OCR Text |
Show LAND REPORT MADE FOR UTAH The United States geological survey has just issued a land classification report for the state of Utah, which, it states, embraces em-braces more unoccupied acreage acre-age on the public domain than any other commonwealth except Nevada. This Nevada land is discussed in a somewhat similar report issued April 16, 1926. In issuing the present repoit the survey makes the point that throughout the history of the United States the vacant, unreserved, unre-served, unappropriated public domain has stood as a challenge chal-lenge to the venturesome, a haven ha-ven for the homeless, a land of the mystery and allure that lie in the unfamiliar. There still remains a vast area of such land, and during recent months much interest has been aroused by proposals for the establishment establish-ment of a new national policy for its administration. Political economists and others oth-ers interested in land problems, the report states, regard an adequate ad-equate land classification as an essential . prerequisite to the study of such problems. It is estimated es-timated that the conditions described de-scribed in the Utah report prevail pre-vail throughout approximately SO per cent of the remaining public domain; hence the conclusions con-clusions of the report, as well as theories predicated upon Utah conditions, should be widely applicable. ap-plicable. The report indicates that Utah has surface features ranging from desert plains to rugged mountains lying from 2000 to more than 13,000 feet above sea level. Its climate likewise varies within wide limits. The rainfall ranges from 4.52 to more than than 4 Oinches annually, and the frost free area period ranges rang-es from less than one month to 225 days. Within these limits a combination of surface and climatic cli-matic conditions favorable to crop production is found only on relatively small areas, which are shown on the map as dry farming farm-ing and irrigated land and which form about 5 per cent of the area classified. |