132 



FORESTRY AND IRRIGATION 



March 



other entries to which title has been 

 given. 



It is a fact that a very small propor- 

 tion of the land disposed of under the 

 terms of the law has actually been re- 

 claimed and irrigated, and scrutiny of 

 many hundreds of desert entries now 

 passing to final proof shows that in the 

 majority of cases these lands are not 

 actually utilized, but are being held for 

 speculative purposes. Owing to sev- 

 eral causes, among which are the lax- 

 ity of some of the State laws govern- 

 ing appropriation of water for irriga- 

 tion purposes, and the insufficiency of 

 the water supply, considerable difficul- 

 ty has been encountered in administer- 

 ing that provision of the desert-land 

 laws which requires a claimant to have 

 a permanent water right based on 

 prior appropriation. Very often the 

 waters of a stream are exhausted by 

 other appropriators before the time 

 when the claimant goes through the 

 form of posting notices, recording his 

 claim, and complying with other essen- 

 tials of the State law. Notwithstand- 

 ing this, he furnishes the testimony of 

 two witnesses that the water thus ap- 

 propriated has been used in reclaiming 

 his land, and that the supply is ade- 

 quate for that purpose. While this 

 showing, on its face, indicates a com- 

 pliance with law, the fact remains that 

 the water supply, if any at all, is not 

 sufficient to permanently reclaim the 

 land. 



The ownership of stock in a pro- 

 jected irrigation ditch which does not 

 exist in fact, or the ownership of a 

 pump temporarily installed, has often 

 been accepted, in connection with such 

 testimony, as proof of the possession 

 of water. Many alleged irrigation 

 ditches or reservoirs are familiar to 

 members of the Commission which are 

 utterly inadequate to irrigate a square 

 rod, and upon the strength of such 

 works patent has frequently issued to 

 320 acres of land. 



Frauds committed through conven- 

 tional forms of perjury and through 

 lack of proper verification of the facts 

 as to the reclamation of the land justi- 

 fy the taking of immediate and radical 



steps in the revision of the law. The 

 law should absolutely require an actual 

 adequate water supply, and the limits 

 as to quantity should be defined. 



In short, the law should render im- 

 possible the continuance of the prac- 

 tices by which desert lands without 

 water, without cultivation, and with- 

 out crops are passed into the posses- 

 sion of claimants. 



GRAZING LANDS. 



The great bulk of the vacant public 

 lands throughout the West are un- 

 suitable for cultivation under the pres- 

 ent known conditions of agriculture, 

 and so located that they cannot be 

 reclaimed by irrigation. They are, 

 and probably always must be, of chief 

 value for grazing. There are, it is es- 

 timated, more than 300,000,000 acres 

 of public grazing land, an area ap- 

 proximately equal to one-fifth the ex- 

 tent of the United States proper. The 

 exact limits cannot be set, for with 

 seasonal changes large areas of land 

 which afford good grazing one year 

 are almost desert in another. There 

 are also vast tracts of wooded or tim- 

 bered land in which grazing has much 

 importance, and until a further classi- 

 fication of the public lands is made it 

 will be impossible to give with exact- 

 ness the total acreage. The extent 

 is so vast and the commercial interests 

 involved so great as to demand in the 

 highest degree the wise and conserva- 

 tive handling of these vast resources. 



It is a matter of first importance to 

 know whether these grazing lands are 

 being used in the best way possible for 

 the continued development of the 

 country or whether they are being 

 abused under a system which is detri- 

 mental to such development and by 

 which the only present value of the 

 land is being rapidly destroyed. 



At present the vacant public lands 

 are theoretically open commons, free 

 to all citizens ; but as a matter of fact 

 a large proportion have been parceled 

 out by more or less definite compacts 

 or agreements among the various in- 

 terests. These tacit agreements are 

 continually being violated. The sheep- 



