It was not until 1917 that the old homestead law limiting the
settler to a hundred and sixty acres of land was modified for the
benefit of the stock-raiser. The stockraising homestead law, as
it is called, permits a man to make entry for not more than six
hundred and forty acres of unappropriated land which shall have
been designated by the Secretary of the Interior as "stockraising
land." Cultivation of the land is not required, but the holder is
required to make "permanent improvements" to the value of a
dollar and twenty-five cents an acre, and at least one-half of
these improvements must be made within three years after the date
of entry. In the old times the question of proof in "proving up"
was very leniently considered. A man would stroll down to the
land office and swear solemnly that he had lived the legal length
of time on his homestead, whereas perhaps he had never seen it or
had no more than ridden across it. Today matters perhaps will be
administered somewhat more strictly; for of all those millions of
acres of open land once in the West there is almost none left
worth the holding for farm purposes.
Pages:
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176