within a few weeks a fine grade of oil has been found on the Quinaielt Indian Reservation in Washington. The Indian oil lands we do not own. They belong to the Indians, and their product must be sold for the Indians' profit.

The one sole reservation of oil lands for governmental use is that in California, over the withdrawal of which litigation is now pending. Under these conditions it would seem of the highest expediency that the government make such offers as will induce the proving of our lands, and of these proved lands retain sufficient to make our ships independent of the world. and as fully competent as their rivals.

Some years since the Department of the Interior announced the discovery within the United States of a deposit of potash which it was hoped would render our farmers independent, for a time at least, of all other sources. This deposit still lies unused. No proper laws have been passed by which it can be put into use. A common-sense view of the matter would be to treat these lands as it has been suggested we should treat coal lands. So, too, should our vast deposits of phosphate rock, undoubtedly the world's world's supply. We are giving a constantly increasing volume of thought to the scientific methods by which the fertility of our soils may be increased. And the time is likely to come when the deposited phosphorus in our western lands will be regarded as of almost priceless worth.

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Few appreciate how very extensive these deposits are. They run for hundreds of miles through Wyoming, Utah, Montana, and Idaho, and in other States similar deposits of lesser extent known to exist. We have millions of acres of phosphate lands which are estimated to contain several billion tons of phosphate rock; undoubtedly the world's largest known reserve. In 1910 the United States produced 52 per cent of the world's output of phosphate rock, and last year over 40 per cent of our product was exported. It would certainly be well if we could insure the preferential use of this fertilizer on American farms and export it in the form of farm products rather than as raw material.

TIMBER LANDS

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I am not satisfied with the operation of the homestead law as to the timber

lands of the far western lands. As the law now is, a man may enter upon 160 acres of these lands, and by living a total of 21 months on the land during three years and cultivating at a maximum 20 acres of the land it becomes his. He promptly proceeds, if he is wise, to sell it to some lumber company for from $10,000 to $20,000. The land is allowed to lie for an indefinite period as a part of the company's forest reserve or is logged off, leaving the stumps in the land, and eventually sold for agricultural purposes, if so adapted.

Experience justifies the statement that few men take up these heavily timbered lands under a bona fide attempt to meet the purpose of the law, which, as its name implies, is to convert the public land into homes. By the investment of a few months' time and a few hundred dollars the homesteader gains a property worth many thousands of dollars. Yet all the conditions of the law are complied with and patent must issue. The govern

ment loses the timber and the land and does not gain a real home-maker. Such homesteaders add nothing to the wealth of the nation. The law should punish them, in fact, as frauds. Whether with the connivance of the lumber companies or not, they are the agencies by which the law is defeated and the lands conveyed where it is not intended that they should go.

There is a remedy for this condition. of things, and it lies in the selling of the land and the timber separately. I am beginning to doubt the wisdom of applying the homestead law to any land which has not first been declared fitted for agriculture. It is now a blanket law which is used to cover a multitude of frauds. Such legislation would also cure the abuses resulting from the use of certain classes of scrip.

THE ARID LANDS OF THE GREAT AMERICAN DESERT

"The Great American Desert," as it was designated upon the map some 40

years ago, has become one of the richest portions of our country. This desert included a variable area, generally all west of the Missouri River to the Sierra Nevada. Today it is harvest field, cattle range, mining camp, and orchard-where there is water. And where there is no water it remains desert.

There are at least four States which can never increase greatly in stable population unless their lands are brought under irrigation. And in all of the Western States there are tens of thousands and in some millions of acres that will remain waste land, fit only for the poorest cattle range, and much not even for that use, without the expenditure of large sums for reservoirs, dams, canals, and ditches.

That there is not water enough even with the fullest storage to supply the demands of all the arable land can safely be said. That, however, there is sufficient to care for a large part of this territory and bring it into fruitfulness there is no doubt.

The government, seeing this condition, undertook to lend itself to the development of these lands by what is known as the Carey act. This was a form of coöperative effort in which the Federal government turned over any required body of lands to a State, which the latter undertook through private enterprise to irrigate. When to irrigate meant nothing more than to divert a portion of a stream from its bed and convey it by gravity to the desert, this plan was attractive. But since these simpler methods had to be abandoned as no longer adequate, this act has done little in the promotion of such enterprise.

The successful Carey act projects are a distinguished few. Great wrongs to trustful or none-too-wise farmers were done in its name, and the suffering which it caused has made it difficult to make it serviceable, even under the more careful scrutiny of later and more cautious officials.

THE GOVERNMENT'S RECLAMATION WORK IS A SUCCESS

Because of the magnitude of the money investment required, and apprecia

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tive of the need, Congress in 1902 adopted the policy of undertaking irrigation projects of its own. The moneys received from the sale of public lands-less 5 per cent―went into a reclamation fund, administered by the Department of the Interior. The result has been the construction of some 25 projects, scattered through all of the arid-land States. In these the government has invested approximately $76,000,000. One of these, a pumping plant in Kansas, is now unused; another, a flood-storage system in New Mexico, is only in partial use; both of these, however, represent less than 1 per cent of the total investment. The others are in operation, and less than 3 per cent of all the land which is served or which we are ready to serve is unoccupied. This work has been a success.

Soon after taking office I received a number of letters complaining of the reclamation service. To inquire into these complaints I first called a conference in Washington of representatives from all the projects and later visited most of those from which most serious complaint had been received. I cannot here review the matters considered or the information gained. My conclusion was that mistakes had been made by the service, some of which grew out of ambiguities or defects in the law, some out of inexperience, and others out of a misconception of the relationship that should exist between such a governmental service and those with whom it was dealing. A larger degree of frankness with the farmer on our part and a fuller appreciation of the responsibilities assumed on the part of the farmer will mend much of the feeling that I found.

RELIEF FOR THE USERS OF WATER RIGHTS

But there is one matter of great moment to these people which should be corrected by law as soon as possible. We mistook the ability of the farmer to pay for his water rights. Ten years was the time given. His optimism and our own was too great. That time should be doubled. This should be done not alone because of the inability of many to meet their obligations to the government. but because it will prove wise policy to give