The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1915-03-29
HOW TO Get Land
Kansas Enlarged Homestead
Act Covers Only 100000 Acres.
One Person May Enter a 800
Acre Tract.

Washington, March 29.-One of the
last acts of the Sixty-third congress
the provisions of the act of February
10, 1909, known as the enlarged
! homestead act.' to the state of Kan
sas. The law was approved by the
president March 8, 1915. By this act
| a homestead entry may be made for
an area of $50 acres or less of lands
designated by the secretary of the in
| terror as nonirrigable, provided that
the lands are located in reasonable
campact body not over one and one
| half miles in extreme length, that they
| do not contain understandable timber,
and that they are nOnminera1, unre-
served, unappropriated and surveyed.
The determination of the character of
the lands as regards irrigability is en-
| trusted by the law to the secretary of
| the interior, and the duty of making
the required classification has been
delegated by him to the geological
| survey.
remaining in Kansas is, however, not
large, being approximately 10000
acres, scattered through about 20
counties. The largest areas of public
land are in Morton, Cheyenne, and
Hamilton counties, along the western
border of the state. Even in these
counties the amount of public land
does not, however, exceed per cent
of the total area 1t is also probable
that the remaining public lands in
the state are Of inferior quality for
agriculture, as the more attractive
lands have in general passed into pri-
vate ownership.
The enlarged homestead act gives
to a homestead entryman the right to
acquire a second quarter section of
public land adjacent to his present
homestead as ar additional entry, and
under certain restrictions a homestead
entryman VINO has made final proof
may also make such an additional en-
try. Under such circumstances, how
ever, the lands included in the original
entry must also be designated under
the enlarged homestead act as nom
irrigable in character.
How to Enter Land.
An act approved by the president
on March 4, 1915, provides that an
application to enter lands under the
enlarged homestead act, when duly
filed in the local land office, serves to
segregate the land applied for from
other entry pending a determination
by the department of it's suitability
for this type of entry. That is, such
an application gives the applicant a
preference right to enter the lands if
they are eventually designated by the
secretary. If it is determined finally
that the lands are irrigable are
otherwise not subject to entry under
the enlarged homestead act, the ap
plication is rejected and the lands
again become available for ordinary
homestead entry in $50 acre tracts:
The proper procedure, then, for
those who desire to avail themselves
of this extension of the enlarged
homestead act to Kansas, whether
they propose to make original en-
larged entries or are already entry
men or owners of tracts adjacent to
the additional lands that they wish to
acquire, is to file in the appropriate
local land office an application to en-
ter the lands whose designation is de-
sired, not forgetting that the land in
the original entry, if one exists, must
be designated as well as the additional
land. Until the character of the land
is determined, this application will
serve to segregate it-that is, to give
the applicant preference right to
enter it should it ultimately be desig-
mated To assist in the prompt deter
mination of the character of the land,
the applicant is required to accompany
mis- application by an affidavit which
should give all facts that bear upon
the question of the irrigability of all
lands proposed to be included in the
double homestead.
This affidavit after filing will be
land Office to the geological survey in
Washington, and the survey will re-
port to the secretary of the interior
as to whether or not the lands are sub
ject TO designation. particularly as re-
CARDS their irrigability.
Action will be taken each re-
/ quest as promptly as is consistent with
a proper regard to other requests that
i are pending. and the applicant will be
promptly notified when a final de-