8 



early spring. There were also miraberless herds of wild horses, accord- 

 iug to the narratives of some of the early exj^lorers and hunters. 



There was a constant shifting of the wild herds in their search for 

 the best pasturage, and with the season, drifting northward with the 

 spring aud southward at the approach of winter, congregating where 

 there was water and grass. The conditions were entirely natural and 

 the movements of the herds were almost unrestricted. The intermit- 

 tent grazing and resting of the laud resulting from the roving habits 

 of the buffalo and mustangs was an ideal method of fostering aud 

 improving the natural pasturage. The result of this alternation of 

 pastures, conducted on a gigantic scale, was that the native grasses 

 were allowed to fully ripen their seeds, and perpetuate themselves each 

 year in the most liberal manner. The best grazing grasses were devel- 

 oped by the processes of natural selection and survival of the fittest. 

 Weeds and brush were kept in check by the annual tires set by the 

 Indians in early spring to improve the pasturage for their ponies and 

 the wild game. In this manner the encroachment of thorny shrubs, 

 cactus, and mesquite was prevented, aud each grew only where pro- 

 tected in the valleys along the streams or in scattered clumps at rare 

 intervals in the open. The disappearance of the buffalo* was nearly 

 coincident with that of the Indian,! and there was a period of fully ten 

 years after the destruction of the butfalo herds before the number of 

 cattle and sheep on any portion of the ranges equaled the great herds 

 of game. These years, from 1874 to 1884, may be called the ''golden 

 period" of the Southwestern stockman, or at least a golden one for 

 those whose flocks and herds were already on the ranges. During this 

 intermediate decade there were fewer head of stock, wild or domestic, 

 than at any previous period. There were also abundant rains and the 

 seasons were mild and ftivorable to the full development of the grasses. 

 Grasses and forage i)lants,ungrazed, grew and thrived, reseeded them- 

 selves, and increased to a wonderful degree of luxuriance, so that the 

 stockmen on entering this pastoral paradise thought that it was not 

 possible to put enough cattle and sheep on the laud to eat down all of the 

 rank growth of vegetation. It is the common testimony of the older 

 stockmen that in the early eighties the grass was often as high as a 

 cow's back, not only along the river bottoms, but also on the uplands 

 far from the creeks and rivers.| 



FREE RANGES. 



Before 1883 the ranges of central and western Texas were free to any 

 man who chose to run stock upon them. The laud was inaccessible 

 from the railroads aud was considered of no value for general farming 



*Tho .Southern hufifalo herd was almost cxt<Tiiiiiiate(l in 1873. Hornaday, 1. c. 

 tThf last Indian tribes were removed Irom Texas by act of Congress in 1S74. Han- 

 croft'a Works, Vol. XVI, p. 25, 18«y. 



\ Farmers' bul. No. 72, Cattle liauges ol'thc Southwest. 



