lO PASTURE LANDS AND GRAZING CONTROL 



entry. In the Pacific States and Western States alone, over 

 123,000,000 acres of public land have been homesteaded since 

 1905, more than half of which was taken up between 1909 and 



1915- 



Lands of least resistance welcome the plow and are usually 

 the first to be settled. The best of such new lands have now 

 become fence-enclosed farms with red barns on them. Prac- 

 tically all the land on which there is a remote possibility of making 

 a living by farming has been occupied, although much of it, 

 because of lack of ample rainfall or on account of the short 

 growing season, should never have felt the plow. 



In many localities dry farming has proved anything but suc- 

 cessful; poverty-stricken homesteaders, no longer able to meet 

 the financial strain, have disposed of their holdings to the larger 

 stock breeders for what they could get, and their land has again 

 been put to its original use — grazing. Those farmers who suc- 

 ceed, however, usually fence against stock and thereby often 

 render much of the adjacent, otherwise available land inac- 

 cessible for foraging purposes. 



Where good agricultural crops can be grown, settlement should 

 be strongly encouraged; for not only will more and better stock 

 be produced where cultivated crops can be grown, but home life 

 will be provided. Much of the unclaimed public-domain land, 

 which in 1922 was approximately 200,000,000 acres — an area 

 nearly as large as that of Germany and France combined — will 

 be homesteaded sooner or later. Prior to their being patented, 

 however, the greater part of the remaining public lands should 

 be carefully classified by the Federal Government to deter- 

 mine for what purpose they are best suited. Following such 

 a classification, an intelligent disposition of the lands could be 

 made, and many a settler would be safeguarded against such 

 serious reverses as many have already experienced; for it is a 

 fact that a great number of homesteads, whose lands are suit- 

 able only for grazing purposes, have unfortunately been taken 

 up for the growing of farm crops. 



Cause and Effect of Overgrazing. — Range and pasture vege- 

 tation, if given adequate time in which to recuperate, is able to 



