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 
years. 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- 
c 
