DEVELOPMENT. 709 



with reference to eventual irrigation, but also to the removal of title clouds 

 in the shape of Mexican grants, covering about two million acres of valuable 

 mining, agricultural, and grazing lands. 



It is also an undeniable fact that (more fully explained above) the surveys 

 of land locations in Trans-Pecos Texas are anything but correct, and that 

 the shortest, safest, and most expedient way to remedy this drawback, and to 

 avoid countless strifes and lawsuits, would be to abandon the alternate section 

 system and lay out the lands into larger blocks. The benefit would be equal 

 on the side of the State, of the railways, and of private parties. 



Under the present conditions no. development can be expected of the rich 

 mineral resources proved by assays to exist, and of the fertile soils of Trans- 

 Pecos Texas, which, covering between thirty-five and forty thousand square 

 miles, represents about one-eighth of the whole State of Texas, containing 

 the locations of hundreds of thousands of acres of public lands which are 

 valueless under the existing circumstances. 



58 - geol 



