No right to the use of water for land in private ownership shall be sold for a tract exceeding one hundred and sixty acres to any one landowner, and no such sale shall be made to any landowner unless he be an actual bona fide resident on such land, or occupant thereof residing in the neighborhood of said land, and no such right shall permanently attach until all payments therefor are made.

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, and shall be subject to the limitations, charges, terms, and conditions herein provided: Provided, That the commutation provisions of the homestead laws shall not apply to entries made under this Act.

The Secretary is authorized, under regulations to be promulgated by him, to require of each applicant including preference right ex-service men for entry to public lands on a project, such qualifications as to industry, experience, character, and capital, as in his opinion are necessary to give reasonable assurance of success by the prospective settler. The Secretary is authorized to appoint boards in part composed of private citizens, to assist in determining such qualifications.

It is declared to be the policy of the Congress that, in the opening to entry of newly irrigated public lands, preference shall be given to families who have no other means of earning a livelihood, or who have been compelled to abandon, through no fault of their own, other farms in the United States, and with respect to whom it appears after careful study, in the case of each such family, that there is a probability that such family will be able to earn a livelihood on such irrigated lands.

Public lands which it is proposed to irrigate by means of any contemplated works shall be subject to entry in tracts of not less than forty nor more than one hundred and sixty acres: Provided, That whenever, in the opinion of the Secretary of the Interior, by reason of market conditions and the special fitness of the soil and climate for the growth of fruit and garden produce, a lesser area than forty acres may be sufficient for the support of a family on lands to be irrigated under the provisions of the Act of June seventeenth, nineteen hundred and two, known as the reclamation Act, he may fix a lesser area than forty acres as the minimum entry and may establish farm units of not less than ten nor more than one hundred and sixty acres. Wherever it may be necessary, for the purpose of accurate description, to further subdivide lands to be irrigated under the provisions of said reclamation Act, the Secretary of the Interior may cause subdivision surveys to be made by the officers of the reclamation service, which subdivisions shall be rectangular in form, except in cases where irregular subdivisions may be necessary in order to provide for practicable and economical irrigation. Such subdivision surveys shall be noted upon the tract books in the Bureau of Land Management, and they shall be paid for from the reclamation fund: Provided, That an entryman may elect to enter under said reclamation Act a lesser area than the minimum limit in any State or Territory.

All entries under reclamation projects containing more than one farm unit shall be reduced in area and conformed to a single farm unit within two years after making proof of residence, improvement, and cultivation, or within two years after the issuance of a farm-unit plat for the project, if the same issues subsequent to the making of such proof: Provided, That such proof is made within four years from the date as announced by the Secretary of the Interior that water is available for delivery for the land. Any entryman failing within the period herein provided to dispose of the excess of his entry above one farm unit, in the manner provided by law, and to conform his entry to a single farm unit shall render his entry subject to cancellation as to the excess above one farm unit: Provided, That upon compliance with the provisions of law such entryman shall be entitled to receive a patent for that part of his entry which conforms to one farm unit as established for the project.

After June 25, 1910, no entry shall be made and no entryman shall be permitted to go upon lands reserved for irrigation purposes until the Secretary of the Interior shall have established the unit of acreage per entry, and water is ready to be delivered for the land in such unit or some part thereof and such fact has been announced by the Secretary of the Interior.

Where entries made prior to June 25, 1910, have been or may be relinquished, in whole or in part, the lands so relinquished shall be subject to settlement and entry under the reclamation law.

The entryman upon lands to be irrigated shall, in addition to compliance with the homestead laws, reclaim at least one-half of the total irrigable area of his entry for agricultural purposes.

The Secretary of the Interior is authorized to make general rules and regulations governing the use of water in the irrigation of the lands within any project, and may require the reclamation for agricultural purposes and the cultivation of one-fourth the irrigable area under each water-right application or entry within three full irrigation seasons after the filing of water-right application or entry, and the reclamation for agricultural purposes and the cultivation of one-half the irrigable area within five full irrigation seasons after the filing of the water-right application or entry, and shall provide for continued compliance with such requirements. Failure on the part of any water-right applicant or entryman to comply with such requirements shall render his application or entry subject to cancellation.

