CHAPTER V. 



HANDLING CATTLE ON THE RANGE. 



While the old-time conditions of the palmy years from 

 1885 to 1900 are gone, never to return, there are yet many 

 large range cattle outfits left in the West. This is espe- 

 cially true of the southwestern section of the country, 

 where, in Texas and New Mexico, can be found com- 

 panies with cattle running into the thousands, which 

 graze on the open range. 



Number of Range Outfits. Most of the Texas outfits 

 have their herds in fenced pastures, but the enclosed 

 areas are so large that it practically amounts to open 

 range conditions in handling stock. The Matadors, 

 X I T's, L F D's, and a number of other big concerns in 

 Texas, own herds of from 30,000 to 60,000 head, ranging 

 in great pastures of thousands of acres. 



In the southeastern part of New Mexico there are sev- 

 eral big outfits that graze on the open Government 

 ranges lying east and west of the Pecos River. Some 

 of these companies own as many as 40,000 range cattle. 

 The great Bell Ranch in central New Mexico owns a 

 Spanish grant of almost a million acres, all under fence, 

 on which they graze 40,000 to 50,000 high-grade cattle. 

 There are many large companies scattered through New 

 Mexico, especially in Socorro and Grant counties in the 

 southeastern section of the state, where one finds herds 



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