Section 3 of the Act of June 16, 1955, referred to in text, is section 3 of act June 16, 1955, ch. 145, 69 Stat. 138, which is set out as an Additional Desert-Land Entry note under section 83 of Title 30, Mineral Lands and Mining.

The original text provided for the sale of 640 acres. The aggregate quantity which any person could acquire under all the land laws was limited, however, to 320 acres by act Aug. 30, 1890 (set out as section 212 of this title) except in the case of mineral lands.

1958—Pub. L. 85–641 permitted entry on one or more tracts, not contiguous, but sufficiently close to each other to be managed satisfactorily as an economic unit.

Act Aug. 4, 1955, ch. 548, 69 Stat. 491, provided: “The requirement of section 1 of the Desert Land Act of March 3, 1877 (19 Stat. 377) [this section], that the right to the use of water by a desert land entryman ‘shall depend upon bona fide prior appropriation’ shall be waived in the case of all desert land entries which have heretofore been allowed and are subsisting on the effective date of this Act [Aug. 4, 1955] which are dependent upon percolating waters for their reclamation, and which are situated in the State of Arizona under the laws of which the percolating waters upon which the entries are dependent are not subject to the doctrine of prior appropriation but are usable under State law for irrigation and reclamation purposes.”

Provisions of this section as not amended, modified or repealed by the Submerged Lands Act, see section 1303 of this title.

For transfer of functions of other officers, employees, and agencies of Department of the Interior, with certain exceptions, to Secretary of the Interior, with power to delegate, see Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1950, §§ 1, 2, eff. May 24, 1950, 15 F.R. 3174, 64 Stat. 1262, set out under section 1451 of this title.

“Officer designated by the Secretary of the Interior” and “such officer” substituted for “register” on authority of section 403 of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1946, which abolished all registers of district land offices and transferred functions of district land offices to Secretary of the Interior. See section 403 of Reorg. Plan No. 3 of 1946, set out as a note under section 1 of this title. Previously, references to register and receiver changed to register by acts Mar. 3, 1925, and Oct. 28, 1921, which consolidated offices of register and receiver and provided for a single officer to be known as register.