22 LANDS OF THE ARID REGION OF THE UNITED STATES. 
Four square miles may be considered as the minimum amount neces- 
sary for a pasturage farm, and a still greater amount is necessary for the 
larger part of the lands; that is, pasturage farms, to be of any practicable 
value, must be of at least 2,560 acres, and in many districts they must be 
much larger.* 
REGULAR DIVISION LINES FOR PASTURAGE FARMS NOT PRACTICABLE. 
Many a brook which runs but a short distance will afford sufficient 
water for a number of pasturage farms; but if the lands are surveyed in 
regular tracts as square miles or townships, all the water sufficient for a 
number of pasturage farms may fall entirely within one division. If the 
lands are thus surveyed, only the divisions having water will be taken, and 
the farmer obtaining title to such a division or farm could practically 
occupy all the country adjacent by owning the water necessary to its use. 
For this reason divisional surveys should conform to the topography, and 
be so made as to give the greatest number of water fronts. For example, 
a brook carrying water sufficient for the irrigation of 200 acres of land 
might be made to serve for the irrigation of 20 acres to each of ten farms, 
and also supply the water for all the stock that could live on ten pasturage 
farms, and ten small farmers could have homes. But if the water was 
owned by one man, nine would be excluded from its benefits and nine- 
tenths of the land remain in the hands of the government. 
FARM RESIDENCES SHOULD BE GROUPED. 
These lands will maintain but a scanty population. The homes must 
necessarily be widely scattered from the fact that the farm unit must be 
large. That the inhabitants of these districts may have the benefits of the 
local social organizations of civilization—as schools, churches, ete., and the 
benefits of codperation in the construction of roads, bridges, and other 
*For the determination of the proper unit for pasturage farms the writer has conferred with 
many persons living in the Rocky Mountain Region who have had experience. His own observations 
have been extensive, and for many years while conducting surveys and making long journeys through 
the Arid Region this question has been uppermost in his mind. He fears that this estimate will disap- 
point many of his western friends, who will think he has placed the minimum too low, but after making 
the most thorough examination of the subject possible he believes the amount to be sufficient for the best 
pasturage lands, especially such as are adjacent to the minor streams of the general drainage, and when 
these have been taken by actual settlers the size of the pasturage farms may be increased as experience 
proves necessary. 
