The San Francisco call., 1904-08-07
THE RANGE LANDS.

tation with the Secretary of Agriculture has re
newed an issue which will down until it is set
tied right The decline of the stock range the public
domain has engaged the attention of the meat hide ant
wool interests for many years The use of the range
has renewed in this country the experience o
Australia where livestock industry nearly
minated by of the range in common, and leasing
system adopted which has restored the range indus
try Texas underwent the experience and adopted
the remedy. and the leading livestock State
of the Union because easehod control has restored h
carrying capacity of the range.
Moved upon by these object lessons the livestock
of the West took UP the question and sought similar
solution. They framed bills which offered to al
unsympahetic Congress without result The theorists
of the country who had the Western range
had theory that is all adapted to the tllage
the prairies of Iowa and Illinois, and that the cattle
barons attempting to gobbe in order to prevent
its by the people for homes AS the theorists would
and look the country and refused beiev.
the reports of those who knew the actual conditions
easy to call the leasing proposition land grab,
and induce the non-action of Congress
The livestock encountered also the stolid oppos
ton of the Interior Department 1t proved impossible
convince that department. that after all the land pos
sble of irrigation has been reserved for that
after all that be titled by partial irrigation none
has been taken out, there will remain several hundred
million of land that has not and have any
other than grazing. This range in natural
produced abundant forage plants, such buffalo, bunch
and gramma grass legumes and ribbon grass burr co-
and a6lera If not overstocked these plants renew
themselves annually If oversocked they disappear and
the land becomes desert again.
The Agricultural Department took up the expert
animation of the plants Its trained agrostoogsts
examined the range from New Mexico to Mon
tana and made truthful reports, which were pub
shed for the information of Congress. But these made
impression upon the theorists. The destruction of
al. l..
declining forage has grown bitter The Federal
mountains and grazing industry is being driven to
exile in Canada and Mexico.
But livestock do all intend to be ex-
patriated without struggle. They intend making one
effort to convince the Government that four hun.
dred million of range is worth conservation and
renewal Hence this meeting at Denver, presided over
by Conrad Schaer, of the pioneer rangers of the
West, of high intelligence and great energy The
Secretary of Agriculture present. He is Western
and has personally inspected the ranges, have
the experts of his department. In the meeting were
Western Senator's members of Congress and Governors
The discussion full and practical The sentiment of
the convention expressed in its resolutions These
ask that the Federal forest be put charge
the Agricultural Department and that the depart
ment be authorized by law to proceed to classify the
lands the public domain segregang the range lands
proper which other use. and that these
lands be leased under control of Agricultural De-
partment.
The proposed transfer of control from the Interior
Department to that of Agriculture has every merit and
demerit. The of the business of the Interior
Department is in taking of the unsod public do
main. When that domain passes the control and use
of the people, it should, that function of the Interior
Department Hence for years have had every
possible obstruction put in the way of the by the
people of the natural of the West by In
terror Department So has the situation become
that citizen desrous of acquiring public land has come
to be treated potential criminal whose laudable de-
sire is evidence of evil motives.
On the other hand, the Department of Agriculture is
concerned in promoting the productivity of the land in
private ownership control The head of that depart
ment is always practical man, in sympathy with the
soil and those who till Craze it The Secretary of
Agriculture believes that every should be put to its
nobest and that its capacity for such use should be
promoted In his hands the ranges will have their ca
pac restored and the good days of range industry
will come again.
The Denver meeting highly useful and NAV well
be the initiation of wiser policy that will stop the de-
struction of the and the exiling of our
livestock interest TO Canada and Mexico