90 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



where only the sheep-herder or cowboy had lately 

 reigned, every quarter-section had its house. Miles and 

 miles of wire fences closed the ranges up to stockmen, 

 and thousands of cattle and sheep were forced to leave 

 the regions which they had used for years. Many of the 

 larger outfits, seeing the inevitable, sold their stock and 

 left the country in disgust. Many who had bought large 

 tracts of land, especially in Texas, found their land far 

 too valuable to retain for cattle-raising, so after ship- 

 ping out the cattle they divided their holdings into small 

 tracts, which were eagerly snapped up. Land that had 

 for years gone begging at $1 to $2 per acre was held at 

 $20 to $40 per acre. 



The dry farmers poured over into eastern New Mex- 

 ico, where the conditions of land and rainfall were the 

 same as in the Panhandle, and drove the stockmen from 

 their ranges in that region. Up through eastern Colo- 

 rado into Wyoming, Montana and Utah the same condi- 

 tions prevailed, and the end is not yet. 



That total failure was prophesied by all the old- 

 timers in the West goes without saying. That there has 

 so far been no general failure is an honest fact. Here 

 and there failures have occurred, due to spotted rain- 

 fall, and a total disregard of the true scientific principles 

 underlying the dry-farming theory. Generally speak- 

 ing, however, all over this dry-farming region the prin- 

 ciple has worked out in a highly successful manner, and 

 unquestionably the dry farmer is here to stay, and must 

 be reckoned with in the future as an additional producer 

 of stock and farm products. 



