52 BULLETIN 1001, U. S. DEPARTMENT OE AGRICULTURE. 



The demand for free farming land is so great that if this land could 

 have been cultivated successfully it would have been taken long 

 ago. The entryman has been kept out by adverse physical conditions, 

 mostly climatic, that have determined the possible use of the land. 



If it be assumed that the land of a given region, formerly occupied 

 by stockmen, has all been taken by settlers who believe that they 

 can farm it, and that the land is really arid grazing land, what 

 actually happens in such a region ? It is a foregone conclusion that 

 arid grazing land will ultimately be used as grazing land, no matter 

 what mistakes men may make in their attempts to classify it. The 

 cycle from stock raising to stock raising again generally pursues 

 somewhat the f ollowing course : 



The settlers take up the land until the occupying stockman, being 

 deprived of his range feed, is forced to sell his stock and other prop- 

 erty, usually at considerable loss. The settlers use up their money 

 making necessary improvements, buying equipment, and paying 

 living expenses, in anticipation of a crop. If the crops fail, they are 

 forced to borrow money and give the money lender a mortgage on the 

 land and equipment. The crops fail a second time and the settlers 

 must give up their land and equipment to pay their indebtedness. 

 They then usually leave, heaping curses on a region that they have 

 themselves helped to put out of use. They have lost all their original 

 investment, all the borrowed money, two or more seasons' work, and 

 they and their families have endured many hardships, merely because 

 they were mistaken in the land classification. The land is left in 

 the hands of the money lender and it must lie idle until he can sell 

 it or lease it. If a sufficient area, lying in a compact body and 

 properly watered, can be bought at a price which the business will 

 warrant, some stockman may be willing to buy the land and start 

 stock raising again. Several more steps may be introduced into the 

 cycle, usually with a loss at each transfer, and a prolongation of the 

 period of disuse. 



Nothing has been gained by this cycle of changes except the legal 

 control of an area of sufficient size to carry a productive stock busi- 

 ness, and this end is not attained unless all the land in the original 

 area is patented by the settlers and all of the land so taken may be 

 purchased at a reasonable price. It should be possible to reach such 

 a desired end in a much more straightforward way, without the losses 

 that result from this indirect method. 



A cycle of changes more or less similar to that described has been 

 going on for years in the semiarid region as the result of the policy 

 of gradually increasing the maximum size of the homestead area 

 that may be taken by an entryman. 



It thus becomes clear that a policy of gradually increasing the size 

 of the homestead not only tends to destroy a legitimate business 



