14 FOEAGE CONDITIONS AND PKOBLEMS. 



CHANGES IN THE HANDLING OF THE WASHINGTON RANGES. 



During the past few years there has been great progress toward a 

 more systematic handling and at the same time a more stable and per- 

 manent adjustment of the stock industry in the region of the Big Bend 

 and the country adjacent to it. In many particulars the changes are 

 radical, and in some instances the industry has been remarkably cur- 

 tailed, though probably not permanently, for the reduced area devoted 

 to the raising of live stock will doubtless be made, when the new con- 

 ditions become adjusted, to support proportionally a much larger num- 

 ber of animals than it formerly did. 



One of the greatest factors in the production of these changes has 

 been the extension of the wheat areas to include practically all of the 

 tillable land of the entire region, apparently regardless of the rainfall. 

 Large areas west of Ritzville, near Trinidad and Waterville, and in 

 the " Horse Heaven " country have in recent years been reclaimed for 

 wheat culture. Some of these areas may not be permanently occupied 

 by wheat, since the average annual rainfall on some of them is less 

 than 10 inches, and some of the more conservative farmers think they 

 will eventually revert to the range. 



But the most important factor in these changes has been the agitation 

 brought about in recent years in favor of the passage of a lease law by . 

 the National Congress. This agitation, though it has not crystallized 

 into any definite action, has induced many of the nomadic sheepmen, 

 who heretofore owned no land, to invest in lands in anticipation of the 

 enactment of lease laws, which, in all bills thus far introduced, give 

 preference to the actual holders of landed interests. The presence of 

 large areas of railroad land in this region has enabled many to secure 

 from the transportation companies, by lease or purchase (usually the 

 latter), tracts of land suited to their needs. Of course much of this 

 purchase is purely speculative, but a very large proportion of the land 

 so acquired has been bought by those who are and have been for 

 years in the stock business on the public domain. As the railroad 

 land consists of alternate sections, the ownership of these tracts virtu- 

 ally gives the investor control of the adjacent sections of the public, 

 domain. As is well known, our homestead laws do not adequately 

 meet the necessities of the man who proposes to embark in the stock 

 business in the semiarid regions, particularly where the railroads own 

 alternate sections. Even a whole section of land is too small a unit 

 for range operations, so that a homestead can only be used as a base for 

 a .stock range in cases where all the surrounding lands are a part of the 

 public domain. Indeed, the farmer who raises wheat in this region 

 needs more land to obtain a reasonable compensation for his labor than 

 he can secure under our land laws. In recent years most of the land 

 within the railroad grant has been brought under individual control, 



