.
On musurvtycu !un1s Tie d1gler 81 con-,
plctufss required will be sucI! *, upon tie
adjustment Of t." lines after the NNrycE. will
bring the land within tic limits aH'l genera!
form OF q t~ayirtirl! section. or i@rt l!,"!t".,a as
nearly eS mAE be.
III no ease will tie side lines be Egrmitte,
to exceed Ole m!la and 4 qua ten when I'll,
ful! Q~uartitY cIslN undIcu aud forty &.reS i