2. The affidavit required for initiating an entry under this act (Form No. 22) may be made before the register or receiver of the district office for the land district embrac ing the desired tract, or before some officer authorized to administer oaths in that district, who is required by law to use an official seal.
3. Not more than one-quarter of any one section can be entered under this act.
4. The privilege of making more than one entry there under is confined to such parties as shall enter, in each and every instance, a fractional subdivision of less than forty acres, and the aggregate area of such entries shall not exceed 160 acres.
5. The ratio of area required to be broken, planted, etc., is, in all cases initiated under the first section of this act, one-fourth of the land embraced in the entry.
6. One-fourth part of the area required to he devoted to timber must he broken within one year from date of entry, one-fourth part more within two years from date of entry ,• and the remaining one-half within three years from date of entry.
7. One-fourth part of the area required to be devoted to timber must he planted within two years from date of entry ; oue-fourth part more within three years from date of entry; and the remaining one-half within four years from date of entry.
8. The trees are required to be not more than twelve feet apart each way, and the same are required to be pros tested and kept in a healthy growing tion for eight years, next succeeding the date of entry.
9. If, at the expiration of the said eight years, or at any time within five years thereafter, the person making the entry, or, if he or she be dead, his or her heirs or legal representatives shall prove, by two credible witnesses, the fact of such planting, cultivation, etc., of the said timber for not less than the said period of eight years, he, she, or they shall receive a patent for the land embraced in said entry.
10. In the case of the death of a person who, having entered a quarter-section, has complied with the provis ions of this act for the period of three years—that is to say, who has broken ten acres the first year, ten acres the second year, and twenty aces the third year, and who has planted ten acres with timber the second year and ten acres the third year—then, and in that case, his or her heirs or legal representatives shall be permitted, at their option, to continue to comply with the provisions of this act during the unexpired portion of eight years, and there upon receive a patent for said quarter-section : or, on making proper proof of compliance of the deceased settler with the of the act for the said period of three years, they shall receive, without delay, a patent for forty acres of said quarter-aection, upon the condition that they relinquish to the United States all claim to the remainder of the laud embraced in such entry.
11. If, at any time after not less than one year from the date of entry under the first section of this act, and prior to the issue of a patent therefor, the claimant shall fail to do the breaking and planting required by this act, or any part thereof, or shall fail to cultivate, protect, and keep i?good condition such timber, then, in that event, such land shall become liable to a contest in the manner provided in homestead cases, and, upon due proof of such failure, the entry shall be cancelled and the land become liable to a contest in the manner provided in homestead cases, and, upon due proof of such failure, the entry shall be cancelled and the land become again subject to entry under the homestead laws, or by some other persons under the provisions of this act.
12. Each and every homestead settler, at any time after the end of the third year of his or her residence. who, in addition to the settlement and improvements required by the homestead laws, shall have had under cultivation for two years one acre of timber (the trees thereon being not more than twelve feet apart each way, and in a good, thrifty condition) for each and every sixteen acres of said homestead, shall, upon due proof of such fact by two credible witnesses, receive his or her patent for said homestead.
13. No land acquired under the provisions of this act shall, in any event, become liable to the satisfaction of any debt or debts contracted prior to the issuing of the final certificate therefor.