THE NATION'S UNDEVELOPED RESOURCES 



207 



within a few weeks a fine grade of oil 

 has been found on the Quinaielt Indian 

 Reservation in Washington. The Indian 

 oil lands we do not own. They belong 

 to the Indians, and their product must be 

 sold for the Indians' profit. 



The one sole reservation of oil lands 

 for governmental use is that in California, 

 over the withdrawal of which litigation is 

 now pending. Under these conditions it 

 would seem of the highest expediency 

 that the government make such offers as 

 will induce the proving of our lands, and 

 of these proved lands retain sufficient to 

 make our ships independent of the world 

 and as fully competent as their rivals. 



Some years since the Department of 

 the Interior announced the discovery 

 within the United States of a deposit of 

 potash which it was hoped would render 

 our farmers independent, for a time at 

 least, of all other sources. This deposit 

 still lies unused. No proper laws have 

 been passed by which it can be put into 

 use. A common-sense view of the matter 

 would be to treat these lands as it has 

 been suggested we should treat coal lands. 



So, too, should our vast deposits of 

 phosphate rock, undoubtedly the world's 

 world's supply. We are giving a- con- 

 stantly increasing volume of thought to 

 the scientific methods by which the 

 fertility of our soils may be increased. 

 And the time is likely to come when the 

 deposited phosphorus in our western 

 lands will be regarded as of almost price- 

 less worth. 



Few appreciate how very extensive 

 these deposits are. They run for hun- 

 dreds of miles through Wyoming, Utah, 

 Montana, and Idaho, and in other States 

 similar deposits of lesser extent are 

 known to exist. We have millions of 

 acres of phosphate lands which are esti- 

 mated to contain several billion tons of 

 phosphate rock ; undoubtedly the world's 

 largest known reserve. In 1910 the 

 United States produced 52 per cent of 

 the world's output of phosphate rock, and 

 last year over 40 per cent of our product 

 was exported. It would certainly be well 

 if we could insure the preferential use of 

 this fertilizer on American farms and 

 export it in the form of farm products 

 rather than as raw material. 



TIMBER IyANDS 



I am not satisfied with the operation 

 of the homestead law as to the timber 

 lands of the far western lands. As the 

 law now is, a man may enter upon 160 

 acres of these lands, and by living a total 

 of 21 months on the land during three 

 years and cultivating at a maximum 20 

 acres of the land it becomes his. He 

 promptly proceeds, if he is wise, to sell 

 it to some lumber company for from 

 $10,000 to $20,000. The land is allowed 

 to lie for an indefinite period as a part 

 of the company's forest reserve or is 

 logged off, leaving the stumps in the land, 

 and eventually sold for agricultural pur- 

 poses, if so adapted. 



Experience justifies the statement that 

 few men take up these heavily timbered 

 lands under a bona fide attempt to meet 

 the purpose of the law, which, as its 

 name implies, is to convert the public land 

 into homes. By the investment of a few 

 months' time and a few hundred dollars 

 the homesteader gains a property worth 

 many thousands of dollars. Yet all the 

 conditions of the law are complied with 

 and patent must issue. The govern- 

 ment loses the timber and the land and 

 does not gain a real home-maker. Such 

 homesteaders add nothing to the wealth 

 of the nation. The law should punish 

 them, in fact, as frauds. Whether with 

 the connivance of the lumber companies 

 or not, they are the agencies by which the 

 law is defeated and the lands conveyed 

 where it is not intended that they should 

 go- 



There is a remedy for this condition 

 of things, and it lies in the selling of the 

 land and the timber separately. I am be- 

 ginning to doubt the wisdom of applying 

 the homestead law to any land which has 

 not first been declared fitted for agricul- 

 ture. It is now a blanket law which is 

 used to cover a multitude of frauds. Such 

 legislation would also cure the abuses re- 

 sulting from the use of certain classes of 

 scrip. 



THE) ARID IvANDS OF THE GREAT AMERICAN 

 DESERT 



"The Great American Desert," as it 

 was designated upon the map some 40 



