Now an effort is being made to take into account the essential differences 

 of climate and soil, an idea which has been followed in the recent Mondell 

 Bill which is only applicable to dry-farming regions." Speaking of the 

 section, Mr. Dennett remarked : " The section has proved an excellent 

 unit in land settlement. As you are aware it contains 640 acres and is 

 one mile square. Consequently, it is a very convenient number to sub- 

 divide, and may be measured in several different ways. Further, it is just 

 as convenient for small irrigation projects of forty acres as for large dry- 

 farms of 640 acres as under the Ivinkaid Act in Nebraska."* 



I shall now briefly touch on the Homestead Act, the Mondell Land 

 Bill, and the Tree Claim Act. Of all nations the United States stands 

 pre-eminent as the one which, having early been confronted with the 

 great problem of land settlement, has mastered it in a most marvellous 

 manner. It would take too long to sketch the steps which led up to the 

 Homestead Act of 1862, but it may be said that this law was the result, 

 in part at least, of the agitation of a political body then termed the Free 

 Soil Democrats. They maintained " that the public lands of the United 

 States belong to the people, and should not be sold to individuals, nor 

 granted to corporations, but should be held as sacred trust for the 

 benefit of the people, and should be granted in limited quantities, free of 

 cost, to landless settlers." This was the origin of the famous law which 

 enables landless farmers to secure a quarter section, viz., 160 acres of 

 land, and to acquire a title to the same by residing and cultivating the 

 land for a continuous period of five years. I have not the latest statistics 

 by me, but in the year 1904 over 233jt)00,000 acres had been entered. 

 And there can be no doubt that this magnificent law has done more than 

 anything else to fill the United States with a free, prosperous, and 

 contested people. Unhappily, abuses crept into the administration of the 

 Act in the more sparsely populated centres, and the chief of these was due 

 to what was termed the Commutation Clause, whereby it was possible 

 for a settler to commute his homestead at the end of fourteen months on 

 payment of $1.25 per acre. This led to grave abuses, as the first six 

 months was merely a nominal residence, or, in other words, a settler 

 could, by residing for a period of eight months, obtain a free homestead. 

 This clause was severely condemned by the recent Public Lands Com- 

 mission, appointed by President Boosevelt to enquire into these matters. 

 Other abuses were common in the pioneering days, such as a ranchman 

 persuading his cowboys " to prove up " — that is to file a claim — on quarter 

 sections for a certain remuneration in order to obtain for him several 

 sections for grazing purposes. Notwithstanding all these frauds the 

 Homestead Act of 1862 — like the Morrill Actf of the same year — will 

 stand out for ever as a noble and enduring piece of legislation. 



Let us now turn to the Mondell Land Law. This Act, which was 

 approved 19th February, 1909, provides for' an enlarged free homestead. 

 That is to say, a settler can acquire an area of 320 acres or less of non- 

 mineral, non-timbered, non-irrigable public land in the States of Colorado, 

 Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, and in the Ter- 

 ritories of Arizona and New Mexico. This Act is construed to mean land 

 which requires the application of dry-farming methods to make it produce 

 agricultuFal crops. Final proof must be made as in the ordinary home- 

 stead, and, further, at least one-fourth of the whole area must be shown 



* Free homesteads of one section can be obtained on the dry sand-hills of western Nebraska, 

 t Act establishing colleges of agriculture and mechanic arts in the United States. 



