Circular of November 3, 1909, relating to
applications, selections, etc., covering un-
surveyed lands............

Instructions of September 22, 1884, modi-
fied to permit applications to enter to be
received and suspended subject to the dis-
position of prior rejected applications; but
entries thereunder should not be allowed
until the prior applications have been
finally disposed of........

The elimination of one of the tracts em-
braced in an application to enter does not
constitute an amendment thereof or render
it subject to a conflicting state selection
filed subsequent to the application but prior
to the elimination...

287

458

380

In case of the death of an applicant whose
application was received during the thirty-
day preferred period accorded a successful
contestant and held subject to contestant's
right, his heirs, upon expiration of the pre-
ferred period without action by contestant,
are entitled to complete the right initiated
by the application and perfect entry there-
under in accordance with section 2291, R. S. 521
An appeal from the rejection of an appli-
cation to enter entitles the applicant to
judgment only as to the correctness of such
action at the time taken and upon the show-
ing made when the application was pre-
sented to and passed upon by the local offi-
cers; and if properly rejected when pre-
sented, it should not thereafter be allowed,
upon a supplemental showing filed with the
appeal, to the prejudice of an intervening
application filed prior to such appeal and
supplemental showing..

457

Approximation.

See Public Land.

Page.

The rule of approximation is applicable
to reclamation homesteads and to desert
entries within reclamation projects..... 513

Cemeteries and Parks.

General circular of August 7, 1909, relating
to townsites, parks, and cemeteries......

Citizenship.

See Isolated Tract.

One who at the date of the admission of
South Dakota into the Union was an inhab-
itant and recognized as a member of that
political community became by such admis-
sion a citizen of the United States; and his
minor children at that time residing in the
United States thereby, by virtue of the pro-
visions of section 2172 of the Revised Stat-
utes, also became citizens....

Coal Land.

92

257

Circular of September 7, 1909, relative to
protection of surface rights of entrymen.... 183
Form 4-357, relative to election to take
patent to surface rights, amended..

The term "person" as employed in the act
of March 3, 1909, includes a State; and where
lands embraced in a state selection are sub-
sequently classified as coal, the State is enti-
tled to the right of election provided by that
act...

The fact that at the date of the act of
March 3, 1909, the land embraced in a home-
stead entry had been, in a contest proceed-
ing then pending, adjudicated by one of the
tribunals of the land department to embrace
land chiefly valuable for coal, will not
deprive the entryman of the right to a patent
under that act, if otherwise within its
terms.......

576

245

536

647

No complete equitable interest or title
vests in a State by the approval of a segrega-
tion list under the Carey Act; and if subse-
quent to such approval and prior to final
approval of the patent list lands in the
segregation list are classified as coal, the
department is without authority, so long as
such classification stands, to approve or
patent such lands to the State, except in
accordance with the act of March 3, 1909.... 508
The benefits of the act of May 28, 1908,
authorizing the consolidation of claims or
locations of coal lands in Alaska, can be
shared only by persons who made such loca-
tions in good faith-that is, honestly and
lawfully-prior to November 16, 1906, in
their own interests individually, without
fraud, collusion, or deceit, or any purpose to
violate any provision of the law.

If certain agreements or arrangements
named, for transferring entries to a com-
pany or corporation, were entered into by
locators of coal lands in Alaska after they
had made their locations in good faith and in
their own interest alone, such locations
may, under the provisions of the act of May
28, 1908, lawfully pass to entry and patent
in accordance with the terms of said act;
but if these agreements or arrangements
were entered into prior to such locations
being made, the locations do not come
within the provisions of the act and can not
be lawfully passed to entry and patent.....

If an application to purchase, under sec-
tion 2347, Revised Statutes, is presented
and accepted at a time when the land is not
subject thereto, but, upon elimination of the
obstacle, is prosecuted openly and regularly
to completion, without objection or adverse
application by another in the interval or
within a time reasonably sufficient for the
prosecution of such proceedings, were the
earlier application not suspended or im-
peded by any rule or action of the land de-
partment which would be equally applica-
ble to a later application, the first should
be sustained. If, however, a later applicant
seasonably after the restoration presents his
application and seeks to perfect it, the first
and premature application should not en-
joy an unfair advantage because of priority,
but the other should be preferred.......
Confirmation.

