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Show "The stock-raising industry in the west needs encouragement. The chief value of the remaining area of unreserved unre-served public lands in the United States, Stat-es, amounting to about 184,000,000 acres, is for its mineral deposits and grazing. fThese uses of the land may be exercised concurrently without interference in-terference with each other. Under the practice of unrestricted grazing by sufferance, suf-ferance, the public lands have been overgrazed, to the detriment of the livestock industry and the homesteader, homestead-er, and controversies have arisen among those using the range. The natural grasses have been depleted or destroyed, and watering places essential essen-tial to grazing in semiarid or arid regions re-gions have not been fully protected or developed. Under proper regulation, large areas of overgrazed land could be restored to productivity and natural forage growth be conserved. "A law for the regulation of stock grazing would insure substantial benefit bene-fit to the industry. The secretary of the interior should be authorized by law to designate lands chiefly valuable for their pasturage and to adopt such rules as will insure an equitable use of such areas. Bills were introduced during the last congress which would confer the necessary authority for stock-grazing regulation and leave unimpaired un-impaired the operation of other public land laws except the stock-raising J homestead act, which should be repeal-I repeal-I ed or its boundaries enlarged, j "If the grazing bill is not adopted by congress, I would suggest an amendment amend-ment to the stock-raising homestead law to permit stock-raising homestead entries of a maximum area of 1230 acres. |
