THE CALL OF THE LAND 



beat, we add the indirect effect of afforesta- 

 tion and of settlement upon tillage areas 

 adjoining arid lands. 



Wherever houses, hedges and fences are 

 erected, ponds created and filled, and crops 

 raised, the effect is felt miles away. Con- 

 tiguous sections that were dry are made less 

 so and begin to blossom. Later they, too, 

 are profitably farmed, and in turn take up 

 the missionary work, the advance posts of 

 agriculture as it invades the desert. This 

 is the truth meant to be expressed by us of 

 Kansas, Nebraska, and the Dakotas in the 

 proverb that the rainfall is moving west- 

 ward. Afforestation in any tract will work 

 similar miracles far and wide in the neigh- 

 boring dry regions. 



Clearly, public pasturage must in no very 

 long time cease to be an important factor in 

 raising beef. I myself query whether the 

 market price of beef is any longer deter- 

 mined by the cost of cattle production on 

 the public domain ; whether, in other words, 

 the supply derivable from this source has, 



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