Show TELEGRAPHIC LEGISLtTION SEEDED To Encourage Stock IJiUscrs Washington Commissioner Wil iamson of the general land office has received a letter from a prominent firm engaged in stock raising in Colfax County Hew Mexico urging upon the land department tho importance and necessity ne-cessity of further legislation for tho protection tection of a large and growing class of stock breeders who without legal sacc tion has taken up and improved extensive exten-sive tracts of arid land on our western I plains The writers state they have established es-tablished a cattle ranch in the arid pasturage pas-turage lands on the north edge of what iTO known as the staked plains in Colfax County New Mexico Their ranch covers an aroi of 100 square miles or 110000 acres around which they have built a feca to as to keep withiu these bounds their own cattle and to keep out the stock of others Ihey have also dug I wells to supply their stock with water I and altogether hove expended in needed improvements moro than 510000 They assert that this tract of land CIn never be used for agricultural purposes as it lies at a higher altitude than the nearest stream of water which is thirty miles distant They also inform the commissioner commis-sioner that some wild disposed ranchmen ranch-men threaten to cut down their fenco and let in their cattlesimply because they the writers have no title to the lands In conclusion they ask protection from the government and propose to either purchase lacd or else secure a long lease and so acquiro a valid title either permanently or temporarily General Williamson says the facts presented in this letter are strongly illustrative of the need for additional legislation to govern the disposal of tho surplus lands legislation legisla-tion which if enacted will enube the government to dispose of land of the peculiar character referred to in this let er which cannot under thu presonl laws be sold to stock raisers in such large quant ties as necessary to make this industry a profitable one These gentlemen Gen Williamson says art engaged in a business in itself perfoctly legitimate which owing to the vast extent ex-tent of arid public landi fit only fox grazing purpoes would undoubtedly be stimulated and increased if our land laws I were amended and improved so as to I permit the sale of large tracts of thoe I pasturage lands to individual As tho I case stands now they are open trespassers I against the law and their property cannot can-not in any way be protected by the government gov-ernment More than this the government govern-ment cannot under existing statutes sell or even lease these pasturage lands i to them in the large quantities desired and so it may be said that our land laws hinder rather than foster cattlo raising an industry which of all other should he fostered as it tends to cheapen food Under the existing law the public land is classified as mineral coal timber and agricultural land Under the head o1 hgricultuial land is included land ef the character referred to in tiis loltT viz I arid pasturago land which is cntroly worthless at present and which will probably always ba so at least for agricultural agri-cultural purposes These lands cannot be d posed of to individuals in quantities larger than tracts of ICO acres Neither can they bo leased to them So the general gen-eral land office and general government cannot assist these men nor protect them in the squatter sovereignty rights which they nave established by improvements they have made to the property they own in this trod of land which they have fenced in I |