The Lamar register., 1902-01-29
Leasing Government Land.

oiuerent stocKmen l6toiy ABOUT ieas
ing the public domain, and if ye edi
tor hasn't cried quits, I would like to
say my say, too.
When I first came West, thirty
years ago, and for many years after
wards, there WAS plenty of grass,
summer and winter, for all the cattle,
sheep and horses on the range. We
could NOW hay in any Of the low
lands hnd there were no quarrels
about public grass; and there was
water for stock on the range any,
where.
But now there is hardly place in
the West where there is any govern
ment land left with running water on
It, so what public range there is open
TO everybody's stock Is dependent for
its water supply on water owned by
individuals.
The rangemen, no matter what
class of stock they are keeping
cattle. sheep or horses-are divided
into two classes. One class is will
ing to buy water, pay q reasonable
lease for pasture land, put up fences
and go to any kind Of reasonable OK
pense to keep their stock we'll and
profitsbly-these are the men who
are willing to earn their bread by the
sweat Of their brow. But the other
class Of men are known on the range
ss pirates. They want everything
for nothing; don't want any water
fenced up; don't want to buy any
water for their stock for fear some
one else's stock will drink some Of it;
don't want anyone from the East to
settle for fear they will homestead
l6O acres Of the range; don't want to
pay taxes; don't want to be at any
expense TO look after their own stock
Tint always want their sneighbors to
help them about it, and this last
named is tho class Of men that object
to leasing the public lands.
Now when q man buys or home
stesds Q piece of land on the creek
in order for him to get any use OF
the government grass adjoining this
water, he has to leave the water open
to the public range, and the man
who doesn't own q foot Of land with
water on it turns his stock loose here
at this mans door and gets the bene
fit of the water the same as the man
who owns 1t.
The range in every part of the
Western country has become so over
stocked with sheep, cattle and horses
that NO one in the stock business is
making any money. It's true that
in the years of 1896 to 1899 we had
a wave Of prosperity that every kind
of business made money and the
stock business had its share, but the
lsst.two years the majority of stock
men have hardly held their own. On
account of the increase in value OF
live stock it has stimulated breeding
until sheep and cattle have trebled
in numbers in the range country the
last three years, and now we are up
against it, and something has to be
done, and done right of.
Thousands and hundreds of thous-
ands of cattle and sheep were as
poor this fall in the range country
as they were last spring, and it we
had met with storms and bad weather
in place of these sunshiny days, 20
per cent of these thin sheep and cat
tie in the range country would be dead
now. No stockmen Of experience
will crowd his pastures when we get
down to owning and leasing all the
land our stock range on. We will
keep less stock, keep better quality
and have fewer losses from stock
thieves and hard winters; we will
make more clear money, will know
where we are at There is no gov.
ernment land left in the West that is
good for anything but grazing, un-
less the government constructs reser-