All persons qualified to make entry under the public land laws of the United States, who settle upon, cultivate or improve a tract of land in the state for the purpose of acquiring title thereto as a homestead or desert land entry under the laws of the United States, and who are conforming to all requirements of residence, improvement or cultivation of such land required by such laws in perfecting title to the land if entered by the claimant under such laws, shall be protected in the peaceable possession and quiet enjoyment of the land, with all the crops, timber and improvements thereon, to the extent of the maximum number of acres allowed by such laws in compact form, if unsurveyed according to the cardinal points, and, if surveyed by the United States, then according to the lines of the survey so as to include the improvements.