[Code of Federal Regulations]

[Title 43, Volume 2]

[Revised as of October 1, 2006]

From the U.S. Government Printing Office via GPO Access

[CITE: 43CFR2521.5]



[Page 111-113]

 

                    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 112]]



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 113]]



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.