Editing Homestead principle (section)

=== Linda and Morris Tannehill ===
Linda and Morris Tannehill argued in their 1970 book ''[[The Market for Liberty]]'' that physically claiming the land (e.g. by fencing it in or prominently staking it out) should be enough to obtain good title:
:An old and much-respected theory holds that for a man to come into possession of a previously unowned value it is necessary for {{sic|him}} to '''mix his labor with the land''' to make it his own. But this theory runs into difficulties when one attempts to explain what is meant by 'mixing labor with land'. Just how much labor is required, and of what sort? If a {{sic|man}} digs a large hole in his land and then fills it up again, can he be said to have mixed his labor with the land? Or is it necessary to effect a somewhat permanent change in the land?

: If so, how permanent? ... Or is it necessary to effect some improvement in the economic value of the land? If so, how much and how soon? ... Would a man lose title to his land if he had to wait ten months for a railroad line to be built before he could improve the land? ... And what of the naturalist who wanted to keep his land exactly as it was in its wild state to study its ecology? ... [M]ixing one's labor with the land is too ill-defined a concept and too arbitrary a requirement to serve as a ''criterion'' of ownership.<ref name=Tannehill-Tannehill-2007/>