760 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



ter.* Two herds might be separated 200 miles apart 

 on such an enormous range, and one year climatic 

 conditions might be more favorable for one herd 

 than the other, and vice versa the next year. But it 

 was the belief of those who had most to do with the 

 property that either of these breeds properly looked 

 after would do well in the Panhandle. 



Views of H. S. Boice. In this connection the fol- 

 lowing narration by H. S. Boice, formerly with the 

 XIT syndicate, is of interest. In a letter to the 

 author under date of June 19, 1914, written from 

 Los Angeles, Cal., he says: 



11 About thirty-five years ago while I was working 

 as a hand on the range in southern Colorado, we had 

 a drouth followed by a very severe winter. In those 

 days range cattle, including bulls, were left to the 

 mercy of the elements. The losses during that win- 

 ter were simply tremendous. The next spring our 

 round-ups showed very plainly the survival of the 

 fittest in the depleted herds and the Herefords, com- 

 pared with the other breeds, were conspicuously 

 numerous, and of the bulls that survived the many 



*Sales of large tracts of land were made by the syndicate 

 in 1901 and 1902 to ranchmen who were beginning to realize that 

 the public domain was fast being settled up and that the day 

 when it would be necessary to own the land in order to control 

 the grass was very near at hand. Several hundred thousand acres 

 of the tract were sold to George W. Littlefleld, the well known 

 banker and ranchman of Texas, owner of the LFD brand. Another 

 large tract went to W. E. Halsell, large cattle owner of Indian 

 Territory, another to the Matador Land & Cattle Co., another to 

 T. S. Hutton and E. L. Halsell of Kansas City, another to Rhea 

 Bros, of New Mexico, another to F. D. Wight of Trindad, Colo., 

 and another to W. ,T. Tod, Maplehill, Kans. A few years later, 

 beginning about 1906, a large influx of northern farmers took 

 place, and a great deal of the land was sold in tracts ranging 

 from 40 acres to a section or several sections. Some idea of the 

 extent of this business may be gathered from the fact that the 

 company has executed and delivered over 2,500 deeds to land 

 from the Capitol Reservation grant, and the lands sold aggregate 

 about 2,000,000 acres. 



