present or a prospective agricultural value. This has been done on the theory that (1) the lands susceptible of cultivation or of reclamation by any method will ultimately be the most valuable, and (2) that the reservation of lands “at present fit only for grazing, but possessing the elements of a much higher degree of economic usefulness, spells the highest type of true conservation and the insurance of steady and sane development.” In accord with these ideas, out of the 636,661.16 acres selected and patents to which have been asked, it is estimated that 618,891.89 acres “are susceptible of some form of agricultural development,” that 578,193.16 acres have a grazing value, and that 8,744.61 acres have a woodland value. The lands selected lie mostly in Cochise, Graham, Maricopa, Pima, Pinal, Yavapai, and Yuma Counties, and out of the 2,350,000 acres given, there are yet to be selected 1,713,339.65 acres.[1] None have been located in Gila, Greenlee, or Santa Cruz Counties.
Of all the institutions thus favored with public lands, the miners’ hospital and the military institutions have alone to date located practically all their lands.
Under the congressional act of February 18, 1881, 72 sections of land were given to the Territory “for the use and support of a university.” In 1882 Hon. Moses Hazeltine Sherman, then Territorial superintendent of public instruction, filed on 45,678.68 acres of land in Coconino County and now embraced in the Coconino and Tusayan National Forests. Of these lands 36,890.14 acres were approved in 1890. In 1904 a further grant of 320 acres for a desert laboratory was selected near Tucson. The university therefore has 37,210.14 acres, and there is a balance of 8,869.86 acres still to be selected. The land already patented embraces 58½ sections; some 3,596.24 acres are suitable in some measure for agricultural purposes; the entire area is most excellent for grazing but “by far the greatest value of the land lies in its magnificent stand of western yellow pine,” estimated on February 1, 1913, as amounting to 300,000,000 feet of merchantable lumber for the entire area. The university lands, as well as school and institutional lands, are administered by the land commission.
The land commission gives in its first report (p. 165) the total amount of receipts from State lands for schools, February 14, 1912, to November 30, 1915, as school lands, $131,633.85; university lands, $61,740.66.
The land commission discusses also the necessity of a flexible land policy. It advocates—
- ↑ The total number of acres granted on this account up to Jan. 1, 1917, was 707,357.16. The amount “awaiting approval” by the Land Office was 1,308,505.20 acres, and there then remained to be selected a total of 334,137.64 acres.
