Page:United States Statutes at Large Volume 67.djvu/602

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PUBLIC LAW 258-AUG. 13, 1953

Public Law 258 August 13, 1953 [S. 887]

Federal i r r i g a ' tion projects. Exchange of farm units.

E l i g i b i l i t y for benefits.

Irr i g a t i o n construction charges.

[67

STAT.

CHAPTER 428

^^ ^^^ To permit the exchange and amendment of farm units on Federal irrigation projects, and for other purposes.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That any entryman on an unpatented farm unit on a Federal irrigation project which shall be found by the Secretary of the Interior, pursuant to a land classification, to be insufficient to support a family shall be entitled, upon timely application to the Secretary to exchange his farm unit for another farm unit of unentered public land within the same or any other such project, or, upon terms and conditions satisfactory to the Secretary, for any other available farm unit on the same or any other such project. He shall be given credit under the homestead laws for residence, improvement, and cultivation made or performed upon the original entry, and if satisfactory final proof of residence, improvement, and cultivation has been made on the original entry it shall not be necessary to submit such proof upon the lieu entry Rights under this Act shall not be assignable. SEC. 2. The benefits of section 1 of this Act shall, and those of the following sections may, be extended by the Secretary to (a) any lawful assignee of an unpatented farm unit on a Federal irrigation project who took the assignment in good faith not knowing and not having reason to believe the farm unit to be insufficient to support a family; and (b) any resident owner of private lands on any such project whose lands shall be found to be insufficient to support a family and (i) who, apart from his ownership of the lands to be conveyed pursuant to clause (iii) hereof and apart from his having previously exhausted his homestead right, if such be the case, is eligible to enter unappropriated public lands under Revised Statutes, section 2289, as amended (43 U.S.C. 161), (ii) who lawfully acquired his lands as an entire farm unit under the Federal reclamation laws from the United States or, in the case of a widow, widower, heir, or devisee, from a spouse or ancestor, as the case may be, who so acquired them, and (iii) who conveys, free from all encumbrances, to tTie United States all of his lands served by the project or such portion thereof as the Secretary may designate. SEC. 3. (a) If an entryman making an exchange under the provisions of this Act becomes the direct obligor for payment to the United States of irrigation construction charges for his lieu farm unit or undertakes a contract under which the equivalent, in whole or in part, of such charges is returned to the United States, the Secretary, to the extent to which such charges upon the original farm unit or the equivalent thereof have actually been paid to the United States or to an irrigation district or other form of organization under contract with the United States, may give him credit for such charges upon the lieu unit. (b) If an irrigation district or other form of organization within the boundaries of which is located the lieu farm unit of an entryman making an exchange under the provisions of this Act is or becomes the direct obligor for payment to the United States of irrigation construction charges or undertakes or has undertaken a contract under which the equivalent, in whole or in part, of such charges is returned to the United States, the Secretary may, to the extent to which it gives credit to the entryman for such charges or the equivalent thereof actually paid upon the original farm unit, give the district or other form of organization credit for payment of such charges. Upon the making of an exchange pursuant to the provisions of this Act, the

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