GRAZING PRIVILEGES ON THE PUBLIC LANDS 

 FOR HOMESTEADERS AND SMALL LAND- 

 HOLDERS — PASTORAL HOMESTEADS * 



"All flesh is grass and all the goodliness thereof as a 

 flower of the field. ' ' Isaiah xl, 6. ' ' The grass withereth, 

 the flower fadeth because the spirit of the Lord bloweth 

 upon it; surely the people is grass." Isaiah xl, 7. 

 Man's existence depends almost wholly, either directly 

 or indirectly, upon the grasses in their various forms. 

 Voltaire 's saying is often quoted : ' ' Whoever makes two 

 blades of grass to grow where only one grew before ren- 

 ders a service to the state," and this statement is no 

 more true than that the public policy which makes one 

 blade of grass grow where two grew before should be 

 reversed. 



We have now 600,000,000 acres of the public domain, 

 without taking into account the territory of Alaska. Of 

 this vast region a very large portion is only suitable for 

 pasturage, 46,000,000 acres have been set apart as forest 

 reserves, 5,300,000 acres as national parks, a large area 

 is embraced within the limits of mountain ranges above 

 the timber line — but after all there remains an empire 

 which is suitable only for pasturage. While a consider- 

 able area is yet to be put under cultivation by proper 

 systems of irrigation, the land that would only be fit for 

 grass would still amount to hundreds of millions of acres. 

 How to utilize this best for our great and growing popu- 

 lation is a problem well worthy of the consideration of the 



i Speech of Hon. John F. Laeey, of Iowa, in the House of Bepresenta- 

 tives, Friday, June 13, 1902. 



