62 BULLETIN 1001, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
controlled under the permit system if discretionary powers were 
given administrative officials. 
As has been said, where a lease would apply best the long-period 
permit is not essentially different from a restricted lease. The permit 
system places supervisory powers in the hands of officials, who thereby 
become responsible for the proper conservation and development of 
the lands, and makes necessary the selection of men who have this 
broad outlook. Its administration keeps them constantly in close 
touch with users of the land. This possibility of ready adaptation 
to various conditions is one of the greatest advantages of the system. 
Not yet thoroughly appreciated by all who have studied the subject 
is the fact that these various policies not only do not conflict, but are 
more or less complementary. It is not proposed that any one be 
adopted in lieu of all the others, but that the value of each in its 
place be recognized and that each be properly applied. As has been 
said, the one which may be made to apply most generally at present 
is the permit system, and the way in which it can be most properly 
localized and restricted in use is by the passage of a law similar to 
that introduced in the first session of the Fifty-sixth Congress by 
Senator King (S. 1516), which authorizes the President to establish 
"grazing commons." In its original form that bill would extend the 
grazing system now in use in the national forests to lands to be 
designated by presidential proclamation. Some modifications of 
existing practices which such a law would establish would be necessary 
to give the degree of adaptability which has just been described. 
The argument presented here is not in behalf of any particular 
permit system, but is an attempt to present the relative merits of 
all proposed methods. 
CONCLUSION. 
In conclusion, it can not be gainsaid (1) that the arid grazing lands 
are today mostly overstocked and deteriorating under the present 
form of use; (2) that they are being operated at a low standard of 
productivity because of poor organization; and (3) that this form of 
use is brought about by our land laws. It hardly need be stated 
that this sort of use ought to be stopped and that it is high time we 
changed these land laws. Though improvement in organization of 
the range stock raising business does not necessarily follow as a 
result of a change of methods of tenure, improvement is absolutely 
impossible under existing laws. 
Students of our national development . have pointed out that in 
the occupation and conquest of our country we have passed through 
two stages of development and are now just becoming aware as a 
nation that we have reached a third stage. " During the first stage 
individual enterprise for personal and family benefit was dominant 
and conquered the wilderness. The idea of husbanding natural 
resources received practically no thought: The next stage was one 
