CHAPTER III 



PASSING OF THE FEDERAL 

 PASTURE* 



NO group of men in the Fifty-seventh 

 Congress dealt with more vital mat- 

 ters than the House Committee on Public 

 Lands. These gentlemen made an effort to 

 solve the question of protecting and im- 

 proving the great government pastures, 

 that these might grow more beef and mut- 

 ton, and that suitable parts might in time 

 be put to agricultural use. The problem 

 involves conflicting interests, yet some action 

 upon it is imperative. It is a national one, 

 having to do with the price of meat in every 

 American home. 



Probably 400,000,000 acres of the public 

 domain are at present fit only for pasturage. 

 This does not mean that the soil lacks fer- 

 tility, which most of it does not, but that 

 the region is partially arid, the average rain- 



* Reprinted, by permission, from the American Review of 

 Reviews for January, 1903. 



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