CATTLE HERDING. 891 



satisfactory results. But where cattle must graze the year 

 round, or nearly so, and the best shelter possible for them is a 

 canyon or the lee side of a hay-rick, and where they are as 

 ignorant of corn, oil-cake, and the meal bin as of the solar 

 system, then all will agree that we must look for the most 

 hardy animal as the sire of our calves, if we would not be dis- 

 appointed in results. This quality is prominent in the Here- 

 fords, Polled Angus, and Galloways, and the ranchmen who 

 uses any of these breeds crossed on the Texas cow will not be 

 far off the track. 



Land Titles. I am asked how the ranchmen acquire a 

 title to their ranges. The most of them have no legal right, 

 but are " squatter sovereigns," who maintain their footing by 

 sticking together, and in many instances by a free use of the 

 rifle and revolver. And in some localities hundreds of thou- 

 sands of acres have been fenced by wealthy men, who do not 

 own a foot of it, excepting a single quarter section (bought 

 from some homesteader) that contains all the available water 

 for a score of miles around. In -all the vast domain of the 

 United States no man, though he be a millionaire, can acquire a 

 title to any more government land than any poor man. All 

 must pre-empt, homestead, or take land under the timber culture 

 act, and if he avail himself of all these different modes of ac- 

 quiring land he can only secure four hundred and eighty acres, 

 except by purchase from other parties who have gained their 

 titles from the government in the same way, or by the purchase 

 of railroad land, and of this only every other section can be ob- 

 tained. In the State of Texas it is different, where all public 

 land belongs to the State and may be bought in tracts to suit 

 the purchaser. In the Indian Territory no white man has 

 a right to go ; but many are there of a certain class, and by 

 marrying a squaw may acquire certain tribal rights, but not 

 otherwise. 



The real facts in the case are about these : A mnjority of 

 the large ranches are so situated that their occupants are, as 

 the actual settlers come in upon them, being pressed back from 

 their old herd-grounds in spite of their united and determined 



