20 Ranching in the Bad Lands. 



fenceless ranches, where the cattle and their mounted 

 herdsmen wandered unchecked over hundreds of thousands 

 of acres, will be broken up and divided into corn land, 

 or else into small grazing farms where a few hundred 

 head of stock are closely watched and taken care of. Of 

 course the most powerful ranches, owned by wealthy 

 corporations or individuals, and already firmly rooted in 

 the soil, will long resist this crowding; in places, where 

 the ground is not suited to agriculture, or where, through 

 the old Spanish land-grants, title has been acquired to a 

 great tract of territory, cattle ranching will continue for a 

 long time, though in a greatly modified form ; elsewhere I 

 doubt if it outlasts the present century. Immense sums of 

 money have been made at it in the past, and it is still 

 fairly profitable ; but the good grounds (aside from those 

 reserved for the Indians) are now almost all taken up, and 

 it is too late for new men to start at it on their own 

 account, unless in exceptional cases, or where an Indian 

 reservation is thrown open. Those that are now in will 

 continue to make money ; but most of those who hereafter 

 take it up will lose. 



The profits of the business are great ; but the chances 

 for loss are great also. A winter of unusual severity will 

 work sad havoc among the young cattle, especially the 

 heifers ; sometimes a disease like the Texas cattle fever 

 will take off a whole herd ; and many animals stray and 

 are not recovered. In fall, when the grass is like a 

 mass of dry and brittle tinder, the fires do much damage, 

 reducing the prairies to blackened deserts as far as the eye 

 can see, and destroying feed which would keep many 



