PASSING OF THE FEDERAL PASTURE 



agents ever came on the ground. It was the 

 vaquero's inning, and he scored very suc- 

 cessfully till he was "out." 



He was "out," in effect, when railroads 

 were built, when homesteaders and other 

 settlers made their advent. It presently be- 

 gan to be clear that what had been a per- 

 petual surfeit of cattle food could not last. 

 Hence competition, fiercer yearly and 

 monthly, each ranchman being determined 

 to make the utmost of his chance before it 

 vanished. Every man on the ground bought 

 all the cows he could, using his cash and his 

 utmost credit, heedless of rates per cent. 

 Outsiders crowded in and did the same. 

 The danger of overstocking the range oc- 

 curred to no one. Most localities soon had 

 twice or thrice as many creatures as they 

 could feed. An unusually dry summer or 

 cold winter killed cattle as frost kills flies. 



Inhumanity to brutes was not the sole or 

 the worst barbarism attending this regime. 

 The struggle for pasture led to range dis- 

 putes and wars. One twelvemonth 500 

 men lost their lives in range feuds. In 



39 



