The La Jara chronicle., 1906-01-05

last year the repeal OF the assign
ment clause. This provision has
been made the convenient vehicle for
evading the spirit of the law and for
facilitating the acquisition of lands In
large holdings. The law limits the
amount which one person or associa.
ton of persons may hold, by assign
ment or otherwise, prior to patent to
800 acres Of such arid or desert
lands. The most common form of at
tempted evasion OF this requirement
Is for two or three individuals to
form themselves into a corporation,
each individual member of the corpo-
ration securing, by entry or assign
ment, $40 acres of such lands and
the corporation as such 800 acres.
These same individuals then form an
other corporation under an entirely
different name and procure an as
signment of another 800 acres. and
this process is continued indefinitely.
The General Land Office has within
the past year endeayored to put a
stop TO this practice by holding that
corporation or association of per-
sons is not qualified to receive a des-
ert-land entry by assignment where
Its individual members either singly
or in the aggregate are holding $50
acres of such arid or desert lands.
This ruling, If enforced, will tend to
lessen the evils resulting from large
holdings prior to patent, but it is not
deemed possible TO secure adequate
control of this question unless the
law prohibits assignments of desert
land entries. BY repeating that pro-
vision of the law and requiring the
claimant TO show that he has made
the entry for his own use aud benefit
a 10 hn Of of ha-
person or corporation and that he
has made no agreement by which the
title shall inure to any other person
or corporation the evils Incident to
large holdings of such lands under
the sanction of law will be materially
lessened
1t is n striking fact that these large
holdings of desert land are not re-
claimed and devoted to their best
use. Three hundred and twenty acres
of irrlgabe land is entirely too much
for economical handling by one per-
son. On the other hand, inspection
shows that in the same locality and
under the same climatic conditions the
homestead entries. where not COM
muted, are reclaimed and utilized.
The desertland act as 1t stands up
on the statute books appears to have
many features which commend 1t,
as before stated, the practices gov
erning it have largely nullifcd its
good features, and the resulting
evils cannot be fully overcome with
out Legislation.
The area of the desert entry
should be cut down from 800 acres to
not exceeding 160 acres, and discre-
ton should be given 10 the Secretary
Of the Interior to cut it down still /
further where it is apparent that in |
tensive cultivation is practicable. A |
farm of 800 acres, If irrigated, is en-
tlrely too large for 4 single family, |
md its possession simply prevents .
other settlers from coming into the
Furthermore, it makes land
easy and induces specula-
ion.
Actual living at home on the land
or not less than two years should |
Ie required before patent Your
Commission can not understand why
my settler should be given both q
homestead and desert entry, either
# which without the otner should suf-
ice, under the law, to furnish him a
home. The desert-land law should
be n means of settlement, and actr.al
bona fide residence should be rlgidly
-eQuired
Tnc actual production of valuable
cop should Jc required on not less
han one-fourth the area of the en-
.ry. At present, as a rule, the great
n part of the desert entries are
never actually watered. Hundreds
II desert entries We're examined by
members of the Commission in the
last year, and the great ajority of
them were found to be uninhabited,
uncultlvated, and with
no improvements other than fence.
Dnn1inS tn
on which n final proof is now being
offered and to other entries to which |
title has been given.
1t is fact that very small pro- |
portion of the land disposed of under |
the terms of the law has actually !
been reclaimed and irrigated and
of many hundreds of desert |