The West 17 



The map showing the area under cultivation contradicts 

 these statements. On the eastern slope of the Rocky 

 Mountains there have been large areas put under the 

 plow in the last fifteen years, but west of the Rocky 

 Mountains there have been but comparatively small 

 changes in -the cultivated area for twenty or twenty-five 

 yea,rs. It is true that much land has been homesteaded 

 in that time, but very few of these homesteads are under 

 cultivation. In fact, a very large proportion of the home- 

 steaders who have not "proved up" are not expecting to 

 stay any longer than necessary to obtain title to the 

 land, and those who have "proved up " and obtained their 

 patent have moved away and their land has been either 

 abandoned or sold or leased to the ranchmen. The pro- 

 cess of putting the range lands under cultivation is, there- 

 fore, going very slowly. The lands now untaken are, 

 for the most part, so rough and rocky as to be absolutely 

 impossible of cultivation. This is especially true of some 

 of the better grazing lands. On the other hand, there 

 are areas small in extent, as compared with the whole 

 area of the unappropriated lands, yet containing several 

 million acres of fairly good soil, comparatively level, 

 which can be plowed and seeded with the minimum of 

 expense; but these lands are either very dry or very 

 frosty or both, and so far no one has developed a system 

 of farming that will make them produce a profitable crop. 

 The development of the science of dry-farming has al- 

 ready put under the plow thousands of acres formerly 

 considered worthless and it is possible that these remain- 

 ing areas of tillable land may some day be farmed, but 

 it will require the use of crops or methods at present un- 

 known. This, however, applies only to the tillable area. 

 The big areas of the range cannot be plowed and are suit- 



