And State Papers 637 



haustion of the public ranges has of late led to much 

 discussion as to the best manner of using these public 

 lands in the West which are suitable chiefly or only 

 for grazing. The sound and steady development of 

 the West depends upon the building up of homes 

 therein. Much of our prosperity as a nation has 

 been due to the operation of the homestead law. On 

 the other hand, we should recognize the fact that in 

 the grazing region the man who corresponds to the 

 homesteader may be unable to settle permanently if 

 only allowed to use the same amount of pasture land 

 that his brother, the homesteader, is allowed to use 

 of arable land. One hundred and sixty acres of 

 fairly rich and well-watered soil, or a much smaller 

 amount of irrigated land, may keep a family in 

 plenty, whereas no one could get a living from one 

 hundred and sixty acres of dry pasture land capable 

 of supporting at the outside only one head of cattle 

 to every ten acres. In the past great tracts of the 

 public domain have been fenced in by persons hav- 

 ing no title thereto, in direct defiance of the law for- 

 bidding the maintenance or construction of any such 

 unlawful inclosure of public land. For various rea- 

 sons there has been little interference with such in- 

 closures in the past, but ample notice has now been 

 given the trespassers, and all the resources at the 

 command of the Government will hereafter be used 

 to put a stop to such trespassing. 



In view of the capital importance of these matters, 

 I commend them to the earnest consideration of the 

 Congress, and if the Congress finds difficulty in deal- 



