The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1907-12-04

renced. for fencing ,s the only way py
which to keep in check the owners of
nomad hOckS which roam hither and
thtther utterly destroying the pastures
and leaving waste behind SO that their
presence is incompatible with the pres
ence of home-n1akers. The existing
fences are all illegal. Some of them rep
resent the improper exclusion of actual
settlers actual home-makers, from terri
tory which is usurped by great cattle
companies. Some of them represent
what is in itself proper effort to use
the range for those upon the land, and
to present it's use by nomadic outsiders.
All these fences, those that are hurtful
and those that are beneficial, are alike
Illegal and must come down. But it is
an outrage that the law should neces-
state such action on the part of the adj
ministration. The unlawful fencing of
public lands for private grazing must be
stopped. but the necessity which occa-
stoned it must be provided for. The fed
eral government should have control of
the range, whether by permit or lease as
local necessities may determine. Such
control could secure the great benefit of
legitimate fencing, While at the same
time securing and promoting the settle
ment of the country. In some places it
may be that the tracts of range adjacent
to the homesteads of actual settlers
should be allotted to them severally or
in common for the summer grazing of
their stock. Elsewhere it may be that a
lease system would serve the purpose.
the leases to be temporary and subject
10 the rights of settlement, and the
amount charged being large enough
merely to permit of the efficient and
beneficial control of the range by the
government, and of the payment to the
county of the equivalent of what it would
otherwise receive in taxes. The destrlc-
ton of the public range will continue I'M
til some such laws as these are enacted
Fully to prevent the fraud in the public
lands which, through the joint action of
the interior department and the depart
ment of justice, we have been endeayor-
ing to prevent there must be further leg
islation, and especially a sufficient APP
preparation to permit the department of
the interior to examine certain classes of
entries on the ground before they pass
into private ownership. The government
should part with it's title only to the
actual home-maker, not to the profit
maker who does not care to make a
home. Our prime object is to secure the
rights and guard the interests of ths
small ranchman, the man who plows
and pitches hay for himself. 1t is this
small ranchman, this actual settler ana
home maker, who in the long run is most
hurt by permitting theftS of the public
land in whatever form.
Timber Famine Near
Drastic Action Necessary.
Optimism is a good characteristic. but
if carried to an excess it becomes fool
ishness. We are prone to speak of the
resources of this country as nexhausti-
ble this is not so. The mineral wealth
of the country, the coal. iron, oil, gas.
and the like, does not reproduce itself.
and therefore is certain to be exhausted
ultimately; and wastefulness in dealing
with it to-day means that out descend
ants will feel the exhaustion d generation
or two before they otherwise would But
there are certain other forms of waste
which could be entirely stopped-the
waste of soil by washing, for instance
which is among the most dangerous of all
wastes now in progress in the United
States, is easily preventable. SO that this
present enormous loss of fertility is en-
tirey unnecessary. The preservation or
replacement of the forests is one of the
most important means of preventing this
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