THE IRRIGATION AGE 179 



isting and future laws, and also to the mineral entryman, thus offer- 

 ing no obstruction to the actual settler. In allotting the leases it pro 

 vides.- 



Preference for leases shall be given to owners of cultivated agricultural land for 

 leasable lands abutting upon their freeholds, in proportion of ten acres of leasehold 

 to one of freehold. A preference of ten acres of leasehold to one acre of freehold 

 shall also be given to stockgrowers who are also freeholders. This preference shall 

 apply only to lands within counties upon which their stock habitually ranges. If, in 

 case of either of the preferences above provided, there shall not be sufficient leasa- 

 ble lands in the county to give each person entitled to the preference the maximum 

 proportion of ten acres to one, then said lands shall be prorated between the persons 

 entitled to such preference. The further preference to lands not leased under the 

 foregoing provisions of this section shall be given to stockgrowers who were in ac- 

 tual use and occupancy of said lands during the year ending January 1, 1901, to be 

 leased to them in proportion to their respective interests in and use thereof. Where 

 the States lease State lands, the bona-fide holders of such State leaseholds shall be 

 beneficiaries of the preference given to stockgrowers who are also freeholders: pro- 

 vided, That such State leaseholds are not held by any one person in tracts exceeding 

 six hundred and forty acres in one body. 



At the price fixed, the leasable area will produce a revenue of 

 8,000,000 annually. It is provided that this shall go into the Federal 

 treasury, as a fund for irrigating all irrigable lands in the region 

 where it is earned. Whenever the Federal Government, a State, or 

 private enterprise provides water storage and distribution for irriga- 

 tion, all lands subject thereto are cancelled out of the lease without 

 compensation to the leaseholder. The fund will be large, and will 

 protect the Treasury against any call for tax- derived revenue for irri- 

 gation. 



Why should the East oppose such a measure? It protects equally 

 freehold rights and those of small and large stockgrowers. None can 

 be excluded. The lands which the revenue irrigates will not compete 

 with Eastern farm lands. They cannot produce grain for export, as 

 it will not bear transportation. With inappreciable exceptions, the 

 most profitable use of this land will be in the production of hay as 

 winter feed for stock. But unless the dry summer range is leased and 

 protected, and its forage restored, there will be no stock to eat the 

 winter feed. The symmetrical, economic development of the arid re- 

 gion and its profitable use depend upon the restoration of the summer 

 range. The proposed law is good business. It derives an irrigation 

 fund from an existing public asset an asset that has enriched the 

 user who has enjoyed it iree of cost until a large part of it has been 

 destroyed, while the rest is following in the same direction at a rapid 

 pace. 



If free use in common of the public domain east of the Missouri 

 River had destroyed its potential wealth, dried up the springs and 

 streams, poisoned it with desert conditions and made it unfit for set- 

 tlement, does any one imagine that such use would have been per- 

 mitted and its effects borne without any effort being made for a remedy 9 

 The April Forum. 



