ITEMS OF INTEREST January 25, 1908 Issue

ITEMS OF INTEREST

The grazing proposition is a difficult problem to solve. There are probably between three and four hundred million acres of public ranges in the United States, the larger part of which is entirely unsuited to agriculture and cannot be irrigated. It consequently is useful only for the pasture of live stock. Millions of acres of these lands have been impaired for grazing purposes by overstocking, but by some system of control which will afford a means of preventing overstocking, and by applying intelligent management to the land, the depleted ranges may be restored. The sheepmen are against the proposition to exercise Government control of the public ranges, outside of the National forests, and to charge a price per head for grazing.

The Trans-Missouri Dry Farming Congress met in Salt Lake City, Utah, Jan. 22 to 25. Papers were presented bearing on the various phases of dry farming and the tremendous field for its development in the arid regions of the West. Experts affirm that wherever the rainfall aggregates from twelve to fifteen inches in a year, the quantity of moisture is enough, by following newly-found processes which prevent evaporation, to develop and mature the ordinary farm crops of the temperate zone.

One of the important questions consideration at the recent annual convention of the American National Livestock Association at Denver, was the Government's policy regarding the public lands, the forest reserves and ranges. This organization went on record last year in favor of leasing public domain as an aid toward the conservation of the country's natural resources.

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