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APPROPRIATION FOR UNITED STATES RECLAMATION SERVICE, FISCAL YEAR 1919.

(Extract from) An act making appropriations for sundry civil expenses of the Government for the fiscal year ending June 30, 1919, and for other purposes. (Act of July 1, 1918, Public No. 181.)

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The following sums are appropriated out of the special fund in the

Treasury of the United States created by the Act of June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and two, and therein designated "the reclamation fund":

For all expenditures authorized by the Act of June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and two (Thirty-second Statutes, page three hundred and eighty-eight), and Acts amendatory thereof and supplementary thereto, known as the reclamation law, and all other Acts under which expenditures from said fund are authorized, including salaries in the District of Columbia and elsewhere; rent of office quarters in the District of Columbia, $8,040, and for rent elsewhere; examination of estimates for appropriations in the field; printing and binding; law books, books of reference, periodicals, engineering and statistical publications, not exceeding $1,500; purchase, maintenance, and operation of horse-drawn or motor-propelled passenger-carrying vehicles; payment of damages caused to the owners of lands of private property of any kind by reason of the operations of the United States, its officers or employees, in the survey, construction, operation, or maintenance of irrigation works, and which may be compromised by agreement between the claimant and the Secretary of the Interior, and payment for official telephone service and rental in the field hereafter incurred in case of official telephones installed in private houses when authorized under regulations established by the Secretary of the Interior, namely:

Salt River project, Arizona: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $797,000;

Yuma project, Arizona-California: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $590,000; Orland project, California: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $95,000;

Grand Valley project, Colorado: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $348,000; Uncompabgre project, Colorado: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operation, $185,000;

Boise project, Idaho: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $732,000: Provided, That no money shall be expended for extensions of the Boise project, except such amounts as may be collected from construction charges on that project under public notice;

King Hill project, Idaho: For continuing construction and incidental operations, $423,000: Provided, That said project shall be subject to the reclamation Act of June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and two, and all Acts amendatory thereof or supplementary thereto, so far as applicable and consistent with contract heretofore made between the United States and King Hill irrigation district: Provided further, That for the purposes of issuing patent to lands reclaimed, the reclamation effected by the operations of the United States Reclamation Service may be considered by the Secretary of the Interior as equivalent to reclamation effected by the State of Idaho, under the Carey Act of August eighteenth, eighteen hundred and ninetyfour.

Minidoka project, Idaho: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $489,000;

Huntley project, Montana: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $112,000;

Milk River project, Montana: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $186,000, together with the unexpended balance of the appropriation for this project for the fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighteen;

Sun River project, Montana: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $222,000, together with $100,000 of the unexpended balance of the appropriation for this project for the fiscal year nineteen hundred and sixteen;

Lower Yellowstone project, Montana-North Dakota: For maintenance, operation, and incidental operations, $55,000;

North Platte project, Nebraska-Wyoming: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $881,000, together with the unexpended balance of the sum appropriated for this project for the fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighteen;

Truckee-Carson project, Nevada: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $671,000, together with the unexpended balance of the sum appropriated for this project for the fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighteen;

Carlsbad project, New Mexico: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $75,000;

Rio Grande project, New Mexico-Texas: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $1,296,000, together with the unexpended balance o the sum appropriated for this project for the fiscal year nineteen hundred and ighteen: Provided, That no part of this appropriation shall be expended or drainage except in irrigation districts formed under State laws and upon the execution of agreements for the repayment to the United States of all project investments;

North Dakota pumping project, North Dakota: For maintenance, operation, and incidental operations, $64,000;

Lawton project, Oklahoma: For continuation o investigation $,000;

Umatilla project, Oregon: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $80,000, together with the unexpended balance of the appropriation for this project for the fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighteen;

Klamath project, Oregon-California: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $423,000; Belle Fourche project, South Dakota: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $262,000; Strawberry Valley project, Utah: For maintenance, operation, and incidental operations, $59,000, together with the unexpended balance of the appropriation for this project for the fiscal year nineteen hundre and eighteen;