From and after the filing with the Secretary of the Interior or such officer as he may designate of satisfactory proof of residence, improvement, and cultivation for the five years required by law, persons who have, or shall make, homestead entries within reclamation projects under the provisions of the Act of June 17, 1902, may assign such entries, or any part thereof, to other persons, and such assignees, upon submitting proof of the reclamation of the lands and upon payment of the charges apportioned against the same as provided in the said Act of June 17, 1902, may receive from the United States a patent for the lands: Provided, That all assignments made under the provisions of this section shall be subject to the limitations, charges, terms, and conditions of the reclamation Act.

In the absence of any intervening valid adverse interests any assignment made between June 23, 1910, and January 1, 1913, of land upon which the assignor has submitted satisfactory final proof and the assignee purchased with the belief that the assignment was valid and under section 441 of this title, is confirmed, and the assignee shall be entitled to the land assigned as under section 441 of this title, notwithstanding that said original entry was conformed to farm units and that the part assigned was canceled and eliminated from said entry prior to the date of final proof: Provided, That all entries so assigned shall be subject to the limitations, terms, and conditions of the reclamation Act, and Acts Amendatory thereof and supplemental thereto, and all of said assignees whose entries are confirmed shall, as a condition to receiving patent, make the proof required, prior to May 8, 1916, of assignees.

No person shall hold by assignment more than one farm unit prior to final payment of all charges for all the land held by him subject to the reclamation law, except operation and maintenance charges not then due.

Wherever the Secretary of the Interior, in carrying out the provisions of the reclamation Act, shall acquire by relinquishment lands covered by a bona fide unperfected entry under the land laws of the United States, the entryman upon such tract may make another and additional entry, as though the entry thus relinquished had not been made.

Any person who prior to March 4, 1915, made homestead entry under the Act of June 17, 1902 (32 Stat. 388), for land believed to be susceptible of irrigation which at the time of said entry was withdrawn for any contemplated irrigation project, may relinquish the same, provided that it has since been determined that the land embraced in such entry or all thereof in excess of twenty acres is not or will not be irrigable under the project, and in lieu thereof may select and make entry for any farm unit included within such irrigation project as finally established, notwithstanding the provisions of sections 436 and 437 of this title: Provided, That such entrymen shall be given credit on the new entry for the time of bona fide residence maintained on the original entry.

Where any bona fide desert-land entry has been or may be embraced within the exterior limits of any land withdrawal or irrigation project under the Act of June 17, 1902, and the desert-land entryman has been or may be directly or indirectly hindered, delayed, or prevented from making improvements or from reclaiming the land embraced in any such entry by reason of such land withdrawal or irrigation project, the time during which the desert-land entryman has been or may be so hindered, delayed, or prevented from complying with the desert-land law shall not be computed in determining the time within which such entryman has been or may be required to make improvements or reclaim the land embraced within any such desert-land entry: Provided, That if after investigation the irrigation project has been or may be abandoned by the Government, time for compliance with the desert-land law by any such entryman shall begin to run from the date of notice of such abandonment of the project and the restoration to the public domain of the lands withdrawn in connection therewith, and credit shall be allowed for all expenditures and improvements theretofore made on any such desert-land entry of which proof has been or may be filed; but if the reclamation project is carried to completion so as to make available a water supply for the land embraced in any such desert-land entry the entryman shall thereupon comply with all the provisions of the aforesaid action 1

A desert-land entry within the exterior limits of a Government reclamation project may be assigned in whole or in part under section 324 of this title, and the benefits and limitations of section 448 of this title shall apply to such desert-land entryman and his assignees: Provided, That all such assignments shall conform to and be in accordance with farm units to be established by the Secretary of the Interior upon the application of the desert-land entryman. All such assignments made in good faith prior to July 24, 1912, shall be recognized under this section.