CHAPTER XXVI 



THE PUBLIC DOMAIN GRAZING ADMINISTRATION 

 (DIVISION OF GRAZING CONTROL) 



The Taylor Grazing Act passed by Congress in 1934 provided for 

 the establishment of grazing districts on the public domain by the 

 Secretary of the Interior. This is an important conservation measure 

 and marks a distinct forward step in a program of conservation that 

 in the life of our nation may well rival such other conservation meas- 

 ures as the forest, reclamation, and mineral resources measures. The 

 term "public domain" is applied to the unappropriated and unreserved 

 portion of the land still owned by the Federal Government in the so- 

 called public land states. This vast public domain of 165 million acres 

 lies chiefly in 10 far western states and occupies an area as large as 

 the State of Texas. Approximately 95% of this area lies within what 

 may be approximately termed the 15-inch annual rainfall region em- 

 bracing the great intermountain basins lying between the Rocky 

 Mountains on the east and the Sierra Nevada and Cascade ranges on 

 the west, together with parts of the northern plains areas of Montana 

 and Wyoming. The intermountain region embraces the great desert 

 ranges of the West which with the exception of relatively small iso- 

 lated farming communities is public domain. Some portions of it are 

 broken up with grazing or dry farming homesteads, or by state-owned 

 tracts, such as sections 6 and 36 in each township which have been 

 given to the states as school sections by the Federal Government. 

 For many miles on each side of certain of the transcontinental rail- 

 road systems the public domain land often lies in alternate sections 

 with railroad land. 



In order to carry out the administrative functions of this law, the 

 Secretary of the Interior established a Division of Grazing. This 

 Division will perform the technical function of determining methods 

 and practices of management necessary to rehabilitate the depleted 

 range lands. It will determine the proper number of livestock and 

 period of use that may be properly allowed. It will undertake range 

 improvements such as water development, rodent and predatory ani- 



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