The West 21 



to adopt better methods of range management. In a 

 general way there are three possible methods of pro- 

 cedure. First, to sell the land to the highest bidder; 

 second, to lease it to the stockmen, either as a direct lease 

 of certain areas or by grazing under permit as is now 

 the case in the National Forests; third, to permit the 

 homesteading of the land in quantities sufficiently large 

 to support a family and to induce settlers actually to take 

 up the land. The stockmen would prefer one of the first 

 two and doubtless from the general good of the country, 

 one or the other of these methods would be best. The 

 third, however, or some modification of it, is apparently 

 most likely to get through Congress, since it would do 

 most to put the land into the hands of the man with 

 no money. The stockmen now on the ground have almost 

 all used their homestead rights. The land would, there- 

 fore, have to be taken up by new persons. The western 

 homesteaders do not have and cannot get the money to 

 stock up these ranges; they are by training and natural 

 ability not adapted to the range stock business ; and the 

 minute a patent for the land would be obtained, it would 

 be on the market with the stockmen as possible pur- 

 chasers. The stockmen would eventually get it but the 

 buying and selling would be a. cut-throat game on both 

 sides. The proper use of this land often depends so much 

 on the ownership or control of adjoining lands that many 

 factors other than the actual productive value of the land 

 itself would enter into the deal, sometimes to the ad- 

 vantage of the stockman and just as often to the advan- 

 tage of the homesteader. In the long run, things would 

 probably work out all right but the stock business would 

 be much demoralized for a period of several years. If such 

 a homestead system be adopted, the homesteads must be 



