The Irish standard., 1905-06-24

10000 acres. That may be regarded
, as the minimum holding in the plains
grazing country. Twenty-Five acres
J are required to furnish pasturage for
a year to each animal; five hundred
head of cattle "a modest herd) would
need 12,5O0 acres. From that rela
, lively small basis the holdings in,
: crease to really vast proportions
J $4,000 to 100000 or 100000 acres, un,
der one control. The Richards ranch
in Sheridan county, Nebraska, in
cludes about 100000 acres; the Stand
ard Cattle Company pastures its herds
upon $4,000 acres in Cherry county,
Nebraska. In some cases the total
possession Of one concern will exceed
1,000,O00 acres.
Time was when this range was free
and open. That was in the days of
tae old, half-wild, Texas herds, which
were driven back and forth from Mex
leo to Canada. There was nothing to
hinder, for the lands were otherwise
unoccupied.
1t was these protests, begun years
ago, which turned the thoughts of the
ranchmen to the need for acquiring
title to their lands. With this the
homestead frauds, long established
and intrenched in custom, assumed a
vast magnitude.
All sorts and conditions of men were
hired to make homestead filings with
in the boundaries of the ranchmen's
domains. the ranchmen paying all ex-
penses and nominal consideration
besides, with the agreement that
transfer would be made when patents
issued. Violation No. l for section
1920 of the federal statutes provides:
ANY person applying shall make af-
tidavit before the registrar or receiver
that IS a IS such application is
made for his exclusive use and benefit
and that his entry is made for the pur.
pose of actual settlement and cultiva-
ton and not, either directly or indi-
rectly, for the use or benefit of any
other person."
In the face of this proposition l have
stood by in half dozen land offices
and looked on while ranchmen of the
neighborhoods marshaled before the
officers small companies of recruits
for the service overseeing the proceed
ings while the forms were gone
through with and themselves paying
the fees. In one of these cases the
applicants numbered fifteen at one
time, the officer receiving s292.5O as
his lawful honorarium and testing
wittily with the bystanders relative
to the thriving state of trade. In an
other case a small land office town
made holiday when twenty-five SOL
diers' widows were brought out from
Iowa and eastern Nebraska in spe.
cial car to make homestead filings in
behoof of an enterprising cattle
grower who himself, as l am informed
uron credible authority, not too dis
family connected with the official ros-
Ter of the land department.
The widows lad nice little outir g
at this mans cost, besides receiving
500 each, in pursuance of an agree
ment made by an agent at Council
Bluffs; the official representative OF
government got $4s7.5O in fees; the
ranchman got an even 1000 acres of
new land, and everybody seemed sat
isfied. At the time of the Rosebud
reservation opening last summer one
ranchman from that country took
twenty applicants in bunch from
Omaha, paying their railroad fare,
showing them good time and giving
them SIS apiece with the understand
ing that if they were lucky in the
drawing their allotments would be
conveyed to him, subject to small adj
ditional payments. These cases are
cited because they happened to fall
under my notice.
Plain enough, certainly. Yet what
happens in the matter of meeting
these requirements Of the law? TAX
ing it by and large, in one-half the
cases the applicants never see the
lands allotted to them as their home
steads; they know nothing about
them, unless perchance the location OF
the tracts be casually pointed out
upon land Office map. Why should
they care? AS to the points of resi-
dence, improvement and cultivation,
for one year or any other period of
time, that is mere moonshine, not up.
on any account to be taken seriously.
Also, granting the existence of spe-
cial circumstances, once in the four
teen months between entry and COM
mutation the claimant ii he happens
to be in the neighborhood, rides out
to his claim and, If the wind has noe
bowled his house away across the
plain, sits down in the shadow of
the roof among the sage and soap
weed and smokes a contemplative
cigarette. That enables him to swear
with clear conscience, so please you,
that he has been an actual resident
upon the land. But that is absolutely
the extreme limit of conformity, and
none but extreme conditions justify it.