Show OF INTERIOR URGES THAT STOCK RAISING PARCELS BE DOUBLED TO AID RANGE CONTROL washington dec 2 it congress does not intend to enact some sort of legislation to regulate grazing on the public domain and several successive sessions after tackling the proposition have abandoned it the secretary of the interior proposes as an alternative that the present stock grazing law be amended to permit entries of grazing land in parcels of 1280 acres instead of in acres the present in this the secretary is backing up a recommendation of the commissioner of the general land office who year after year has advocated a leasing system applicable to the unreserved domain the secretary in his annual report to the president in part says the distribution or the economic and equitable use of our arid and semiarid public lands Is a problem the solution of which requires our best thought and endeavor the acre entry law or as it Is sometimes called the dry farming act and the stock raising homestead law allowing acre homestead entries have proven of value but the areas where dry farming may be successfully conducted and the lands which in parcels of acres will support a family have been largely reduced the stock raising homestead acts with their present limitations do not meet the conditions of today through sufferance our public lands have become in theory a grazing common but through the lack of supervision in many instances they are not available to all on equal terms furthermore lack of control has resulted in overuse destructive of the forage growths and yet enormous investments in and herds have been made in faith of an open range and any proposed legislation must fake into consideration conditions as they actually exist there ar among the range users three widely divergent schools 0 thought first those who prefer the urgent system and who oppose adv form of restriction and likewise oppose any liberalization of existing law looking to disposal of the lands by second those opposing organized control but favoring a measure that will permit of the disposition of the lands under the homestead laws in parcels of 1280 acres or bore rore third those advocating strict governmental supervision with the recognition of present users under a leasing system and the repeal of the ock homestead law the department part ment has inclined to regulation through leasehold with proper re and safeguards for the present users and has repeatedly recommended om the enactment of a law authorizing such control it congress hlll not enact such a measure then the department suggests an amendment of the stock raising homestead law so as to permit of the acquisition of parcels of 1280 acres under its pro elsons it a law permitting regulation through lease be passed the stock raising homestead act should be repealed otherwise the stock raising homestead act should be amended aa to be responsive to our present needs |