Okanogan project, Washington: For construction, maintenance, operation, and incidental operations, $154,000;

Yakima project, Washington: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $645,000, together with the unexpended balance of the appropriation for this project for the fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighteen;

Shoshone project, Wyoming: For maintenance, operation, continuation of construction, and incidental operations, $400,000 together with the unexpended balance of the sum appropriated for this project for the fiscal year nineteen hundred and eighteen;

Secondary projects: For cooperative and other miscellaneous investigations, $100,000;

Under the provisions of this Act no greater sum shall be expende', nor shall the United States be obligated to expend, during the fiscal year nineteen hundred and nineteen, on any reclamation project appropriated for herein an amount in excess of the sum herein appropriated therefor, nor shall the whole expenditures or obligations incurred for all of such projects for the fiscal year nineteen hundred and nineteen exceed the whole amount in the "reclamation fund" for that fiscal year;

Ten per centum of the foregoing amounts shall be available interchangeably for expenditure on the reclamation projects named; but not more than ten per centum shall be added to the amount appropriated for any one of said projects;

Hereafter the purchase of supplies and the procurement of services for the Reclamation Service may be made in open market in the manner common among business men, without advertising and formal contract, when the aggregate of the amount required does not exceed $50, and when, in the opinion of th Director of the Reclamation Service, such limitations of amount are not designed to evade the purchase of supplies and the procurement of services under advertising and formal contract, and equally or more advantageous terms can thereby be secured.

In all, Reclamation Service, $9,345,000.

For reimbursement to the reclamation fund the proportionate expense of operation and maintenance of the reservoirs for furnishing stored water to the lands in Yakima Indian Reservation, Washington, in accordance with the provisions of section twentytwo of the Act of August first, nineteen hundred and fourteen (Thirty-eighth Statutes, page six hundred and four), there is appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $10,160.

For an investigation to be made by the Director of the Reclamation Service of the reclamation by drainage of lands outside existing reclamation projects and of the reclamation and preparation for cultivation of cut-over timber lands in any of the States of the United States, including personal services in the District of Columbia and elsewhere, purchase, maintenance, repair, hire, and operation of motor-propelled or horse-drawn passenger vehicles, and for all other expenses, there is appropriated, out of any money in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, $100,000.

LAW DECISIONS.

ENTRIES AND ENTRYMEN.

Abandonment of entry. The failure of an entryman on arid lands withdrawn under the reclamation act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat., 388), as susceptible of irrigation, to continuously reside upon or cultivate the land, which, though later withdrawn for irrigation works, was finally released during the time when no reclamation project has been devised or installed, can not be deemed an abandonment; the act of June 27, 1906 (34 Stat., 520), expressly saving such cases, and the entryman having prepared the land for cultivation and established a residence thereon. (Edwards v. Bodkin, 249 Fed., 562.)

Devolution of reclamation entryman's interest. Upon the death of an entryman who has made satisfactory homestead fina proof on a reclamation farm unit, the homestead becomes a part of his estate and as such subject to distribution, and is not an unperfected entry subject to the provisions of section 2291, Revised Statutes. The condition imposed by the reclamation act as to reclamation, payment of charges, and filing of water-right application are conditions not of homestead law or proof, but arising out of reclamation and imposed as a further requirement. (Heirs of Wm. L. Naftzger 46 L. D., 61.) Entry initiated by settlement. - Entry of lands within a reclamation project can be initiated by settlement. In ection 3 o the reclamation act of July 17, 1902 (32 Stat., 388), the word "only," in the roviso that "public lands which it is proposed to irrigate by means of any contemplated works shall be subject to entry only under the provisions of the homestead laws," applies to and qualifies the clause "under the provisions of the homestead law." (Chapman v. Pervier, 46 L. D., 113.)

