8 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



steadily until to-day, while still the largest of the 

 various classifications of Federal Lands, it is only 

 slightly larger than the next in size, which is the 

 National Forest. 



One of the earliest methods of dispersing land 

 was making liberal donations to new states as they 

 were admitted to the Union. Just as the original 

 states which had owned practically all the land 

 started the nation as a land holder by gifts, so now 

 the nation equipped its new states with lands. These 

 grants were made for support of schools, for inter- 

 nal improvements, for reclamation, and for railroad 

 construction. The nation also encouraged railroad 

 building by making private companies liberal grants 

 of land, some of them unnecessarily liberal, so that 

 suits are now pending for recovery of large holdings 

 through which several railroad companies are mak- 

 ing very large earnings in other lines of business 

 than railroading. 



The complicated mining policy of the United 

 States has resulted in withdrawal from the Public 

 Domain, for private claims and actual operation, of 

 areas extremely large in the aggregate, and, in later 

 years, under the theory of conservation of natural 

 resources, of immense areas bearing coal, potash, 

 oil, sodium and other mineral deposits to be subject 

 to the disposition of the future. 



In due time, also, the nation undertook large 

 reclamation projects which lessened the Public Do- 

 main. It also withdrew large areas for Indian res- 



