198 OUR FEDERAL LANDS 



WITHDRAWALS OF OTHER RESOURCES 



Other natural resources of uncalculated and in- 

 calculable value in our Federal Lands, withdrawn 

 from entry as Public Land and leased or held for 

 lease elsewhere, are not within the province of this 

 book because each constitutes so small a part of the 

 country's whole supply. Of an original coal total of 

 3,000,000,000,000 tons, for example, only compara- 

 tively a trifle in scattered lots remains in public pos- 

 session, and of the annual consumption of 600,000,- 

 ooo tons, 2,500,000 tons only are developed on fed- 

 erally owned lands. 



The Geological Survey table here reproduced 

 shows the acres of coal, oil, coal shale, phosphate, 

 and potash lands withdrawn, and those classified, 

 within the Federal Lands; but the country's total 

 supplies are vastly greater. 



CONCERNING OIL 



Quoting Gerrit Gerrit in the Saturday Evening 

 Post of March 3, 1928, computations from the find- 

 ings of the Federal Oil Conservation Board in 1924 

 show 30,000,000,000 barrels of oil remaining, in 

 1928, beneath the American surface, enough to last 

 thirty-three years at the 1927 rate of consumption; 

 but only six per cent of total production is in lands 

 leased from the United States. "In the fiscal year 

 ending June 30, 1927," reports the United States 

 Geological Survey, "26,640,101 barrels of oil were 