Preferential right to withdrawn land. Under the act of May 14, 1880 (ch. 89, 1 Stat., 140), providing that where any person has contested and procured the cancellation of any homestead entrye shall be allowed 30 days to enter the lands, where the Department of the Interior entertained a contest while the land involved was withdrawn from entry under reclamation act June 17, 1902 (ch. 1093, 32 Stat., 388), it properly permitted the successful contestant to enter the lands within 30 days after the restoration of such lands to entry. (Edwards v. Bodkin, 241 Fed., 931, citing Secretary's Regulations of June 6, 1905, 33 L. D., 607, and coinciding with Fairchild v. Eby (37 L. D., 362), Beach v. Hanson (40 L. D., 607), Wright v. Francis (36 L. D., 499), and Edwards v. Bodkin (42 L. D., 172).)

Rights of entryman under departmental regulations. While section 10 of the reclamation act authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to make such regulations as may be necessary and proper to carry the act into full force and effect, he is not authorized to amend, modify, or change the act of May 14, 1880 (21 Stat., 141), fixing the rights of a successful contestant who has secured the cancellation of any preemption, homestead, or timber culture entry.

Any right under regulation 7 of June 6, 1905 (33 L. D., 607), issued by the Secretary of the Interior under section 10 of the reclamation act, which a successful contestant of a homestead entry on land withdrawn as susceptible of irrigation might have had, was lost by the promulgation of regulation 6 of January 19, 1909 (37 L. D., 365), declaring that where contest has been allowed prior to first form withdrawal if made before the determination of the contest or entry of the successful contestant, will terminate all rights acquired by such contest, where the land before termination of the contest or entry by contestant was withdrawn under the first form for irrigation works, and the contestant had only a preference. (Edwards v. Bodkin, 249 Fed., 562.)

PUBLIC NOTICES.

Effect of general public notice of September 24, 1914. The general public notice of September 24, 1914, was issued purely for the purpose of applying the provisions of the extension act to existing public notices, and is not in any other way to be regarded as an amendment of the public notices then in force. It does not affect the charges nor the class of lands which are subject to former public notices, except as required by the terms of the extension act. (Reclamation Commission Decision, Oct. 6, 1917, in re Benjamin F. Newkirk, Belle Fourche project.)

RECLAMATION FUND.

Building schoolhouse from reclamation fund. - Where a reservoir is being constructed under the reclamation act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat., 388), upon a site remote from civilization and 30 miles from the nearest school, and it is difficult, without school facilities, to secure a proper supply of efficient labor for the needs of such construction, particularly bosses and skilled workmen with families, and the erection of a school building will aid in securing more men, induce them to remain longer in the service, and be in the interest of the Government, then the cost of such a building may be paid from the reclamation fund. (Comp. Dec., Sept. 24, 1917, in re Rimrock, Yakima project.)

RESIDENCE REQUIREMENTS.

Transfer of land. - Paragraph 105 of the General Reclamation Circular approved May 18, 1916 (45 L. D., 385), provides that in case of the sale of all or any part of the irrigable area of a tract of land in private ownership covered by a water-right application which is not recorded in the county records, the vendor will be required to have his transferee make new water-right application for the land transferred. Held, that in making the new application, it is immaterial whether or not the transferee be "an actual bona fide resident on such land or occupant thereof residing in the neighborhood." (Opinion chief counsel, July 25, 1917, in re J. W. Merritt, Truckee-Carson project.)

Suspension of residence requirements during war. Under sections 11 and 12 of the act of August 10, 1917 (Public No., 40), the Secretary of the Interior will permit as a war measure the acceptance upon Federal reclamation projects during the term of the war as fixed by the act of applications for temporary water delivered to lands in private ownership and subject to public notice without reference to the residence of the water-right applicant. No application, however, will be received under this act from one qualified to make a formal water-right application under section 5 of the reclamation act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat., 388). The charges for the delivery of water will be the same in amount as the operation and maintenance charges announced by public notice but shall be payable in advance. (Departmental regulations, Oct. 4, 1917).

RIGHTS OF WAY.

Sale of canal easement. A right-of-way easement for a canal, involving not more than 15 acres of land, acquired by the United States under the reclamation act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat., 388), comes within the meaning of the word "land" as used in section 1 of the

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