88 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



least questionable, such locations were spread over as 

 large a country as possible. Still it was not always prac- 

 ticable to protect every place. 



The nester, alive to this fact, dropped down into the 

 middle of the range at some unimportant water hole 

 and unloaded his goods and chattels from his covered 

 wagon. Possibly he filed a bona fide location upon the 

 place; more often he did not. In any event, he had 

 several months in which to perfect his filings before he 

 could be removed legally, and meantime in most cases 

 he was there simply to harass the stockman. Little 

 patches of ground were plowed up with a pretense of 

 farming and a crop was planted. The range cattle would 

 break through the ramshackle fence which had been 

 placed about the so-called farm and immediately a dam- 

 age claim was instituted. 



Motherless calves were picked up and branded by the 

 nester, whose sole claim to them was through the pos- 

 session of a team, possibly a couple of milk cows, and 

 the ownership of a brand, which was seldom legally 

 recorded. His dogs fought off the range cattle when 

 they came for water, and more often the water itself 

 was fenced in. The final coup de grace by such an indi- 

 vidual was a threat to sell out his claim to some wan- 

 dering sheepman. 



In every possible way the nester was a thorn in thr 

 side of the stockmen, especially the cattle outfits. If his 

 claim was purchased merely to get rid of him, he gener- 

 ally moved along onto some other range, and repeated 

 the proceedings. The nester was responsible for an im- 

 mense amount of hard feeling between the cattle and 

 sheep interests, as well as more or less bloodshed through 

 attempts to get rid of him and his kind, by evictions ai 

 the muzzle of a Winchester. 