86

86

528

While the Government may prosecute
investigations under proceedings begun
against an entry within two years after final
receipt at any time until the suspension on
account thereof has been formally removed,
it may not, after two years, require the en-
tryman to furnish additional evidence of
his compliance with law, unless such re-
quirement be in furtherance of like action
taken prior to the expiration of that period. 34

Contest.
Page.
An offer to sell the relinquishment of an
entry is not of itself a sufficient ground for
contest...

The charge that the assignee of a desert-
land entry is disqualified to take by assign-
ment is sufficient basis for a contest....

Land unadapted to any agricultural use is
not subject to entry under the homestead
law; and an affidavit of contest in effect
charging such inadaptability is sufficient
basis for a hearing...

The submission of final proof within the
lifetime of a homestead entry prevents ex-
piration thereof during the pendency of the
proof; and it is competent for the land de-
partment at any time while the entry re-
mains in force to entertain a contest against
the same..

187

253

265

190

In a contest against a homestead entry on
the ground of abandonment it is not neces-
sary, under the act of June 16, 1898, to either
allege or prove that the entryman's absence
was not due to military service, where the
United States was not engaged in war
during the period of abandonment
charged.
...... 317,563

Where an affidavit of contest charging
abandonment is properly rejected because
prematurely tendered before the expiration
of six months and one day after entry, and
a second affidavit is filed by another person
after the expiration of that period, the sec-
ond contest is entitled to priority, notwith-
standing the affidavit was executed prior to
the expiration of the period mentioned, es-
pecially where both affidavits were exe-
cuted the same day..........

187

Rejection of the commutation proof of-
fered by a homestead entryman does not
necessarily, in the absence of an adverse
claim and where sufficient time remains
within which the entryman may comply
with law and submit new proof, result in
cancellation of the entry; and the fact that
commutation proof was rejected by the local
officers and the General Land Office and is
pending before the department on appeal
is not, in such case, sufficient reason for re-
fusing to accept a contest against the entry
based upon a charge which if proven would
necessitate cancellation of the entry........ 563

Contestant.

Regulations of June 1, 1909, with respect
to preference right where there are two
contests and relinquishment is filed...... 23
Where at the time of the initiation of a
contest the contestant has a relinquish-
ment of the entry in his possession or under
his control, it can not in any sense, upon be-
ing subsequently filed, be treated as a result
of the contest, so as to give the contestant
any rights as against a settler on the land.. 381

Where one who had exhausted his right by
taking an entry by assignment was never-
theless permitted to make another entry in
his own name, it may be permitted to stand
if within the provisions of the act of March
26, 1908, authorizing second desert entries,
notwithstanding a pending contest charging
disqualification at the time the entry was
made...

Where assignment is made of a desert-
land entry and the assignee recognized by
the General Land Office, the entryman or
person making the assignment thereby
parts with his title to the land, even though
it be subsequently shown upon contest or
investigation that the assignee is not quali-
fied to hold by assignment....

It is not of itself evidence of fraud, or
ground for contest, that a group of desert-
land entrymen agree voluntarily to subject
their lands to the support of an irrigation
system from which water may be taken for
their-reclamation..

438

253

429

Where the final proof submitted upon a
desert-land entry shows that the entryman
has cultivated and irrigated at least one-
eighth of the land, and has constructed
ditches, owns a sufficient water right, has
brought water to the land, and is prepared
to turn water upon the entire tract when
it shall have been cleared and prepared for
cultivation, he is not required to show
further that water has actually been distrib-
uted over all the irrigable land in the entry. 420

Section 3 of the act of March 28, 1908, au-
thorizing an extension of time for the sub-
mission of final proof upon desert-land en-
tries where by reason of unavoidable delay
in the construction of the irrigating works
the entryman is unable to make proof of rec-
lamation and cultivation within the time
fixed by statute, furnishes no authority for
an extension of time to enable the entryman
to submit proof of annual expenditures.... 215
Where a government reclamation with-
drawal interferes with and results in the
abandonment of a private cooperative irriga-
tion enterprise, a desert-land entryman
interested in such enterprise and prevented
by the abandonment thereof from continu-
ing his improvements and submitting proof
within the time fixed by law is within the
act of June 27, 1906, and entitled to an exten-
sion of time under its provisions.....

