914 



THE IKRIGATION AGE. 



TWO YEARS OF CONSERVATION. 



Over seventy million acres of coal land in the West 

 is still owned by Uncle Sam. The coal content of this land 

 is enormous; it can he figured only in hundreds of billions 

 of tons. Some tracts are of immense value, containing beds 

 of coal of the highest grade, 30, 40, 50, and even 80 feet or 

 more in thickness. The old way was to sell the coal land, 

 regardless of value, at the absurd figure of $10 an acre if it 

 was more than 15 miles from a railroad or at $20 if within 

 that limit. The present way is to measure the coal in an 

 acre and sell the land at a price determined by its content of 

 coal. As a result coal land has been priced as high as $400 

 an acre and one tract at even $600 an acre. Since March 4, 

 1909, the Geological Survey has classified, by 40-acre tracts, 

 8.527,166 acres of the government coal lands, at a total valu- 

 ation of $560,815,081. Including the work done under the 

 last administration a total of 13,480,538 acres has now been 

 classified as coal land, at a valuation of $637,619,418. At the 

 $10 to $20 minimum rate these lands would have a valuation 

 of $218,289,942, so that the work done has resulted in a gain 

 to the government of nearly $420,000,000. It may be noted 

 that the proceeds of coal-land sales are all deposited to the 

 credit of the "reclamation fund'' the fund that pays for the 

 construction of the government's vast water-storage projects. 



The work involved in the classification and valuation 

 of the nation's coal fields is immense and the scheme under 

 which it has been worked out is remarkably accurate and 

 scientific. The best evidence of its accuracy is the ready 

 acceptance of the estimates and valuations by purchasers of 

 coal lands and the fact that the Geological Survey is con- 

 stantly receiving applications and petitions for the classifica- 

 tion of coal lands. 



As a result of geologic field examinations this adminis- 

 tration has also withdrawn 62,140,548 acres of probable coal 

 land and has restored to agricultural entry 18,777,756 acres 

 of noncoal land, which had been withdrawn from entry 

 pending the Geological Survey's determination of its char- 

 acter. A single Montana withdrawal, made last July, in- 

 cluded 20,208,865 acres. The amount of coal contained in this 

 area is almost incredibly great. A single 40-acre tract, for 

 example, contains over two and a half million tons of coal. 

 The present outstanding withdrawals awaiting geologic classi- 

 fication aggregates 80,007,688 acres. 



Another public fuel resource in the conservation of which 

 the administration is taking an active interest is oil. Many of 



the public-land states are underlain by deposits of petroleum, 

 with which natural gas is frequently associated. Two years 

 ago the Geological Survey reported to the National Conserva- 

 tion Commission that the oil contained in the California de- 

 posits alone amounted to eight and a half billion barrels, 

 and this estimate is now declared to be moderate. Careful 

 geologic examination has been made of the western oil fields, 

 and 3,796,572 acres of public oil lands have been withdrawn 

 from entry in California, Oregon, Wyoming, Utah, New 

 Mexico, Colorado, and Louisiana. These withdrawals are 

 made in aid of proposed legislation, for the present gold- 

 placer law under which oil or gas land must be acquired is 

 absurdly inadequate and provides no means by which the 

 government can retain an oil supply for the Navy, every new 

 ship of which is now equipped with oil-burning furnaces. 



Withdrawals of water-power sites on public lands by 

 the Geological Survey in aid of proposed legislation have 

 included thousands of sites. The withdrawals made during 

 the last two years cover 161 streams in 12 states and aggre- 

 gate 1,403,054 acres. 



Even the classification of agricultural land in the West 

 has devolved upon the Geological Survey, which during 

 the last two years has designated 186,005,858 acres as non- 

 irrigable and thus subject to entry under the enlarged-home- 

 stead act. 



The Geological Survey has contributed most notably to 

 the farming interests in connection with the discovery and 

 classification of phosphate lands. Phosphate is as necessary 

 a plant food as potash. The world's supply of phosphate is 

 small, but fortunately the largest known deposits have been 

 recently discovered in the public-land states of this country. 

 As the result of careful geologic examination 2,5i,145 acres 

 of phosphate land are now withdrawn from entry awaiting 

 legislation to safeguard them from monopoly, and another 

 area recently discovered to be underlain with this mineral 

 resource will soon be withdrawn. These lands include several 

 areas discovered by Survey geologists. The lands withdrawn 

 are in Montana, Utah, Idaho, Wyoming, and Florida. 



The areas of public mineral lands of all kinds now with- 

 drawn are given below, in acres : 



Coal 



80,007,688 



Oil and gas 3,796,572 



Water power 1,403,054 



Phosphate 2,548,145 



I Let Us Tell You 



I 



About Central Oregon { 



The last large area of land in the country for the Home- n 

 seeker just opened by the building of the (| 



Oregon Trunk Railway 



the newest of the Northern Pacific's affiliated lines. Through the scenic Deschutes Valley into 

 the heart of a vast and productive section, with an ideal climate. This country is admirably 

 adapted to general farming and fruit-growing, cattle raising and dairying particularly the 

 latter, on account of the unusually long grazing season. Numerous irrigation projects being 

 developed. Now is the time to buy land cheap. Get in on the ground floor. 



Low Rate Round-trip Homeseekers' Tickets 



to all points on the new line to and including Madras and Metolius, Oregon, 

 on sale first and third Tuesdays of each month: $52.50 from St. Paul-Minne- 

 apolis. $57.50 from Chicago correspondingly low fares from all points in 

 the East, Middle West and South. 



Get our new Oregon pamphlet fully descriptive, with maps and illustra- 

 tions and details about fares and daily through electric-lighted Tourist 

 Sleeping Cars over the " Scenic Highway through the Land of Fortune." 

 A. D. CHAKLTON, Asst. Gen'l Pass. Agent A. M. CLELAND. Gen'l Pass. Agent 

 Portland, Ore. St. Paul, Minn. 



\ Northern Pacific Railway 



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