Home-making by the Government 



251 



HHKHBH 



PUMPING BARGE OF THE U. S. RECLAMATION SERVICE : WILLISTON PROJECT, NORTH 



DAKOTA (SEE PAGE 252) 



property of the nation embraced 1,800,- 

 000,000 acres ; today it has been reduced 

 to less than 500,000,000 acres. Much of 

 it was squandered by the government, it 

 is true, but out of that public domain 

 twenty vigorous commonwealths have 

 arisen, and an agricultural empire has 

 come into being that is today the marvel 

 of the world. 



The remaining public lands occupy two 

 distinct agricultural regions, differing 

 materially in climate, soil, and crops. 

 West of the Missouri River lies a vast 

 region extending westward to the foot- 

 hills of the Rocky Mountains and from 

 the Panhandle of Texas northward into 

 Canada. It is known as the Great Plains. 

 For many years the vast region has been 

 utilized as a public common. Countless 

 cattle and sheep have had free access to 

 it and have overgrazed it. Its adminis- 

 tration is still one of the most vexing 

 problems before Congress. The pioneer 

 of the Great Plains was the cattleman. 



He farmed but little, and from the nature 

 of his business and the methods of oper- 

 ation, as a rule, wanted no neighbors. 



The real home-builder, who undertook 

 to subdue the plains to agriculture, en- 

 countered many difficulties. In many 

 sections there was no timber and he was 

 forced to build his house of sod or adobe. 

 He found the streams were not depend- 

 able ; they were dry in summer, when 

 water was most needed. Nature, how- 

 ever, provided an inexhaustible supply of 

 underground water, which the farmer 

 pumped into small reservoirs and then 

 led to his garden and orchard and sup- 

 plied his live stock. He harnessed the 

 wind, which blows almost constantly on 

 the prairies, and made it a cheap and 

 useful servant for his work. 



Within the past 15 years there has been 

 an awakening to the opportunity which 

 lies in the Plains area, and settlements 

 have moved westward with such remark- 

 able rapidity that the day of the broad, 



