El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1911-09-06

I improved 1t, ETC. The desert act re-
quires that entrymen shall actually re-
claim the land, that IS. cultivate it and
put 1t under irrigation. So the govern
ment says, IN fact to the entryman
we want you to have this land If you
want to use 1T, but we shall see thai
You shall not have II If you merely
want 1t for speculation The result IS
that the man who takes up land under
either OF these acts begins Immediately
TO improve and develop and live upon
the land which he files upon This in
sures the uniform and rapid develop
ment Of the section.
Texas school Lands.
contrast this with the bungling
methods which the state of Texas has
adopted in dealing with the school
lands OF that state. In some western
counties. one entryman can obtain four
sections Of land. Residence upon the
land for a certain length of time is the
only requirement. The entryman paws
one-fortieth OF the small purchase price
ooWn, ana mas 40 years more at a small
rate OF interest In which to complete
payment This arrangement offers ey-
cry inducement TO the speculator In
the first place. every entryman gets
more land than he can possibly handle
unless he Is man of enormous means
or unless the land is merely erazine
land, and he starts a cattle ranch
upon IT, Second. no requirements are
made as TO developing or farming the
land Third. payments of interest are
MADE yearly, so that the entryman has
70 nave some sort of remuneratfv ar
pioyment in order to keep 1t up So
that the entrymkn usually sells out his
Donus TO the nearest stockman. and the
tha. passes into a larger ranch, and is
mus Withdrawn from DEVELOPMENT for
many years to come. Again, even n All
tue entrles were bona fide a family or
every Tour sections makes a very thin
~ popuiated region, and is q very dff-
1erent thing from four families to every
section. as is the case under the GOV,
eminent land laws
Where to Invest
Aho this brings US to point out that
investment in a section which is to he
come thickly populated Is alwavs he
yer than In one where the population
VIII be sparse for many years to come
Land, In itself, is not valuable Tba
ricnest land In the world In the best
unless there are people there and the
more people there are. the more va1o
liable the land becomes. A lot in ~
center or New York is valuable sinnIv
a s, soieiy because of the people who
live In Its vicinity Much of fbe r,cb
land of the Amazon valley is wortb lt.n
because tnere are no people there Nv
the same token, land in one sectio1
equal In every respect to land in an
. o.ner section, and yet supporting 16
times the population is very much
more valuable than the land in the
sparsely populated section
The Mimbres valley is typical ex-
ample of the wisdom of the land laws
now In force concerning the acquire
ment OF government land. Two wears
ago. there was scarcely a farm house
to be seen in the whole valley. Tho
other day. the writer counted 12O farm
houses from the tower of the new Lima
county court house. It would be fair
to suppose that If the land in the MIN
Dres valley had been under a similar
administration to that of the Texas
school land, 20 farm houses would now
be visible from the tower of the court
house. If indeed, there were any court
house to look from.
Ten Acres Enough.
+ Not only has the land policy OF the