OF A RANCHMAN 



39 



row. It is scarcely a figure of speech to say 

 that the tide of white settlement during the 

 last few years has risen over the west like 

 a flood ; and the cattle-men are but the spray 

 from the crest of the wave, thrown far in 

 advance, but soon to be overtaken. As the 

 settlers throng into the lands and seize the 

 good ground, especially that near the 

 streams, the great fenceless ranches, where 

 the cattle and their mounted herdsmen wan- 

 dered 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 ac- 

 quired to a great tract of territory, cattle 

 ranching will continue for a long time, 

 though in a greatly modified form ; elsewhere 



