That, in a farm, will be
the erection of a house and outhouses, cultivation, and use of
pasturage or woodland: in a town, it will be erecting houses or shops,
platting out the land, grading or opening streets, and the like signs
and marks of occupation or special destination.
The same considerations lead to the conclusion that it would not be
just to confine the proofs of occupation to facts existing at its very
incipiency. The inchoate or equitable right, as against all others,
begins from the beginning of the occupation: the ultimate sufficiency
of that occupation is to be determined in part by subsequent facts,
which consummate the occupation, and also demonstrate its bona fides.
If it were otherwise, there would be an end of all the advantage
expressly given by the statute to priority of occupation. Take the
case of agricultural preemptions for example. A settler enters in good
faith upon a quarter-section for preemption; his entry, at first,
attaches physically to no more than the rood of land on which he is
commencing to construct a habitation.
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