[Code of Federal Regulations]
[Title 43, Volume 2]
[Revised as of October 1, 2004]
From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access
[CITE: 43CFR2521.5]

[Page 115-117]
 
                    TITLE 43--PUBLIC LANDS: INTERIOR
 
    CHAPTER II--BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
 
PART 2520_DESERT-LAND ENTRIES--Table of Contents
 
                         Subpart 2521_Procedures
 
Sec. 2521.5  Annual proof.

    (a) Showing required. (1) In order to test the sincerity and good 
faith of claimants under the desert-land laws and to prevent the 
segregation for a number of years of public lands in the interest of 
persons who have no intention to reclaim them, Congress, in the Act of 
March 3, 1891 (26 Stat. 1096; 43 U.S.C. 327, 328) made the requirement 
that a map be filed at the initiation of the entry showing the mode of 
contemplated irrigation and the proposed source of water supply, and 
that there be expended yearly for 3 years from the date of the entry not 
less than $1 for each acre of the tract entered, making a total of not 
less than $3 per acre, in the necessary irrigation, reclamation, and 
cultivation of the land, in permanent improvements thereon, and in the 
purchase of water rights for the irrigation thereof, and that at the 
expiration of the third year a map or plan be filed showing the 
character and extent of the improvements placed on the claim. Said act, 
however, authorizes the submission of final proof at an earlier date 
than 4 years from the time the entry is made in cases wherein 
reclamation has been effected and expenditures of not less than $3 per 
acre have been made.
    (2) Yearly or annual proof of expenditures must consist of the 
statements of two or more credible witnesses, each of whom must have 
general knowledge that the expenditures were made for the purpose stated 
in the proof. Annual proofs must contain itemized statements showing the 
manner in which expenditures were made.
    (b) Acceptable expenditures. (1) Expenditures for the construction 
and maintenance of storage reservoirs, dams, canals, ditches, and 
laterals to be used by claimant for irrigating his land; for roads where 
they are necessary; for erecting stables, corrals, etc.; for digging 
wells, where the water therefrom is to be used for irrigating the land; 
for stock or interest in an approved irrigation company, or for taxes 
paid to an approved irrigation district through which water is to be 
secured to irrigate the land; and for leveling and bordering land 
proposed to be irrigated, will be accepted. Expenditures for fencing all 
or a portion of the claim, for surveying for the purpose of ascertaining 
the levels for canals, ditches, etc., and for the first breaking or 
clearing of the soil are also acceptable.
    (2) The value to be attached to, and the credit to be given for, an 
expenditure for works or improvements is the reasonable value of the 
work done or improvement placed upon the land, according to the market 
price therefor, or for similar work or improvements prevailing in the 
vicinity, and not the amount alleged by a claimant to have been expended 
nor the mere proof of expenditures, as exhibited by checks or other 
vouchers. (Bradley v. Vasold, 36 L.D. 106.)
    (c) Expenditures not acceptable. (1) Expenditures for cultivation 
after the soil has been first prepared may not be accepted, because the 
claimant is supposed to be compensated for such work by the crops to be 
reaped as a result of cultivation. Expenditures for surveying the claim 
in order to locate the corners of same may not be accepted. The cost of 
tools, implements, wagons, and repairs to same, used in construction

[[Page 116]]

work, may not be computed in cost of construction. Expenditures for 
material of any kind will not be allowed unless such material has 
actually been installed or employed in and for the purpose for which it 
was purchased. For instances, if credit is asked for posts and wire for 
fences or for pump or other well machinery, it must be shown that the 
fence has been actually constructed or the well machinery actually put 
in place. No expenditures can be credited on annual proofs upon a 
desert-land entry unless made on account of that particular entry, and 
expenditures once credited can not be again applied. This rule applies 
to second entries as well as to original entries, and a claimant who 
relinquishes his entry and makes second entry of the same land under the 
Act of September 5, 1914, cannot receive credit on annual proofs upon 
the second entry for expenditures made on account of the former entry. 
(41 L.D. 601 and 42 L.D. 523.)
    (2) Expenditures for the clearing of the land will not receive 
credit in cases where the vegetation or brush claimed to have been 
cleared away has not been actually removed by the roots. Therefore, 
expenditures for clearing, where as a matter of fact there has been only 
crushing, or rolling, or what is known in some localities as railing the 
land will not be accepted.
    (3) No expenditures for stock or interest in an irrigation company, 
through which water is to be secured for irrigating the land, will be 
accepted as satisfactory annual expenditure until a field examiner, or 
other authorized officer, has submitted a report as to the resources and 
reliability of the company, including its actual water right, and such 
report has been favorably acted upon by the Bureau of Land Management. 
The stock purchased must carry the right to water, and it must be shown 
that payment in cash has been made at least to the extent of the amount 
claimed as expenditure for the purchase of such stock in connection with 
the annual proof submitted, and such stock must be actually owned by the 
claimants at the time of the submission of final proof.
    (d) Procedure where proof is not made when due. Authorizing officers 
will examine their records frequently for the purpose of ascertaining 
whether all annual proofs due on pending desert-land entries have been 
made, and in every case where the claimant is in default in that respect 
they will send him notice and allow him 60 days in which to submit such 
proof. If the proof is not furnished as required the entry will be 
canceled. During the pendency of a Government proceeding initiated by 
such notice the entry will be protected against a private contest 
charging failure to make the required expenditures, and such contest 
will neither defeat the claimant's right to equitably perfect the entry 
as to the matter of expenditures during the 60 days allowed in the 
notice nor secure to the contestant a preference right in event the 
entry be canceled for default under said notice.
    (e) Desert land entry in more than one district. When a desert-land 
entry embraces land in more than one district, the required annual 
proofs may be filed in either district, provided proper reference is 
made to the portion of the entry in the adjoining district, and the 
entryman must notify the authorized officer of the adjoining district by 
letter of the date when the annual proof is filed.
    (f) Extensions of time. (1) The law makes no provision for 
extensions of time in which to file annual proof becoming due subsequent 
to December 31, 1936, on desert-land entries not embraced within the 
exterior boundaries of any withdrawal or irrigation project under the 
Reclamation Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388), and extensions for said 
purpose cannot therefore be granted. However, where a township is 
suspended from entry for the purpose of resurvey thereof the time 
between the date of suspension and the filing in the local office of the 
new plat of survey will be excluded from the period accorded by law for 
the reclamation of land under a desert entry within such township and 
the statutory life of the entry extended accordingly (40 L.D. 223). 
During the continuance of the extension the claimant may, at his option, 
defer the making of annual expenditures and proof thereof.
    (2) Extensions of time for making desert-land proofs were authorized 
by

[[Page 117]]

the Acts of June 16, 1933 (48 Stat. 274; 43 U.S.C. 256a), July 26, 1935 
(49 Stat. 504; 43 U.S.C. 256a), and June 16, 1937 (50 Stat. 303; 43 
U.S.C. 256a). Such acts affect only proofs becoming due on or before 
December 31, 1936. For that reason, the regulations which were issued 
thereunder have not been included in this chapter.
    (g) Submission of proof before due date. Nothing in the statutes or 
regulations should be construed to mean that the entryman must wait 
until the end of the year to submit his annual proof because the proof 
may be properly submitted as soon as the expenditures have been made. 
Proof sufficient for the 3 years may be offered whenever the amount of 
$3 an acre has been expended in reclaiming and improving the land, and 
thereafter annual proof will not be required.