The record-union., 1891-04-27
THREATENED FORESTS.
State Ownership of Public Lands
in California.
The Most Direct and Effective Method
of Solving Two Great and Important
Questions - Irrigation of Desert
Lands and Preservation of Forests.

William H. Mills, the General Land
Agent of the Central Pacific Railroad
Company, contributed thoughtful article
to Yesterdays Examiner on the subject
of our threatened forests and the problem
of irrigating the vast arid regions OF the
Pacific slope. It contains so much re-
liable information and such important
suggestions that we reproduce 1t IN full:
The visit of the President to the Pacific
Coast naturally suggests the question,
"What will be learned concerning the
special needs of that portion OF the
United States known as the Pacific States
and Territories, and how what he learns
prove advantageous to our rdevelopment!,
The suggestion is associated with the fact
that he is the Chief Magistrate Of the
nation and that the Pacific States and
Territories are remote from the great CEN
ters of intellectual and social life and from
the seat Of political power. We on the
Pacific Coast have had frequent occasion
to complain that our Wow Of govern
mental policy found such tardy accept
ance at the hands of the National Con-
gress and the National Executive.
Under all forms of Government, there
Is too much dependence placed upon the
legislative or law-making factor OF pros
perity. Beyond establishing equality of
and the general welfare, Governments
can do but little for communities. Com
munitieS, whether near or remote from
the seat of power, must carve out their
own destinieS.
The State of California possesses vast
undeveloped resources.
The products of our forests are an I'M
portant source of income, and, properly
preserved and administered, would be Il
future ineXhaustible source of revenue to
this commonwealth. The mineral re-
sources of this State are vast beyond COM
putation. Our manufacturing possibili-
ties are practically unlimited, while our
commercial advantages are still unreal
lied. These combined are what we are
accustomed to call the natural resources
OF our country.
With practically unlimited natural re-
sources, the first great need of the Pacific
States and Territories is a reinforcement
OF their industrial populations, and the
coming of this reinforcement is not es-
pecially dependent upon national legiS
lation. The President will find us a
prosperous and happy people. He will
find US loyal to the free institutions OF
our country and closely welded by pa
trlotlc instinct to the great doctrines Of
civil liberty. The system of segregation
of public land in the United States was
devised and made applicable to the fertile
region lying east of the Missouri River.
The unit of segregation was one mile, or
$3.50 feet square. 1t contained GAO
acres of Land, and experience in the
fertile regions to which 1t was first made
applicable disclosed the fact that one
fourth of section was an area sufficient
to employ the industry of q single cult-
vator and his family. The distribution
ofland holdings into l60-acre tracts there
fore established large class of independ-
ent landowners When the Northwest
ff,Yxr Tadt to hn lNF1if of
this system of segregation was extended
to ii and was found applicable. AS the
frontier of civilization advanced west
ward it was still maintained, and at last,
when the policy of disposing of the Gov
ernment domain to actual settlers in
quantities of 100 acres became fixed ir
the United States, il was so fixed because
experience had demonstrated that num-
ber of acres as sufficient to establish the
independence of a single agricultural
cultivator and his family. This rule of
segregation was only applicable, how
ever, to the fertile portions of the United
States where the fertility of the soil and
climatic possibilities were analogous to
the part of the country in which it origi-
mated.
Passing the one hundredth meridian,
an arid region is encountered, embracing
100000 square miles, or about one-half
the territory of the United States With
Nd
ifornia and the fertile portions of Oregon
and Washington, the old rule of segrega-
tion is conspicuously meaningless. As
certainments seem to determine the fact
that the average fertility of the lands ly-
ing west of the one hundredth meridian
is only ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS of the aver
age fertility of the lands lying east of that
meridian. 1t follows then that the exer-
else of the homestead right in the great
valleys of the Ohio. Mississippi and Mis-
souri, river is twenty-seven times as val
liable as the exercise of the same right
west of the one hundredth meridian. In
the cultivation of the soil the proper unit
of valuation, if it were ascertainable,
would be fertility and not area. The unit
of segregation should recognize this diff
ference of fertility and the value of the
exercise of the homestead or pre-emption
right, when those rights are exercised
with respect to arid lands and their value
should be equalized by permitting
larger area to be taken. The attempt to
apply the traditional policy of land segre-
cations TO lands so widely differing as to
sheir fertility has led to a vast monopoly
of the Western region by what is known
as herdsmen's rights. The herdsmen have
been undisturbed in the exercise of these
rights because but 100 acres could be OBJ
tanned and because that amount was ut
tarly worthless to the owner. If the diff
ference of fertility had been recognized
and a system of land segregation suited
to the new condition had been devised,
the grazing areas of the great upland
plateau between the Rocky and the Sierra
Nevada Mountains would now be under
the ownership of independent herdsmen
and relatively large population would
occupy them.
When it became apparent that the fer
tility of the arid regions of the United
States could be developed only bv the ar
IaCrb
TENS of irrigation, the Government of the
United States attempted legislation, gen
orally known as the desert Land
Laws" In the enactment of these laws
it was controlled by former and irrele-
want traditions. 1t attempted to preserve
the traditional idea that 100 acres of land
was suthclent amount for n single agri-
cultural owner, but it did not realize the
fact that systems of irrigation could not
be established by individuals, nor any
system be constructed with reference to
the fertilization OF so small an area. The
legislation had on this subject was per-
hapS well enough as to the ownership of
the. land after its fertility had been Sc
cured by the artificial application of
water, but was grossly inadequate las to
the inducement TO the investment of the
necessary capital. The President will
have had sufficient observation of the
arid regions of the United States To re-
turn perhaps with the conviction that
rivers may be diverted from their cham
nels and their waters applied to lands
only by the expenditure of large aggre-
cations of capital, and that the construc-
tion of such systems of irrigation can be
compensated only by the DEVELOPMENT of
great value upon large areas of land, and
GM sNNS0