While we do not have that matchless public domain of ’65, we do have millions of acres of undeveloped lands that can be made available for our home-coming soldiers.  We have arid lands in the West, cut-over lands in the Northwest, Lake States, and South, and also swamp lands in the Middle West and South, which can be made available through the proper development.  Much of this land can be made suitable for farm homes if properly handled.  But it will require that each type of land be dealt with in its own particular fashion.  The arid land will require water; the cut-over land will require clearing; and the swamp land must be drained.  Without any of these aids, they remain largely “No Man’s Land.”  The solution of these problems is no new thing.  In the admirable achievement of the Reclamation Service in reclamation and drainage we have abundant proof of what can be done.

Looking toward the construction of additional projects, I am glad to say that plans and investigations have been under way for some time.  A survey and study has been in the course of consummation by the Reclamation Service on the Great Colorado Basin.  That great project, I believe, will appeal to the new spirit of America.  It would mean the conquest of an empire in the Southwest.  It is believed that more than three millions of acres of arid land could be reclaimed by the completion of the Upper and Lower Colorado Basin projects. ...

What amount of land, in its natural state unfit for farm homes, can be made suitable for cultivation by drainage, only thorough surveys and studies can develop.  We know that authentic figures show that more than fifteen million acres have been reclaimed for profitable farming, most of which lies in the Mississippi River Valley.

The amount of cut-over lands in the United States, of course, it is impossible even in approximation to estimate. ...  A rough estimate of their number is about two hundred million acres—­that is of land suitable for agricultural development.  Substantially all this cut-over or logged-off land is in private ownership.  The failure of this land to be developed is largely due to inadequate method of approach.  Unless a new policy of development is worked out in cooperation between the Federal Government, the States, and the individual owners, a greater part of it will remain unsettled and uncultivated. ...

Any plan for the development of land for the returned soldier, will come face to face with the fact that a new policy will have to meet the new conditions.  The era of free or cheap land in the United States has passed.  We must meet the new conditions of developing lands in advance—­security must to a degree displace speculation. ...