These sources
of loss from failure to conserve the range are felt to-day. They are
accompanied by the certainty of a future loss not less important, for
range lands once badly overgrazed can be restored to their former value
but slowly or not at all. The obvious and certain remedy is for the
Government to hold and control the public range until it can pass into
the hands of settlers who will make their homes upon it. As methods of
agriculture improve and new dry-land crops are introduced, vast areas
once considered unavailable for cultivation are being made into
prosperous homes; and this-movement has only begun.
The single object of the public land system of the United States, as
President Roosevelt repeatedly declared, is the making and maintenance
of prosperous homes. That object cannot be achieved unless such of the
public lands as are suitable for settlement are conserved for the actual
home-maker. Such lands should pass from the possession of the Government
directly and only into the hands of the settler who lives on the land.
Of all forms of conservation there is none more important than that of
holding the public lands for the actual home-maker.
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