134 MAJOR JOHN F. LACEY 



and 1787. However much we may criticise the land 

 grants which aided in carrying the railroads to the Pa- 

 cific Coast, it is undoubtedly true that the settlement of 

 the vast empire between the Mississippi and the Pacific 

 was very greatly accelerated by this policy. Another 

 important departure from all previous methods was the 

 adoption of the existing system of administering our 

 public mineral lands. 



The old Spanish law, under which the crown owned all 

 the precious metals, was abrogated, and every induce- 

 ment held out to the hardy explorer whose venturesome 

 spirit led him into almost every part of the Far West. 

 Even far away Alaska, purchased by Seward in 1868 and 

 looked upon as an indirect way of giving $7,200,000 to 

 Russia for her friendship in the Civil War, has proven 

 to be one of the richest of all our possessions, and each 

 year that territory yields us in gold, fish, and furs, very 

 much more than the whole of the original purchase price. 



We have today in the public domain, including Alaska, 

 something over 800,000,000 acres of lands. The best of 

 the agricultural land has passed into private ownership. 

 A system of national irrigation has been entered upon 

 which will make homes for many more millions of our 

 population. Seventy-five million acres of timbered lands 

 have been set apart as permanent forest reserves, but 

 one of the greatest sources of national wealth has in my 

 judgment been greatly neglected. Nearly 500,000,000 

 acres of grazing lands still belong to the nation. Most of 

 these lands are unsuited for the making of homes by the 

 old methods. Much of the grass is annual, and if grazed 

 too closely, it will produce no crop in the succeeding year. 

 The subject is a very interesting one and in my opinion 

 is one of the most important with which this generation 

 has to deal. Some method must be devised by which the 

 grazing may be carried on so as to produce the largest 



