150 OUR USE OF THE LAND 



acquired in humid regions. It was not until the late nineteenth 

 century that the great grasslands of the world were used ex' 

 tensively. And everywhere they have been used, in Africa, 

 on the steppes of Russia, on the pampas of the Argentine, and 

 in the western part of the United States, there has been the 

 same destruction of the grass and the soil. 



This destruction of the range lands, along with the agricul' 

 tural depression that followed the World War, and then the 

 industrial depression that followed that, brought great hardship 

 to the land users of the West. Like the farmers elsewhere in the 

 country, they had an insufficient market for their products. 

 They had no money with which to pay their debts, and like 

 the other farmers, their debts were very high because of the 

 fact that they, too, had bought land, machinery, and stock 

 during the boom in agriculture during the World War. 



THE OWNERS OF THE RANGE 



The problem of the range country must be looked at this 

 way. The basic resource is grass. The question is how to save 

 the grass and at the same time make the land support as many 

 families as possible. Much of the land which the sheep herders 

 and cattle ranchers depended on fbr feed is owned by the 

 federal government. The Department of the Interior controls 

 270 million acres which is listed as Public Land. 16 Until the 

 passage of the Taylor Gracing Act in 1934, the stock owners 

 were allowed to turn their animals on to this land without 

 restriction. The United States Forest Service in the Depart' 

 ment of Agriculture controls another 82,500,000 acres of 

 range land. 17 This also is available to stockmen for gracing 

 under careful regulation. 



In addition to the federal land there is also a large area of 



16 Letter from A. E. Donham, Acting Ass't Commissioner General Land Office, 

 August, 1938. 



17 Western Range, p. 34. 



