Custer weekly chronicle. [volume] (Custer City, S.D.) 1890-1931, 1912-08-10
INTERPRETATION OF LAW.
Comprehensive Review of Three Year
Homestead Bill That VIII In
terest Homesteaders.

homestead law recently passed by Con.
gress. A portion of the law follows:
| Residence.
BY the Act of June 9th, 1912, the per.
iod of residence necessary to be shown
in order to entitle person to patent
under the homestead laws is reduced
from five to three years, and the period
within which homestead entry may be
completed is reduced from seven to five
years. The three year period Of resi-
dence, however, is fixed not from the
date ofthe entry but "from the time Of
establishing actual permanent residence
upon the land" 1t follows, as a con-
sequence, that credit can not be given
for constructive residence for the per-
iod that may elapse between the date
of the entry and that of establishing
actual permanent residence upon the
land.
Prior to the passage of this act no spe.
cific amount of cultivation had been re-
quired respecting homestead entry
made under the general law that is, an
entry for 100 acres. With respect to
every such entry Section 229l of the Re-
vised Statutes had required proof of
"cultivating the same for the term of
five years Immediately succeeding the
time of filing affidavit"
In reducing the period of residence
required in. perfecting title to tract OF
land entered under the homestead law
from five to three years Congress has re-
quired that it be shown that an actual
cultivation has been accomplished of at
least certain specified portions of the
land entered. This amount has been
fixed at one-sixteenth, beginning with
the second year of the entry, and one.
eighth the following year, and until
proof is offered. In view of the liberal
reduction in the period of residence
making it possible to secure title in
three years, which would require show
ing of but two years cultivation of one
sixteenth of the area entered, and an ad-
ditional one-sixteenth for but one year,
mere breaking of the soil will not meet
the terms of the statute, but such
breaking or stirring of the soil
must also be accompanied by the plant
ing or the sowing of seed and tillage for
crop other than native grasses.
1t should be noted that under the
new law the period within which the
cultivation should be made is reckoned
from the date of the entry.
Reduction of Cultivation.
The Secretary of the Interior is au-
thorized, upon satisfactory showing
therefor, to reduce the required area of
cultivation. In the administration of
this provision it is not believed that the
physical or financial disabilities or mis-
fortunes of the entryman should be the
grounds of reduction, but the sole ques-
ton should be as to whether, under the
peculiar conditions governing the tract
entered, the exaction of cultivation of
this particular tract by any entryman to
the amount required is reasonable. The
actual special physical and climatic con-
ditions of the land entered in each case
must therefore determine whether the
required amount of cultivation should be
reduced. 1t is desirable that the entry
man should, wherever practicable, know
in advance what, if any, reduction can
properly be made; and therefore, as a
general regulation governing applica-
tions for reduction in area of fcultivation,
it is directed that all entrymen who de
sire a reduction shall file applications
therefor during the first year of the en-
try and upon forms to be prepared and
furnished by the Commissioner of the
General Land Office and distributed
through the land Offices. Where sat-
isfactory showing is filed in support of
an application for reduction, you will
submit the same with your recommends
ton in the premises; otherwise the ap-
plication will be by you rejected subject
to the usual right of appeal. The final
granting ofany reduction in area of cul-
tivation rests with the Secretary of the
Interior, who may in appropriate cases
defer action until final proof
Exceptions to Rule.
The requirements as to cultivation do
not apply to entries made for lands
within reclamation project under the
Act of June 18th, 1902, (S2 Stat, SSS),
nor to entries made in State of Nebraska
under the Act of April 2Sth, 1904, (SS
Stat, 547), commonly known as the Kin.
kaid Act. In such instances the exist
ing requirements as to cultivation made
by the acts named continue in force.
In all entries made under Section OF
the enlarged homestead acts (35 Stat,
699, and SO Stat, 53D, under which resi-
dence is not required, the entryman
must cultivate at least one-eighth of the
land in the second year after date of the
entry and one-fourth of it during each
year thereafter until be makes proof,
and the existing period of cultivation
required under said acts is not reduced
by the Act of June 9th, 1912.
The law clearly requires that the
homestead entryman shall establish an
actual residence upon the land entered
within six months after the date of en-
try. Where, owing to climatic reasons,
sickness, or other unavoidable cause
residence can not be commenced within
this period, the Commissioner of the
General Land Office, may within his
discretion, allow the settler such addi'
tional period, not exceeding in the az.