Show ILLEGAL DRIFT FENCES UNLAWFUL ATTEMPT TO HOG PUBLIC GRAZING Row the Low Forbidding the Fencing Fenc-ing of the Public Lands is Evaded Commissioner Indignant Washington Aug8 The attention of the General band office has recent I ly j been called to the unlawful erec l I I Ion of fences on various sections of the publli domain particularly by I sheep and cattleherder who aim to protect and preserve to their own use certain water courses so essential to a desirable pasture Reports are coming In from special agents In tlrj States of the Middle West and the Pacific Pa-cific coast that the unlawful erection of fences I growing rapidly and that tho local land officers either l fall to order their destruction and removal or I elso their orders are disregarded I In sonic Ins lance certain portions of the public domain are fenced In that Is surrounded by 1 a continuous fence with occasional openings which are guarded and used only by thfc herders whose flocks are Inclosed Such fences as these are thrown up about some lake or pond which stud a fertile grazing plot and holds that particular section for the exclusive use of one party This in itself is unlawful M the statutes prescribe that no obstructions obstruc-tions shall be erected on the public domain that Inclose any portion of It To get around thin provision of the law other ingenious herders have figured fig-ured out a solution which provides lor the construction of what are Known fis drift fences A drift fen e Is I merely a single line of fence which may follow a straight line or the banlc t of a streaip I Incloses nothing In the ordinary sense of the word and Js ostensibly erected to prevent the sheep or cattle from wandering any considerable consid-erable distance But this is clearly not the main Intention of these drift fences In every case that has been reported they arc built either alongside along-side 0 lake pond or stream that affords a desirable watering place for sheep or cattle and operates to the benefit of the herder on the one side and to the exclusion of the herds on the other For instance a fence will be erected in a northandsouth line Just n little to the west of n small lake and will extend ex-tend unbroken for a distance of twenty or twentylive miles In cither direction direc-tion The herder to the east of the fence thereby secures to his own flocks tho exclusive use of the water of the I lake and at the same time has the benefit of the rich pasture on all sUes of the water He does not fence In this I pasture by any means but he knows full well that the herder on the westside west-side of the fence is not going to drive his sheep or his cattle twentylive I miles to the end of the fence and then I twentyfive miles back to the other side So in effect ho has practicallv Inclosed that desirable pasture und and reserved It for his own stock In the strict sense of the law this man Is also a violator for It Is decidedly unlawful for any man to obstruct the public domain In any way so that he his any advantage over any other man These Infringements have deeply i aroused tho Ire of Commissioner ller t mann of the General Land office and ho has Issued very emphatic directions to l all the agents of the Land office directing direct-ing them to see that all such fences whether inclosure or drift fences shall bo removed without any unnecessary unne-cessary delay In some Instances it 1 has been shown that these fences have been erected bY poor herders who wore Ignorant of the law In the case arid who have not the means to Immediately Imme-diately remove the obstructions anJ t these a liberal allowance of time will i be made But whereit itf shown that the fences were erected In direct ile J I fiance 01 the law no quarter will be given The Commissioner IS determined deter-mined that the law In this regard must be enforced and is using every possible means to secure that nrI This Illegal fencing Is known In nl most every Slate of the Wesf J Is i pertops worst in New Mexico and Arizona t Ari-zona where the most daring cncroach mcnts have been made and where the I law Is almost generally dlsl gar IJJ 1 Further north In Colorado and Utah I there Is more or less of this fencing which extends clear up into Wyoming Montana and the Dakotas while occasionally ocI casionally Infringements are reported from Oregon and Washington and ns far cast as Minnesota C A HAMILTON |