43 U.S.C. § 328 — Expenditures and cultivation requirements

submitted 149 years ago by ch. 107 to r/title-43-PUBLIC-LANDS · 316 words · no verdicts yet

in plain englishAI-generated · not legal advice

To get a desert-land patent, claimants must spend at least $3 per acre. They must spend $1 per acre in each of the first three years, proven by witnesses. Missing a year's proof forfeits the claim and the advance payment.

No one gets a patent (final ownership) for land claimed under sections 321 to 323, 325, and 327 to 329 of this title unless they — or the people they got the claim from — have spent money reclaiming and improving it. Here's what has to be spent, and how: The total required is at least $3 per acre of the whole tract, once it's reclaimed and patented. That $3 has to be spent this way: - Within the first year after making the entry, the claimant must spend at least $1 per acre. - During the second year, another $1 per acre. - During the third year, another $1 per acre — bringing the total to $3 per acre. This money must go toward necessary irrigation, reclamation, and cultivation — through main canals and branch ditches, permanent land improvements, and buying water rights. Each year, the claimant must file proof with the officer the Secretary of the Interior names. That proof must be sworn statements ("affidavits") from at least two credible witnesses, showing that the full $1-per-acre was spent that year and how it was spent. At the end of the third year, the claimant must also file a map or plan showing the improvements made. If a claimant fails to file that yearly proof, the land goes back to the United States, the claimant loses the 25-cent advance payment they made per acre, and the entry is canceled. A claimant doesn't have to wait the full three years — they can make their final entry and get the patent earlier, as long as they can prove they've already spent the full $3 per acre. They must also prove that at least one-eighth of the land has been cultivated.

the actual law source: uscode.house.gov ↗public domain

No land shall be patented to any person under sections 321 to 323, 325, and 327 to 329 of this title unless he or his assignors shall have expended in the necessary irrigation, reclamation, and cultivation thereof, by means of main canals and branch ditches, and in permanent improvements upon the land, and in the purchase of water rights for the irrigation of the same, at least $3 per acre of whole tract reclaimed and patented in the manner following: Within one year after making entry for such tract of desert land as aforesaid the party so entering shall expend not less than $1 per acre for the purposes aforesaid; and he shall in like manner expend the sum of $1 per acre during the second and also during the third year thereafter, until the full sum of $3 per acre is so expended. Said party shall file during each year with the officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior proof, by the affidavits of two or more credible witnesses, that the full sum of $1 per acre has been expended in such necessary improvements during such year, and the manner in which expended, and at the expiration of the third year a map or plan showing the character and extent of such improvements. If any party who has made such application shall fail during any year to file the testimony aforesaid the lands shall revert to the United States, and the 25 cents advanced payment shall be forfeited to the United States, and the entry shall be canceled. Nothing herein contained shall prevent a claimant from making his final entry and receiving his patent at an earlier date than hereinbefore prescribed, provided that he then makes the required proof of reclamation to the aggregate extent of $3 per acre: Provided, That proof be further required of the cultivation of one-eighth of the land.

Source credit: (Mar. 3, 1877, ch. 107, § 5, as added Mar. 3, 1891, ch. 561, § 2, 26 Stat. 1096; amended 1946 Reorg. Plan No. 3, § 403, eff. July 16, 1946, 11 F.R. 7876, 60 Stat. 1100.)

history & why it existsrecord from the source credit

1877Enacted · Act of Mar. 3, 1877, ch. 107 · 26 Stat. 1096

A history note hasn’t been published yet. The record shows enactment by ch. 107 on 1877-03-03.

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