CLASSIFICATION IN RELATION TO WATER RESOURCES. 191 



has been construed by the Department of the Interior as referring 

 not only to surface waters but to the underground waters which 

 could be reached by wells of reasonable depth. In determining 

 the existence of such a domestic water supply and in recommending 

 suitable lands for designation under the provisions of these acts, in 

 regions where no potable surface waters exist, the Geological Survey 

 takes into consideration the depth below the surface and the 

 quality of the underground water, the amount of labor necessary to 

 reach it by a well, and the cost of development compared with the 

 agricultural value of the lands. The provisions of the law are con- 

 sidered particularly applicable to areas where substantial but fruit- 

 less efforts have been made to obtain such a water supply by digging 

 wells. In procuring data for classification of lands of" this class the 

 Geological Survey has been assisted by special agents of the General 

 Land Office. To January 1, 1913, areas comprising 1,199,638 acres 

 had been designated in Utah and 7,801 acres in Idaho as not having 

 a suitable domestic water supply. 



RANGE WATER SUPPLY. 



The problem of the disposition of grazing lands is still largely 

 unsettled. By the creation of national forests a large part of the 

 summer range has come under the general scheme of forest adminis- 

 tration and is leased by the Forest Service at a specified price per 

 capita, but the unreserved public lands still include considerable 

 areas of summer range, much of the fall and spring range, and a 

 large proportion of the winter range. The control of the spring, 

 summer, and fall range is rapidly passing into the hands of indi- 

 viduals and live-stock associations, not in general by securing title to 

 the public lands as a whole but by the simple expedient of acquiring 

 title to the water holes. The owner of the springs and streams located 

 on an otherwise waterless range has obtained the use of the grazing 

 land on far more favorable terms than if he had acquired absolute 

 ownership. He is free from State land tax, he pays no rent to the 

 Government, and no rival sheep or cattleman may water at his wells. 

 Except for the period when snow, by providing water, may make 

 invasions by rival stockmen possible, he is secure in his possession. 



As a remedy for this situation, disposition of the grazing lands by 

 sale and by lease has been" advocated, and several bills dealing with 

 the situation have been introduced in Congress. If, as is advocated 

 by the Interior Department, a leasing system is adopted, it is ap- 

 parent that the Government would be at a serious disadvantage in 

 proper administration unless watering places were also available for 

 lease. As a step in the working out of a definite policy for the ad- 

 ministration of public grazing lands outside of national forests the 



