14 FORAGE CONDITIONS AND PROBLEMS. 
CHANGES IN THE HANDLING OF THE WASHINGTON RANGES. 
During the past few years there has been great progress toward a 
more systematic handling and at the same time a more stable and per- 
manent adjustment of the stock industry in the region of the Big Bend 
and the country adjacent to it. In many particulars the changes are 
radical, and in some instances the industry has been remarkably cur- 
tailed, though probably not permanently, for the reduced area devoted 
to the raising of live stock will doubtless be made, when the new con- 
ditions become adjusted, to support proportionally a much larger num- 
ber of animals than it formerly did. 2 . 
One of the greatest factors in the production of these changes has 
been the extension of the wheat areas to include practically all of the 
tillable land of the entire region, apparently regardless of the rainfall. 
Large areas west of Ritzville, near Trinidad and Waterville, and in 
the ‘‘ Horse Heaven” country have in recent years been reclaimed for 
wheat culture. Some of these areas may not be permanently occupied 
by wheat, since the average annual rainfall on some of them is less 
than 10 inches, and some of the more conservative farmers think they 
will eventually revert to the range. 
But the most important factor in these changes has been the agitation 
brought about in recent years in favor of the passage of a lease law by 
the National Congress. This agitation, though it has not crystallized 
into any definite action, has induced many of the nomadic sheepmen, 
who heretofore owned no land, to invest in lands in anticipation of the 
enactment of lease laws, which, in all bills thus far introduced, give 
preference to the actual holders of landed interests. The presence of 
large areas of raiiroad land in this region has enabled many to secure 
from the transportation companies, by lease or purchase (usually the 
latter), tracts of land suited to their needs. Of course much of ‘this 
purchase is purely speculative, but a very large proportion of the land 
so acquired has been bought by those who are and have been for 
years in the stock business on the public domain. As the railroad 
land consists of alternate sections, the ownership of these tracts virtu- 
ally gives the investor control of the adjacent sections of the public 
domain. As is well known, our homestead laws do not adequately 
meet the necessities of the man who proposes to embark in the stock 
business in the semiarid regions, particularly where the railroads own 
alternate sections. Even a whole section of land is too small a unit 
for range operations, so that a homestead can only be used asa base for 
a stock range in cases where all the surrounding lands are a part of the 
public domain. Indeed, the farmer who raises wheat in this region 
needs more land to obtain a reasonable compensation for his labor than 
he can secure under our land laws. In recent years most of the land 
within the railroad grant has been brought under individual control, 
