OUTLOOK FOR LIVE STOCK 26l 



the cattle territory has extended to this day. The 

 settlement of the region of the great plains by 

 farmers, removed, at the time of settlement, prac- 

 tically all of the cattle in the country. The home- 

 steader found it necessary to devote his efforts, for 

 the first few years, to the production of strictly 

 cash crops, and had neither time nor resources for 

 raising cattle, even on a small scale. The big cat- 

 tleman found it necessary to round up and ship out 

 of the country his entire holdings, so that for the 

 time being cattle in the newly settled regions were 

 very scarce. Later, this condition was changed, so 

 that today these farming sections probably produce 

 a larger number of cattle than were ever held there 

 under range conditions. 



In the extreme western states, the decade from 

 1880 to 1890 is shown by the census reports to have 

 witnessed an enormous increase in the holdings of 

 cattle. The next step in range development, after 

 the advent of the farmer and small rancher in cer- 

 tain sections, was the leasing and acquiring title 

 in various ways, to such grazing land as was pos- 

 sible and especially to water, upon which success- 

 ful grazing depended. With a legal foothold of this 

 kind, rich cattle companies then proceeded to fence, 

 not only their own leases and filings, but hundreds 

 of square miles of the public domain. Here, for a 

 time, cattle raising on a comparatively large scale 

 flourished. 



ADVENT OF THE HOMESTEADER 



The homesteader was still a source of a good 

 deal of trouble to these large cattle owners, be- 

 cause of his persistence in filing on claims in- 

 cluded in these pastures. The big cattleman has 

 always opposed these settlements and kept them 



