IRRIGATION. 421 



The greater part of the arid West is devoted to grazing. The 

 accompanying small map (fig. 6) indicates the vasl extent; the open 

 grazing land being shown by the cross lining. Herds of cuttle and 

 flocks of sheep range over the public lands, eating the herbage with- 

 out restriction, the whole country being practically an open common. 

 This business is at times extremely profitable, and has attracted large 

 capital, influential companies being formed. The business has in- 

 creased to such an extent that the ranges have been overstocked, and. 

 being free to all, there has been a struggle for existence. 



Success in the grazing business upon the open land is dependent 

 largely upon ability to control the water supply. If a man can obtain 

 possession of a spring or stream he can exclude the cattle or sheep of 

 other owners from the water, and thus be in a position to monopolize 

 thousands of acres of grazing land, useless to others because their 

 animals can not obtain water to drink. By systematically taking up 

 small tracts along both sides of a stream these can be strung out in 

 such a way as to control the water frontage, and by fencing contigu- 

 ous 40-acre tracts a continuous line can be made for many miles, pre- 

 venting access to water. Cattle companies have employed men with 

 the understanding that they would thus take up land along the streams, 

 and a glance at the map of the great unoccupied public domain shows 

 the 40-acre tracts entered in such a fashion as to include nearly all of 

 the running water. 



The keen competition for grazing brought about by overstocking 

 the public ranges has thus resulted in putting a premium upon lands 

 which, while not irrigable nor suitable for farming, yet control access 

 to water. A recent advertisement in a Western paper illustrates the 

 condition: " For sale, 160 acres, controlling 10,000 acres of good Gov- 

 ernment grazing." No particular harm would result if the lands thus 

 disposed of by the Government passed into the hands of men who 

 would make best use of them, but as a rule this is not the case. Areas 

 which might be made into many farms are held as portions of a great 

 cattle range, the owners of which can make a larger interest on their 

 investment by thus holding it than by attempting to conserve the water 

 and to subdivide the land into small tracts. Many of the best reservoir 

 sites are being taken up in one way or another by men who confess- 

 edly do not intend to utilize them, but to hold the land for sale at a 

 good price whenever water conservation is attempted. Speculations 

 of this kind are lawful, and may be commendable to a certain degree, 

 but when they result in tying up some of the best land of the country 

 and in excluding population they become injurious to the public 

 welfare. 



But the question may be asked, Why should so much interest attach 

 to the West rather than to the humid East, where an artificial water 

 supply need not be provided as a requisite for agriculture? The 



