TENURE AND USE OF ARID GRAZING LANDS. 19 



The enlarged Homestead Act was passed in 1909, allowing an entry- 

 man to obtain 320" acres of a certain kind of land as a homestead. 

 Much of the land that was originally taken under this law was 

 ultimately abandoned because it was too dry for dry farming; some 

 of the holdings that were patented have been consolidated into larger 

 blocks and are now mostly used as grazing land, small areas being 

 cropped wherever and whenever practicable. 



The Kinkaid Act, increasing the area obtainable in certain parts of 

 Nebraska to 640 acreas, has been used in much the same way. 



In December, 1916, the grazing homestead act was passed, allow- 

 ing an entryman to take up 640 acres of land that is principally 

 valuable for grazing. In its interpretations of this law, the land 

 classification division of the United States Geological Survey, which 

 has charge of the classification of the lands to which this law might 

 be applied, recognized certain upper and lower limits of productivity 

 of the land that might be taken under this act. Recent decisions 

 have established a still lower limit of productivity which shall be 

 recognized as the minimum production of land of this class. Much 

 of the remaining land that is open for entry has already been classified 

 as belonging to the class which may be obtained under the enlarged 

 homestead act. Land which may be taken under the grazing 

 homestead act is usually not classified until an application is made 

 for a specified area, and the "application" is not allowed as an 

 "entry" until a favorable classification is reported. The settler 

 acquires no right to the land by going on it before his "entry" is 

 recorded at the district land office. Since the entryman on an 

 enlarged homestead may ask for an increase- of his holding from 

 320 acres to 640 acres under the grazing homestead act, it is now 

 customary to "enter" an enlarged homestead and "apply for" an 

 additional 320 acres as a grazing homestead. This permits the settler 

 to commence work on the place without loss of time. 



The Kinkaid, the enlarged homestead, and the grazing home- 

 stead acts have all been passed in an attempt to provide proper land 

 legislation for the dry lands of the West. Mostly, however, their 

 effect has been to put land out of use for a longer or shorter time, 

 because the areas obtainable under each act were not large enough for 

 the profitable pursuit of the business which could be carried on upon 

 the lands that were still available when the laws were passed. (See 

 "Discussion of consequences." p. 49 et seq.) Notwithstanding 

 what must be said against the working out of the policy which these 

 laws represent, two minor advantageous results must be recognized. 

 Legal tenure to the land is ultimately obtained locally, generally 

 after much waste of labor and wealth; and the forage plants have an 

 opportunity to recover from the effects of previous overstocking. 

 The 320-acre law did help out some men who took up dry farming 



