XCIV REPORT OF THE SECRETARY OF AGRICULTURE. 



among the range stockmen contending for the control of the same 

 grazing area. If, instead of this uncertain and uneconomic S3\stem, 

 there could be a law for the control of the grazing land which would 

 unite with a small homestead of irrigated land a larger but limited area 

 of grazing land, thus enabling each farmer to raise his winter feed sup- 

 pl}" on his irrigated land while keeping his stock on the grazing lands 

 in summer, the value of irrigation works would be much enhanced and 

 a great incentive given to development by private capital. 



The purpose of such union of the irrigable and grazing lands would 

 be to divide the grazing land into a multitude of small holdings and thus 

 increase the number of people benefited by it; to give security of 

 tenure, which will make the growing of live stock attractive to many 

 who are now repelled by the risks and controversies of the open range; 

 to give increased value to irrigation, and provide the conditions indis- 

 pensable to success in many localities. Such a land system would also 

 encourage the introduction of improved breeds of stock, because it 

 would afford better opportunities to care for them. At present there 

 is little inducement to such improvement, because of lack of control 

 over the country occupied. It would enlist self-interest in the improve- 

 ment, or at least the preservation, of the native grasses, where every 

 influence now tends toward their destruction. 



Such a union of the irrigable and grazing lands would cause the 

 building of fences and the making of other improvements far be3^ond 

 the limits of irrigation. It would attach settlers to the pastured areas 

 as closely as they are now wedded to their irrigated fields. It seems 

 to possess many advantages over the present system, or lack of S3^stem, 

 if a satisfactory law can be enacted bringing it into operation. What- 

 ever is done, no obstacle should be placed in the wa}^ of homestead set- 

 tlement, but this does not seem to offer any special difficulties. In 

 the first place, the grazing area should be leased and not sold. The 

 possibilities of its utilization have not yet been determined, nor is 

 enough known to fix definitely the limits of a grazing homestead. The 

 leasing of the grazing land in such a way as not to interfere with the 

 homesteader can be accomplished in one of two ways: Public lands 

 can be classified and the boundaries of irrigation and grazing defined, 

 or the grazing land can be leased subject to entry under the public 

 land laws. Even under such restrictions it is believed that the greater 

 part of the grazing lands can be leased, and the rentals therefrom 

 would amount in the aggregate to a very large sum. This could 

 appropriately be applied to the reclamation of the irrigable lands. It 

 would be taking nothing from the revenues of the nation, because it 

 would come from the better use of a resource which now produces 

 nothing. 



There are also many things to connnend the expenditui-e of the 

 I'ovenues derived from the sale of public lands to the construction 



