Ottumwa tri-weekly courier. [volume] (Ottumwa, Iowa) 1903-1916, 1916-02-19
More Settlers Wanted
BY FREDERIC ]. HASKIN

Hence the large cattle and sheep own.
ers have their own ideas as to how
the situation should be handled. Many
of them do not believe that the arid
lands still open to entry can support
a farmer. Six hundred and forty
acres of such land will only run about
forty or fifty cattle, and that Is not
enough for family to live on, even
in this day of high beef prices. So
some stockmen hold that settlers
should not be encouraged to take up
any great part of the land now avail.
able.
The National Wool Growers associ.
alton recommends that the interior
department classify all the land left
open into two classes: that suitable
for agriculture and that suitable for
grazing. Then the former should be
parcelled out in whatever size units
are necessary to support homestead
ers. and the latter withdrawn from
entry entirely, to be leased for graz
ing purposes. Such proceeding
would stabilize the stock business as
at present constituted, for under the
present system a stockman does not
know when his range will be settled
on by homesteaders. The stockmen
say also that this course would save
many homesteader from wasting
his time and his money on land that
could never yield him aa adequate re-
turn.
On the other hand, the states with
public land in them have strong
sentiment in favor of homesteading as
much land as possible. If GAO acres
will not support a family, they say
then give them 1880. The western
states want homes. they want tax
able property developed, and new citl-
zens to throw their interests in with
those of the section. All the leglsla-
ton in favor of the grazing homestead
has originated with western senators
and representatives. The present
$40 acre bill was introduced last year
by the late Mr.. FERGUSON of New
Mexico, and this year by Mr.. Taylor
of Colorado-both states with i'm
mense tracts of public land.
In its relation to the emigration
problem, there is little doubt that a
measure by which man could take
up GAO acres and farm as much of it
as possible, using the rest to run
sheep and cattle, would prove very
attractive to the homesteader, and
turn many eyes from Canada to our
own west
Another bill which will have the
same effect is one to make it possible
for a boy or girl of eighteen to take
up a homestead. The present mini
mum age is twenty-one for anybody
who is not the head of family. Can
age at eighteen, and many young
Americans have taken advantage Of
the opportunity to start in life three
years earlier than is possible in their
own country. The Canadian law in
this respect Is particularly liberal. 1t
provides that if the young homestead
er is living with his parents on Sec
ton of land adjoining the one he
wants to homestead, he can live at
home and still fulfil the residence re-
quirements Of the homestead act
Under the proposed law in this
country, the homesteader will not
have to begin living on his or her
claim until he Is twenty-one years old,
but he cannot take out final patent
and possess the land until he is
twenty-four In other words, all that
he can do at eighteen is pick out his
land and make sure that nobody else
gets it. He can Of course also live
on it in the meantime if he desires,
make home, and improve it as much
as he cares to. In this way, the bill
is expected to prove a strong sup
porter of the back to the farm"
movement A boy with $50 or $40
acres of the great outdoors for his
own is not likely to go to town and
get job as ribbon clerk.