OUR NATIONAL ESTATE 9 



ervations. In 1872 it began to withdraw areas for 

 National Parks and in 1906 for National Monu- 

 ments. In 1911 it established the National Forests, 

 now embracing an area of 286,000 square miles. 

 And meantime, dating back to the beginning, there 

 have been constant withdrawals of army lands, navy 

 lands, lands for migratory bird and wild animal 

 conservation, lands for post offices, light-houses, 

 national hospitals, federal courts, and many other 

 public uses, none very great in area but aggregating 

 probably several thousand square miles. 



Considered as a whole, it is impossible accu- 

 rately to measure our Federal Lands to-day ; the na- 

 tional government itself does not know the total. 

 Some of the administrative bureaus have not had 

 occasion to total their own possessions, and the Pub- 

 lic Domain is never exactly the same size for two 

 consecutive weeks. From the information we can 

 gather from the several administrative agencies in 

 the national government, it is safe to say that Fed- 

 eral Lands of all kinds, Public Domain, National 

 Forests, National Parks, Wild Life Sanctuaries, 

 reservations of every kind, exceed seven hundred 

 thousand square miles in area, not including the 

 vast wilderness of Alaska and island possessions. 



But how much is seven hundred thousand 

 square miles ? Such a figure means as little to most 

 of us as the distance from the earth to the moon. 

 Let us assume these lands collected and fitted to- 

 gether into the northeastern corner of the United 



