ADVOCATE AND GUIDE. 105 



lie waste and desolate. These lie scattered all over the Union. And 

 there are nearly 80,000,000 acres of land that lie under swamps or 

 are subject to periodical overflow or are too wet for anything but 

 grazing, which it is perfectly feasible to drain and protect and redeem. 

 Congress can at once direct thousands of the returning soldiers to the 

 reclamation of the arid lands which it has already undertaken, if it 

 will but enlarge the plans and the appropriations which it has en- 

 trusted to the Department of the Interior. It is possible in dealing 

 with our unused land to effect a great rural and agricultural department 

 which will afford the best sort of opportunity to men who want to 

 help themselves ; and the Secretary of the Interior has thought the 

 possible methods out in a way which is worthy of your most friendly 

 attention." 



"CHICAGO, April 11. Plans of the administration to reclaim millions 

 of acres in the Western and Middle Western country and give these to 

 the soldiers who come from 'over there' were disclosed by Secretary of 

 the Interior Lane, speaking at the sixth annual convention of the Cham- 

 ber of Commerce of the United States. ' I propose to take enough men 

 from the returned army to work to irrigate 1,000,000 or more acres 

 along the Colorado River, and give each man 40 acres and a house and 

 stock in payment. I can give you 4,000,000 acres of irrigable land if 

 you will give me the hands. There are also 15,000,000 acres of over- 

 flowed lands in the Mississippi Valley. Build dykes, save that land 

 and divide it among the men,' he said." 



"SAN FRANCISCO, CAL., Oct. 22. Eleven million acres of 'logged- 

 off timber land en the Pacific coast might be reclaimed an! used for 

 agricultural purposes, according to the statement of Walter H. Graves, 

 whose appointment by Secretary Lane as an engineer of the reclama- 

 tion service, was recently announced. Mr. Graves has been instructed 

 to make a study of the large districts of cut-over timber land in the 

 West for the purpose of determining its availability, when cleared, for 

 farms for soldiers after the war. The land denuded of timber would 

 have to be cleared of the encumbering logs, stumps and brush. The 

 redemption of this vast wilderness, it is estimated, would add $2,000,- 

 000,000 to the farm wealth of the Pacific States. The cost of clearing 

 the land would be less than the value of the land if improved mechani- 

 cal devices were used, Mr. Graves said." 



"OTTAWA, ONT., Nov. 21. A scheme for the distribution of land in 

 the western provinces of Canada to returned soldiers and selected im- 

 migrants from Great Britain and the United States has been worked 

 out by the Canadian government, it was learned today. The idle land 

 will be settled and loans as high as $4,500 will be made to the settlers.' 



