24 RANCH LIFE AND THE HUNTING -TRAIL 



for the fault of a few also renders us as a whole able to take some rough 

 measures to guard against the wrong-doing of a portion of our number ; 

 for the fact that the cattle wander intermixed over the ranges forces all the 

 ranchmen of a locality to combine if they wish to do their work effectively. 

 Accordingly, the stockmen of a neighborhood, when it holds as many 

 cattle as it safely can, usually unitedly refuse to work with any one who 

 puts in another herd. In the cow country a man is peculiarly dependent 

 upon his neighbors, and a small outfit is wholly unable to work without 

 their assistance when once the cattle have mingled completely with those 

 of other brands. A large outfit is much more master of its destiny, and 

 can do its own work quite by itself; but even such a one can be injured 

 in countless ways if the hostility of the neighboring ranchmen is incurred. 



The best days of ranching are over; and though there are many 

 ranchmen who still make money, yet during the past two or three years 

 the majority have certainly lost. This is especially true of the numerous 

 Easterners who went into the business without any experience and trusted 

 themselves entirely to their Western representatives ; although, on the 

 other hand, many of those who have made most money at it are East- 

 erners, who, however, have happened to be naturally fitted for the work 

 and who have deliberately settled down to learning the business as they 

 would have learned any other, devoting their whole time and energy to it. 

 Stock-raising, as now carried on, is characteristic of a young and wild 

 land. As the country grows older, it will in some places die out, and in 

 others entirely change its character ; the ranches will be broken up, will 

 be gradually modified into stock-farms, or, if on gocd soil, may even fall 

 under the sway of the husbandman. 



In its present form stock-raising on the plains is doomed, and can 

 hardly outlast the century. The great free ranches, with their barbarous, 

 picturesque, and curiously fascinating surroundings, mark a primitive 

 stage of existence as surely as do the great tracts of primeval forests, and 

 like the latter must pass away before the onward march of our people ; 

 and we who have felt the charm of the life, and have exulted in its abound- 

 ing vigor and its bold, restless freedom, will not only regret its passing 

 for our own sakes, but must also feel real sorrow that those who come 

 after us are not to see, as we have seen, what is perhaps the pleasantest, 

 healthiest, and most exciting phase of American existence. 



