A Pretender Will Make Just Improvements Enough To Hinder
The Actual Settler From Locating On The Claim, Or Will Sell Out To Him
At A Good Profit.
A good deal of money is made by these fictitious
claimants.
It is rather hard to prevent it, too, inasmuch as it is
difficult to disprove that a man intends some time to have a permanent
home, or, in fact, that his claim is not his legal residence, though
his usual abiding place is somewhere else. Nothing could be more
delightful than for a party of young men who desire to farm to come
out together early in the spring, and aid each other in preempting
land in the same neighborhood. The preemptor has to pay about five
dollars in the way of fees before he gets through the entire process
of securing a title. It is a popular error (much like the opinion that
a man cannot swear to what he sees through glass) that improvements of
a certain value, say fifty dollars, are required to be made, or that a
certain number of acres must be cultivated. All that is required,
however, is evidence that the party has built a house fit to live in,
and has in good faith proceeded to cultivate the soil. The law does
not permit a person to preempt 160 acres but once; yet this provision
is often disregarded, possibly from ignorance, I was about to say, but
that cannot be, since the applicant must make oath that he has not
before availed himself of the right of preemption.
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