Arizona silver belt., 1906-06-14
AGRICULTURAL LANDS
On Forest Reserves Open to Entry
 Law on Subject

On Forest Reserves Open to Entry
 Law on Subject
 An act to provide for the entry o agricultural lands within forest re serves.
 Be it enacted by the senate ant house of representatives of the United States of America in congress as sembled,
 That the secretary of agriculture may, in his discretion, and he is hereby authorized, upon application or other wise, to examine and ascertain as tC the location and extent of lands within permanent or temporary forest re- serves, which are chiefly valuable for agriculture, and which. in his opinion, may be occupied for agricultural pur- poses without injury to forest reserves, and which are not needed for public purposes, and may list and describe the same by metes and bounds, or otherwise, and file the lists and descrip- tions 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 inter- for shall declare the said lands open to homestead settlement and entry to 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 land is located, during which period the said list or description shall be prominently posted in the land office and advertised for a period of not less general circulation published in the county in which the lands are situated. Provided: That any settler actually oc- cupying 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 settlement and en- try. Provided further: That any en- tryman 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, by or under the di- rection of the United States surveyor general, showing accurately the bound Ories of such lands, which shall be dis tinctly marked by monuments on the ground, and by posting copy of such plat, together with notice of the time and place of offering proof. in con spicuous place on the land embraced in in such plat during the period prescrib- ed by law for the publication of his mo- tice of intention to offer proof and that 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 for which such lands are situ- ated fo- like period; and further, that any agricultural lands within forest re- serves may, at the discretion of the secretary, be surveyed by metes and bounds, and that no lands entered un- der the provisions of this act shall be patented under the commtations pro- visions of the homestead laws, but set tiers, upon final proof, shall have cred it for the period of their actual resi- dence upon the lands covered by their entries.
 Sec. 9. That settlers upon lands chiefly valuable for agriculture within forest reserves on January 1. 1906, who have already exercised or lost their homestead laws, are hereby granted an additional homestead right of entry for the purposes of this act only, and such settlers must otherwise comply with the provisions of this sec tion, such payments to be made at the time of making final proof on such lands.
 Sec. 3. That all entries under this act in the Black Hill forest reserve shall be subject to the quartz or lode mining laws of the United States, and the laws and regulations permitting the location, appropriation, and use of the waters within the said forest re- serves for mining, irrigation and other purposes; and no titles acquired to agricultural lands in said Black Hills forest reserve under this act shall vest in the patentee any riparian rights to any stream or streams of flowing wat CT within said reserve; and that such limitation of title shall be expressed in the patents for the lands covered by such entries.
 Sec. 4. That no homestead settle ments or entries shall be allowed in that portion of the Black Hills forest reserve in Lawrence and Pennington counties in South Dakota except to persons occupying lands therein prior to January I, 1906, and the provisions of this act shall apply to the said coun- tIes in said reserve only so far as is necessary to give and perfect title of such settlers or occupants to lands chiefly valuable for agricultural therein occupied or claimed by them prior to the said date. and all homestead entries under this act in said counties in said reserve shall be described by metes and bounds survey.
 Sec. 5. Tfiat nothing herein con- tained shall be held to authorize any