688 



CONSERVATION 



placer laws (to say nothing of the ret- 

 roactive and unconstitutional infringe- 

 ments on the rights of existent lode 

 claimants that this bill contains) places 

 the phosphate deposits at the disposal of 

 locators at a price less than the grazing 

 value attaching to adjoining land. The 

 sheepmen will hunt up enough phos- 

 phate to constitute a legal "discovery," 

 and then patent whole quarter-sections 

 at $5.625 per acre. In that way the 

 sheepmen, will get valuable summer 



range with the phosphate deposits 

 "thrown into the bargain." 



Such promises to be the result of the 

 legislation thus far proposed since the 

 President's withdrawal of the deposits 

 from entry. It will cause a rapid loca- 

 tion of the entire field that would not 

 otherwise have been expected. The 

 irony of such attempts at conservation 

 is in line with the familiar story of the 

 loss of the rest of our natural re- 

 sources. 



View Showing a Stretch of Irrigable Lands That Have Been Filed Upon and Homesteaded Under the Main Truckee Canal 



Nevada; Five Miles Southeast of Wadsworth, Nev. 



