ADDRESSES OF MAJOR LACEY 119 



with just apprehension upon any scheme which would 

 enable the great cattle companies to fence in large tracts 

 of the national domain and exclude the poor settler from 

 enjoying the wild products of the public lands. This con- 

 dition has existed for many years. There is a diversity 

 of opinion upon the subject as to the extent to which the 

 native pasturage has deteriorated, but the fact of its great 

 decline is not disputed. That deterioration has been rea- 

 sonably estimated amounting to the destruction of more 

 than a million acres of grass land each year, and its con- 

 version into a desert condition. 



The homesteaders in western Kansas and other locali- 

 ties have taken up claims where it is impossible for them 

 by cultivation to make a living for themselves and their 

 families because of lack of rainfall. In taking these 

 claims, however, they have plowed up considerable por- 

 tions of the valuable native grasses, and while nominally 

 improving the land, they in fact have injured it, because 

 upon much of this land there is no product of any kind 

 that can take the place of the native grasses and at the 

 same time be a safe and reliable crop in usual dry seasons. 

 Many of the ranges — in fact, most of them — have been 

 heavily and persistently overstocked. Many varieties of 

 the grasses are annuals, and in the fierce competition 

 among the herders not a sufficient quantity of grass is 

 permitted to go to seed to renew the plants. 



The House committee on the public lands has had this 

 matter before them for many years. Personally I have 

 realized the necessity for doing something toward the 

 restoration of the natural pasturage, but in considering 

 this matter I have always found myself confronted with 

 the difficulty that the small settler and homesteader would 

 probably be crowded to the wall under such system unless 

 it should be guarded with exceeding care. 



The state of Texas has for many years leased its graz- 



