CHAPTER I 

 OUR NATIONAL ESTATE 



ASKED the total area of the public lands, an 

 official of one of the largest land administering 

 bureaus of the Federal Government replied : 



"I don't know because I have nothing to do with 

 them. Ask the General Land Office, which adminis- 

 ters them." 



"But you administer two or three hundred thou- 

 sand square miles of public lands yourself," was the 

 surprised reply. 



"No," he rejoined. "Our National Forests con- 

 sist of public land but not of Public Lands. There's 

 a difference. The Public Lands or Public Domain 

 constitutes a land division by itself, consisting of the 

 unappropriated and unreserved lands which are sub- 

 ject to homesteading, and of open grazing ranges." 



It is important to grasp this official distinction 

 at the outset. No other terms are so loosely used, 

 even perhaps in Congress, as "public lands" and 

 "public domain." In departments of the national 

 government which are not directly concerned with 

 land administration, they are little understood; and 

 press and public constantly misuse them, with, of 

 course, corresponding confusion of ideas. 



Many different government organizations con- 

 trol many classifications of Uncle Sam's real estate. 



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