474

Instructions of August 11, 1909, relative to
publication of final-proof notices and dis-
cretionary authority of registers in making
selection of newspapers for that purpose... 131
An application for extension of time with-
in which to submit final proof upon a desert-
land entry, and the affidavits to support the
same, must be executed before some officer
within the provisions of the act of March 4,
1904; and where executed before a notary
public can not be accepted..

Rejection of the commutation proof
offered by a homestead entryman does not
necessarily, in the absence of an adverse
claim and where sufficient time remains
within which the entryman may comply
with law and submit new proof, result in
cancellation of the entry.

Homestead.

GENERALLY.

Land unadapted to any agricultural use
is not subject to entry under the homestead
law...

The fact that land is covered with valu-
able timber does not exclude it from entry
under the homestead law, where of such
character that it would be suitable for agri-
cultural use if the timber were removed;
but land of a character not adaptable to
any agricultural use is not subject to home-
stead entry..

One who holds land under an unperfected
desert-land entry is not the proprietor there-
of within the meaning of the statute holding
disqualified to make homestead entry one
who is the proprietor of more than 160 acres
of land

A transfer of land by one owning more
than 160 acres, for the purpose of qualifying
himself to make a homestead entry, is not a
violation of law, provided the transfer is
final and made in good faith...

189

563

265

394

153

153

One who enters into an oral agreement to
purchase land, and makes part payment of
the purchase price, is not the proprietor of
the land within the meaning of the provi-
sion of the homestead law declaring dis-
qualified to make homestead entry one who
is the proprietor of more than 160 acres,
where under the laws of the State such oral
agreement and part payment do not con-
stitute such part performance as will take
the contract out of the Statute of Frauds... 613
ENTRY.

One holding the naked legal title to a tract
of land in which he has no beneficial interest
but holds as mere dry trustee for another
who paid the consideration therefor is not
the proprietor thereof within the meaning
of section 2289 of the Revised Statutes, de-
claring disqualified to make homestead
entry one who is the proprietor of more than
160 acres of land in any State or Territory.. 201
Instructions of March 29, 1910, respecting
second homestead entries..

507

A homesteader who had actually aban-
doned his entry, and which was subject to
cancellation on the ground of abandonment
at the date of the act of February 8, 1908,
comes within the provisions of that act, and
is not disqualified as a settler with a view to
second entry thereunder by reason of the
fact that his abandoned entry is still of rec-
ord..

The acts of April 28, 1904, and February 8,
1908, authorizing second homestead entries,
do not take away from the Secretary of the
Interior the discretionary power theretofore
vested in and exercised by him as head of
the land department to permit second en-
tries on equitable grounds in meritorious
cases where the first attempt to exercise the
homestead right failed of consummation
because of accident, mistake, or other suffi-
cient cause.....

381

406

A homestead entryman who executes a
relinquishment and places it in the hands
of another, who disposes of it for a valuable
consideration, is disqualified to make sec-
ond entry under either the act of April 28,
1904, or the act of February 8, 1908, regard-
less of whether he actually received any part
of the consideration for which it was sold... 394
A homestead entry by one who purchased
the improvements and relinquishment of a
prior entryman will not be canceled to rein-
state the former entry, in the absence of
fraud or bad faith, merely because the relin-
quishment of the former entry was filed
after the entryman's death.

The relinquishment of part of a home-
stead entry, which would render the re-
maining tracts noncontiguous, should not
be accepted...

475

412

Where, however, such a relinquishment
was accepted, and the entryman upon faith
of such action complies with the law and
submits proof with respect to the remaining
noncontiguous tracts, the entry may be
submitted to the Board of Equitable Ad-
judication with a view to confirmation..... 412
WIDOW.

Upon the death of a homesteader prior to
consummation of his claim his widow, if
there be one, succeeds under the homestead
law to his right to the land; and the state
courts have no jurisdiction to interfere with
or divert the succession so fixed by federal
statute..

SOLDIERS'.

A soldiers' declaratory statement trans-
mitted to the local officers by mail has, when
filed, the same effect as though filed in per-

son...

Where a soldier selects the land and makes
the declaratory statement in person in his
own name, the prescribed form should be
verified before some officer designated in the
act of March 4, 1904 ...

490

357

357