Improvement

A valuable addition made to property (usually real estate) or an umeélioration in its condition, amounting to more than mere repairs or replacement of waste, costing labor or capital, and intended to enhance its value and utility or to adapt it for new or further purposes. In American land law. Anact by which a locator or settler expresses his intention to eultivate or clear certain land; an act expressive of the actual possession of land; as by erecting a cabin, planting a corn-field, deadening trees in a forest; or by merely marking trees, or even by piling up a brushheap.

Burrill.

An “improvement, ” underour land system, does not mean a general enhancement of the value of the tract from the occupant’s operations. It hasa more limited meaning, which bas in view the population of our forests, and the increase of agricult ural products. All works which are direcied to the creation of homes for families, or are substantial steps towards briugiug lands into cultivation, have in their results the special character of “improvements,” and, under the land laws of the defined as requisite to convey rights. In other cases not. But the test which runs threugh all the cases is always this: Are they real, and made bond fide, in accordance with the policy of the law, or are they only colorable, and made for the purpose of fraud and speculation? 87 Ark. 137. In the law of patents. An addition to, or modification of, a previous invention or discovery, intended or claimed to increase ita utility or value.

See 2 Kent, Comm. 366- 372.