116 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



But in the Southwest, owing to climatic conditions, it 

 will be some years yet before the dry farmers or any other 

 class of settlers can make such inroads upon their ranges 

 as to force them entirely out of business. The settlers 

 have already cut into the ranges in this section to a very 

 serious extent. It is believed, however, that the limit of 

 their advancement has been reached and that the wave 

 of settlers that has been sweeping across this region in 

 the last few years, beginning about 1902, has reached 

 very close to high-water mark. Under all present known 

 conditions of farming, little further extension of the pos- 

 sible area under which dry farming may be carried on 

 successfully can be expected. 



Past and Present Range Conditions. Upon the south- 

 western ranges the old-time conditions are still found 

 with modern improvements. The advent of the barbed 

 wire fence probably did more to improve the condition 

 of the open range stockman than any one thing that has 

 come to him. The former harum-scarum methods are 

 gone. The breeding of the cattle is greatly improved, 

 and they are better handled, better looked after and the 

 whole business is upon a more business-like basis than 

 it was years ago. 



One can still find the old-time "chuck wagon" and the 

 great mess box with its "hospitable lid and cranky cook. 

 The horse wrangler still occupies the next place in im- 

 portance in the outfit, and the bronco buster plies his 

 vocation as of old. There is lacking, however, the old 

 free wild and woolly time. No more does the bad man 

 of the outfit shoot holes in the camp kettles or coffee 

 pots because the quality of the grub does not suit him. 



The broad-brimmed Stetson or Mexican sombrero has 

 gone, and in its place one finds them 'wearing small 



