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Show 222 be made with irrigation districts instead of the individual contracts under the 1902 Act.421 Problems also arose in connection with the enforcement of the excess land provisions with respect to public lands which had been entered.422 A 1910 statute permitted entrymen on project public lands who had completed the residence require- ments of the homestead laws to assign or sell their entries.423 But since it made the assignment subject to the provisions of Reclamation Law, the excess-land restrictions were applicable to the assigned entries. Accordingly, it was administratively required that the assignee supply an affidavit stating that the total area of land owned by him, including the assigned farm unit, did not exceed 160 acres.424 This permitted acquisition of a water right for a farm unit of entered public lands and additional privately owned lands up to a maximum of 160 acres. The aforementioned 1912 legislation, however, forbade the acquisition of a water right for land in addition to a farm unit of entered public lands under Reclamation Law before payment of all charges on account of such land or water right.425 Acreage-limitation provisions evoked a number of adminis- trative rulings with respect to holdings by individual land- owners within a family. For example, when forced to relinquish a portion of his entry to conform it with an acreage limitation as established by the Secretary, a husband was permitted to assign a portion of the entry to his wife.428 But the wife was required to show that the assignment was paid for out of her separate money, in which her husband had no interest or claim, and that the conveyance actually had been made.427 When applicants for water owned land jointly, or as tenants in common, each was charged with only his frac- 421 Act of May 25,1926, § 46, 44 Stat. 636, 649, 43 U. S. C. 423e. 422 Landownebshtp Survey on Federal Reclamation Projects, Department of the Interior, p. 36 (1946). 428 Act of June 23, 1910, § 1, 36 Stat. 592, as amended, 43 U. S. C. 441. 424 Departmental Regulation No. 35, 40 L. D. 660 (1912). 425 Act of August 9,1912, § 1, 37 Stat. 265, as amended, 43 U. S. O. 541. 426 Instructions of the Secretary of the Interior, 39 L. D. 504 (1911); Sadie A. Hawley, 43 L. D. 364 (1914). 427 Departmental Regulation No. 41,45 L. D. 394 (1916). |