viii INTRODUCTION 



Briefly the aim and object of the intending cattle- 

 raiser is to buy yearlings at $15 (£3 2s. 6d.) to $20 

 and sell them in three to four years for $42 to $60, 

 according to the market prices prevailing at the 

 time. During this period they are maturing and 

 fattening on grass and water alone, at no expense to 

 their owners, for no grain finishing is necessary where 

 there is such an abundance of nutritious grasses and 

 good water, together with an invigorating climate. 



Special areas are allotted by the Government to 

 those who desire to engage in sheep-rearing, on 

 account of this animal's habit of cropping the grass 

 so short that no cattle would be able to feed after 

 them with any hope of adequate returns to their 

 owner. 



Horses are bred in large numbers, and are profit- 

 able to breeders who thoroughly understand them, 

 and are alive to the advantages of raising only those 

 which are suitable to, and have a demand in, the 

 particular market which it is intended to supply. 

 I will fully explain my meaning in the chapter 

 devoted to horse-ranching. 



I have often wondered, when riding after cattle 

 on the prairie in the invigorating air and bright, un- 

 clouded sunshine of an early spring day, that more 

 of Britain's sturdy sons, now languishing, chained to 

 the office stool of some large commercial house, do 

 not manage to escape somehow and taste the joys of 

 a free, open-air, healthy life where God's air can be 

 breathed every hour of the day. Where in the large 

 towns of the British Isles can the average small 

 clerk earn 30s. a week, exclusive of board and lodging, 

 and in a congenial vocation at that ? 



