Desert Land.
Any person who is a citizen of the United States, or any person of requisite age who may be entitled to become a citizen, and who has filed his declaration to become such, may file his oath with the Registrar and Receiver of the Land Office in the district in which any desert land is located, that he intends to reclaim, not exceeding one section of said land, by conducting water upon it, within three years; and by paying to the Receiver twenty-five cents, per acre for all the land claimed, such person may enter said land under the desert land act. At any time within three years a patent can be obtained by making proof that he has reclaimed said land, and paying the additional sum of $1 per acre. No person can enter more than one tract of land, and not to exceed 640 acres, which shall be in a compact form. This act applies to desert lands in Dakota, Montana, Idaho, Washington, and Oregon.
Desert lands are defined by this act to be all lands, exclusive of mineral and timber lands, which will not without irrigation produce some agricultural crop.
The above is a diagram of a township, with sections numbered according to government surveys.
A township is 6 miles square and contains 36 square miles, or 36 sections, each section being 1 mile square, and containing 640 acres of land.
A quarter section is one-half mile square, 160 acres. An acre of land is 208.71 feet square, and contains 43,560 square feet. Sections 16 and 36 in Dakota, Montana, and Washington are reserved for school purposes.