The Meeker herald., 1916-01-29
The stockraising Homestead Law,

relative to the provisions of the $40.
acre homestead law. In order to en7
| tighten all our readers interested In
the matter, we give the following
summary of the law. hear in mind '
the bill has not yet passed the Senatea
but Congressman Taylor writes TIM
| HERALD that it is almost sure to pass
in that body.
Section is the formal authority fOf
entering of stock raising homestead
combining the limit to $40 acres and
providing that the land must thereto-
fore be designated by the secretary
of the interior as stock-raising land,
Sectiou 2authorizes the secretary OF
the interior to designate such lands
as may, in his Judgment, be suitable
for this kind of an entry, which must
be land containing no understandable
timber and not susceptible to irriga-
ton. The provision is inserted prin-
cipally at the request of the interior
department in order to make the bill
workable.
Section 3 contains Il change in the
existing law in regard to the cultiva-
tion of II certain portion of the homes
stead entry. Under this provision the
entryman is required to make perma-
nent improvements to the value of
*l.25 an acre upon the land entered, !.
tending to increase the value of the
same for stock raising purposes, one
half of such improvements to be
of entry.
Section is for the relief and equit-l
able treatment of entrymen who
entered homeSteads under the
1850 and 320 acre homestead acts
upon lands chiefly valuable for
grazing and who afterwards found, by
costly experience, that farming WAS
impossible on small tracts of such,
lands. The hearings show that many
of them have held on and eked out
their existance by grazing few head
of stock on the unentered public lands
near enough for grazing purposes to
their respective small homesteads.
But upon the enactment of a 640-acre
homestead law, such nearby public
lands will soon be taken up by other
entrymen of 64O-a acre tracts. Thus the
already Impoverished pioneer would
be condemned to final extinction, a.
he could not live by farming, and
would be deprived of the use of pub
lie lands for grazing. Section I, there
fore, provides that entrymen of tracts
of $40 acres or less on lands subse-
guently made subject to the 640-acre
homestead, who have not submitted
final proof upon their said prior en-
tries, shall have the right to enter
upon other such lands, of like char
acter, contiguous to their said prior
entries as shall not exceed, together
with their said prior entries, 640acres
in each case, but residence upon the
original entry shall be credited upon
both entries and the expenditure of
$l.25 per acre must be made upon the
additional entry in each case.
There was an urgent appeal to the
committee to make this section broad
er than it is, and unquestionably
there will be many deserving entry
men who cannot take advantage Of
this additional homestead right At
the same time, the committee believes
that this is rs far as they would be
warranted in going at this time tow
ard the relief of settlers upon arid
lands.
While section / relates to entrymen
who have not submitted final proof
on such prior entry, section extends
the same right of contiguous entry,
up to a total of $40 acres, to such en-
trymen as have submitted final proof
or received patent on such original
entries, but the expenditure of per-
manent improvements must be made
upon the additional entries.
While sections and 5 relate only
to land contiguous to the original en-
try, section 6 that was recommended
to be struck out of the bill is for the
relief of such entrymen on lands Of
the character herein described, in
tracts of 800 acres or less, who have
entries entirely surrounded by other
entries, and contiguous to whose re-
spective entries, therefore, no public
lands are available subject to entry.
For the relief of such entrymen, there
fore, under the provisions of the bill
introduced, any entryman of lands of
the character herein described is CIV
en- the right to make an additional
entry of sufficient land to make, with
the amount of his original entry or
patent, 6i0 acres within 10 miles of
his original entry. While this provis-