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Show CHANCES MADE IN HOMESTEAD LAWS An act to amend sections 2291 and 2297 of the United States- statutes relating to homesteads, and known as the three-vear three-vear homestead law, has just been pas-Bed pas-Bed by congress. The exact wording is as follows: Be it enacted by the Senate ami House of Representatives of the United States of America in congress assembled, That section twenty-two hundred and ninety-one ninety-one and section twenty-two hundred and ninety-seven of the Revised Statutes Statu-tes of the United States be amended to read as follows. "Section 2291. No certificate, however, how-ever, shall be given or patent issued therefor until the expiration of three years from the date of such entry; and if at the expiration of such time, or at any time within two years thereafter, the person making such entry, or if he be dead his widow, or in case of her death his heirs or devisee, or in case of ! a widow making such entry her heirs or devisee, in case of her death, proves by himself and by two credible witnesses that he, she, or they have a habitable house upon the la id and have actually resided upon and cultivated the same for the term of three years succeeding the time of filing the affidavit, and . t makes affidavit that no part of .such , land has been alienated, except as pro-1 vided in section twenty-two hundred and i eighty-eight, and that he, she, or they will bear true allegiance to the government govern-ment of the United States, then in such case he, she, or they, if at that time citizens of the United States, shall be entuled to a patent, as in other cases provided by law; Provided, that upon filing in tne local land orfice notice of the beginning of such absence, the en-tryinen en-tryinen shall be entitled to a continuous leave of absence from a period not exceeding ex-ceeding five months in each year after establishing residence, and.upon the termination ter-mination of sucn absence the entry men shall lije a notice of such termination in the iocal land office, but i.i case of communication the fourteen months' ' actual residence as now required b, law must be shown, and the person commuting commut-ing must be at the time a citizen of the United States; Provided, that when the person inking entry dies before the offer of-fer of final proof those succeeding to the entry must show that the entry-men had complied with the law in all respects to the date of his death and that they have since complied with the law in all respects, re-spects, as wouid have been required of tlie entrymen had he lived, excepting that they are relieved from any requirement require-ment of residence upon the land; Pro-viued Pro-viued further, that the ei'tryman shall, :n order to comply w ith the requirements of cultivation herein provided for, cultivate cul-tivate not less than one-sixteen h of the area of his entry, beginning with the second year of the entry, and not less tnan one-eighth, beginning with the third year ol the entry, and until final proof, except that in the case of entries under section six of the enlarged homestead home-stead law double the area of cultivation herein provided shall be required, but the secretary of the interior may, upon a satisfactory showing, under rules and i regulations prescribed by him, reduce i the required area of cultivation; Pro-; vided, tftat the above provision as to' cultivation shall not apply to entries under ihe act of April twenty eighth, nineteen hundred and four commonly kuown as the Kinkaid act, or entries under the act of June seventeenth, nineteen nine-teen hundred and two, commonly known as the reclamation act, and that the provisions pro-visions of this section relative to the homestead period shall apply to all un-perfected un-perfected entries as well as entries hereafter here-after made upon which residence is re-required; re-required; Provided, that the secretary of the interior shall, within sixty days after the passage of this act send a copy of the same to each homestead entry-man entry-man of record who may be affected thereby, by ordinary mail to his last known address, and any such entryman may, by giving notice within one hundred hun-dred and twenty days after the passage - of this act, by registered letter to the rtgisurancl receiver of the local land office, elect to make proof upon his entry Uiider the law under which .he same ss made without regard to the provisions pro-visions of this act.J' "Section 2297. If, at any time after j the filing of the affidavit as required I in section twenty-two hundred and ; ninety and before the expiration of the three years mentioned in section ' J I twenty-two hundred and ninety-one, it is prove !, after due notice to the settler, set-tler, to the satisfaction of the register 1 of the land office that the person hav- i ing filled such affidavit has failed to establish es-tablish residence within six months after af-ter the date of entry, or abandoned the land for more than 'six months at any time, then and in that event the land so entered shall revert to the gov- j eminent; Provided, that the three years . period of residence herein fixed shall date from the time of establishing act-1 ual permanent residence upon the land; And provided further, th at where there be climatic reasons, sickness or other unavoidable cause, the commissioner ; of the general land office may, in his! discretion, allow the settler .twelve ' months from the date of filling in which . to commence his residence on said land under such rules and regulations as he may perscribe. " j Approved, June 6, 1912. : : i |