East Oregonian : E.O. (Pendleton, OR) 1888-current, 1907-04-02

land board in giving the state land
appraisers and selectors much more
ample powers for their field work in
making leases of such land, declares
the Roise Statesman.
George A. Day, of Oakley, Cassia
county, the state land selector and
appraiser for south Idaho, left last
right to make a tour of his district
which is expected to very largely in
crease the revenues of the state
schools. He is given ample powers
TO make leases on shorter, easier
form than the old-time red-tape
methods, and can do the work in a
fraction of the time that was former
ly necessary. II is believed that he
will be able to add much to the
school revenues by thus giving him
power to deal with local conditions
as he finds them in the field, without
the circuitous method of appealing to
the office and board for every mat
ter that comes up for adjustment.
Less Than 1 Per Cent.
As illustrative of the need of such
a campaign. Mr.. Day yesterday gave
The Statesman scme figures showing
the amount of land that has been
leased by the state. Even after the
campaign of last year, when the state
got almost $4,000 more than had
been paid in during other admins
tuations, and when the leasing was
brought up to a reasonable degree of
spstem, it is found that in Bannock
county, for instance, there are but
25 leases OF state school lands. In
Pear Lake county there are only
seven leased tracts. The leases do
not average more than 800 acres
each. Mr.. Day says that to take
these as two fairly representative
counties. only fraction of l per
cent of the state lands are actually
paying revenue. This, however, is
neant to be applicable more to the
grazing counties than to the farming
communities.
Pays $50 Per Section.
1t is estimated that IL anything like
fair proportion of these lands can
be leased, the revenues of the state
will be increased teyond what may be
even dreamed by the casual observ-
or. Tine lands for grazing are leased
At from 20 IL 1-2 cents an acre,
the average being about $50 a sec
tion, or a little better than cents
PER acre. With anything like even
cne-half of the lands leased, where
hey now pay nothing, the state
would have a lot of money that now
goes into the pockets of stock men
who have used the state lands as
their own.
Saved I'm Other Ways.
It must be understood that under
The small appropriations for the sup
port Of the lanl department, the
work Of handling the state lands of
other years has been greatly hamper
Cd. The state has grown so rapidly
that the legislatures have hardly kept
race with the needs of the depart
mcnt. The state has had large land
grants from tho federal government
and these had to be selected and han
| 6'ed through the red-tape mthods of
| the government. During the past
two years, the state land department
has been taxed to its utmost to Sc
cure and hold the valuable grants
that were given by the government.
and that alone has been herculean
task. II has, however, saved to the
state lands valued at many hundreds
of thousands of dollars. This kind
of work was of far more urgency
than the leasing of the grazing lands
already acquired, so the energies of
the department We're given more to
that line of work.
Once the state lands are leased
usually on leases for five or 10 years.
they will be permanent producers. as
the leases may be expected to become
| more valuable instead of ever being
allowed to larse.
Great Land Sale Coming.
One of the most important actions
that is to be taken in the state land
II alters in south Idaho is the pro-
posed selling of all the school lands
N the Minidola reclamation project.
en- the north side of the Snake river.
Mr.. Day will start to make arrange
ments for this sale, on his present
trip. There are sections 16 and SO
cf all Tho land under the project.
part of the state is believed 10
be one of the garden spots of the
v hol. west, ane the lands, without
the water, are expected to bring from
SS5 to $50 an acre. The water then
will cost about $22 an acre on top
OF the original price.
rhc state sells its lands on such
easy terms-with IS years time, II
desired, on lands that are sold above
s25 an acre. and 16 years for lands
sold under that price-that this op-
; poi tunity is expected to bring many
bidders as well as the highest price
on record for state lands. A section
of timber land in stcshone county
last spring brought almost $4,000
, and has been held up as the banner
state land sale. But 1t will not be
, surprising II this price is not topped
by more than one section Of the land
that not five years ago could not have
been given away except at the point
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