ADDRESSES OF MAJOR LACEY 123 



permitted to lease. The reason for this is evident. A 

 corporation is not a settler and has no family or home. 

 Corporations can be created without number, and if 

 leases were open to corporations under this bill they 

 could readily locate tracts of 320 acres without settle- 

 ment and then take leasehold privileges of 3,200 acres 

 each appurtenant to their holdings, and effectually pre- 

 vent the settlement of large areas that under this bill 

 would become the home of ranchers. Under existing 

 laws homesteads in the public lands are provided for 

 farmers ; this bill will open up the way for pastoral home- 

 steads in a region where ordinary cultivation is not prac- 

 ticable. 



I believe if this bill should be enacted into law it would 

 be followed by very considerable increase in population 

 in all the arid states, because we would have practically a 

 new form of homesteader — a homestead settler who 

 would take land because of its appurtenant rights, feel- 

 ing confident that upon his homestead and leasehold lands 

 he could be sure of a living for himself and family. 



If I am right in my suggestion that intelligent and pru- 

 dent management would increase the grass product, then 

 it follows that more cattle could be supported upon the 

 same amount of land than under the present entire lack 

 of care, system, and method. 



In Oregon the wheat farmer raises a wonderful quan- 

 tity of grain to the acre ; but the good farmer there only 

 raises two crops in three years or one crop in two years 

 and gives his land the benefit of a year's summer fallow. 

 The Hebrews recognized that the land, as well as man, 

 must have periods of rest. Pastures, too, must have rest 

 from time to time or they will become worthless. A les- 

 see will consider his own self-interest in the care of the 

 grazing lands that he may control, and by shifting his 

 cattle from time to time will allow the restoration of the 



