of the nation at large."

SAFEGUARDING THE INTERESTS OF INDIVIDUALS

It has been no simple matter to administer our public lands, and
mistakes have been made. Sometimes the interests of individuals
have not been sufficiently safeguarded. Many settlers have
suffered serious loss, and many promising communities have failed,
through the taking of homesteads in regions of little rainfall, as
in western Kansas and Nebraska. The government now seeks to
protect homesteaders against such errors by distinguishing
carefully between lands suitable for ordinary agriculture and
those suitable only for dry-farming and stock-raising, by
informing prospective settlers in regard to the facts, and by
allowing larger entries in lands of the latter classes. Another
mistake was made in allowing many of the first claimants to stock-
raising lands so to locate their claims as to acquire the
exclusive use of the only available water supply for miles around,
thus making useless other large tracts. This might have been
avoided by a little foresight.

ABUSE OF LAND LAWS

On the other hand, the land laws have sometimes been abused. Large
quantities of public land have fallen into the hands of
speculators whose purpose is not to develop its resources, but to
make a profit from the increased value of the land due to the
efforts of others. Immense areas of land have thus been withheld
from production, or have been made to produce to a limited extent
only, to the great loss of the nation.