The Glenwood post., 1911-12-16
HoMESTEADING ON THE
WHITE RIVER NATIONAL FOREST

during the past season. According to
Forest Supervisor Blair, the total area
of land listed this year will be the
greatest since the passage of the act
permitting national forest land more
valuable for agriculture than for for
est purposes to be entered under the
homestead law.
This act was passed in June, 1906,
and since that date approximately
22,4IS acres have been recommended
for listing. The examinations made
during the past season have covered
6,S93 acres, of which 6,l99 acres have
been recommended as suitable for list
ing The work of making the field ex-
amiuations has been brought practi-
eally up to date, as there are only 20
applications on file for land which has
not been given an examination.
1t is the feeling among local forest
officers that as the public has become
familiar with the true intent of the law
and its practical working, the problem
involved in opening to settlement lands
within national forests which will WELD
their best use under cultivation has
become much more simple. The re-
suits which are now being obtained are
regarded as reasonably satisfactory
both to the national forest administra-
ton and to the public. When the law
was first passed an excessive number OF
applications We're made for land on
which the value of the timber made 1t
necessary to recommend against list
applied for shows that applicants now
understand pretty well the reasons
which govern decisions on the part of
the examiners. The forest service is
glad to have bona fide homesteaders
within the forests on land which will in
the long run be put to its best use
through settlement, and forest officers
are expected to help applicants for
such land to obtain the homes which
they seek.
The mistaken idea that all settlement
within the forests was regarded as OBJ
.ieetionable by the forest service and
that difficulties would be thrown in the
way If applicants, which for time was
more or less widespread, is believed to
have been due to a misconception of
l,u ap1 Of the
actual conditions. The law itself gives
no authority for the listing Of any land
which is found to be less valuable for
agriculture than for forest purposes.
Many people have supposed that large
bodies of agricultural lands existed
within the forests and were known to
the forest officers, so that all that the
prospective homesteader needed to do
was to apply for information as TO
where he could take up land. AS most
of the land suitable for farming lies in
small patches or in narrow valleys,
each individual location has to be
sought out. When considerable bodies
of agricultural land are known to exist,
they are excluded from the forest in
block and opened to settlement in the
ordinary way under the homestead act.
1t is not the duty of forest officers to
hunt out desirable pieces of land so as
to be able to show them to homeseek-
ers; but after homeseeker has found
land that looks good to him, the forest
officer is expected to give the home
seeker all reasonable help by telling
him how to proceed. Forms are furn-
ished for making application for the
land, and when these have been proper
ly filed out they are sent to the dis
trict office at Denver. If there is no
adverse claim the local officers are di-
rected, usually within week, to make
an examination. Under ordinary cir
cumstances, field examination is made
and a report submitted to the distric.
forester within three months at the
outside after the receipt of the instruc-
tions to make the examination.
If it is found that the land is chiefly
valuable for agriculture, the secretary
of agriculture lists the land with the
secretary of the interior, and in due
time it is thrown open to entry. The
applicant is given a sixty days. prefer
ence right after the list is fled in the
local land office, to enter the land. If
he does not enter it within this period
the land is open to entry by anyone.
1t becomes a case of "first come, first
served"
After filing this entry, the entrymau
must live On the land for five years
before he can obtain patent.
The Post has received very hand
some 1912 calender with the compli
al