The Act of June 11, 1906, known as the National Forest Homestead Act, provides for the acquisition by qualified entrymen of agricultural lands within National Forests. The Act is in effect an extension of the general provisions of the Homestead laws to the agricultural lands within the National Forests, with the essential difference that the land must be classified by the Secretary of Agriculture as chiefly valuable for agriculture.
This Act authorizes the Secretary of Agriculture in his discretion to examine and ascertain, upon application or otherwise, the location and extent of lands both surveyed and unsurveyed in the National Forests, chiefly valuable for agriculture, which may be occupied for agricultural purposes without injury to the National Forests or public interests. He is authorized to list and describe such lands by metes and bounds or otherwise and to file such lists and descriptions with the Secretary of the Interior for opening to entry in accordance with the provisions of the Act. Agricultural lands listed by the Secretary of Agriculture are opened by the Secretary of the Interior to homestead entry in tracts not exceeding 160 acres at the expiration of 60 days from the filing of the lists in the local Land Office. Notice of the filing of the list is posted in the local Land Office and is published for a period of not less than four weeks in a local newspaper. The Act provides that the person upon whose application the land is examined and listed, if a qualified entryman, shall have the preference right of entry. To exercise this preference right, application to enter must be filed in the local Land Office within 60 days after the filing of the list in that office. The entryman can perfect his title to the land within a certain period of years by fulfilling certain conditions of residence and cultivation.
By the Act of June 6, 1912, known as the "Three Year Homestead Act," the period of residence necessary to be shown in order to entitle a person to patent under the Homestead laws is reduced from 5 to 3 years and the period within which a homestead entry may be completed is reduced from 7 to 5 years. The new law requires the claimant to cultivate not less than 1/16 of the area of his entry beginning with the second year of entry and not less than 1/8 beginning with the third year and until final proof, except that in the case of the enlarged Homestead laws, double the areas given are required. On a 160-acre claim, therefore, it is required that 1/8 or 20 acres be under cultivation. A mere breaking of the soil does not meet the requirements of the statute, but such breaking of the soil must be accompanied by planting and sowing of seed and tillage for a crop other than native grasses. The period within which the cultivation should be made is reckoned from the date of the entry. The Secretary of the Interior, however, is authorized upon a satisfactory showing therefor to reduce the required area of cultivation on account of financial disabilities or misfortunes of the entryman or on account of special physical and climatic conditions of the land which make cultivation difficult. The entryman must establish an actual residence upon the land entered, 6 months after the date of the entry. After the establishment of residence the entryman is permitted to be absent from the land for one continuous period of not more than 5 months in each year following. He must also file at the local Land Office notice of the beginning of such intended absence.