A RANCHMAN'S RECOLLECTIONS 



of those times could look forward to agricultural 

 development and solidify their land holdings when 

 the alternate section was school land under lease 

 and it seemed cheaper to lease than to buy. 



The nester was not dreamed of then. The range 

 was open, and the wire fence was still in the back 

 of John Gates' head. There were a few notable 

 exceptions. S. M. Swenson was one of them, and 

 we find on his maps this notation, made before the 

 Civil War: "Do not sell this tract; it has water on 

 it, and is good agricultural land." Men who had 

 that foresight have reaped deserved rewards. 



The northwestern movements had not begun to 

 any appreciable extent, but except in so far as the 

 Spanish fever scare limited trails to Kansas rail- 

 road connections, a ray of light had appeared at 

 Kansas City, and there was another day dawning for 

 the beef industry. That light was the packinghouse 

 plus refrigeration. First came the packinghouse, 

 with its immense capacity for barreled beef and 

 pickled dried beef hams, with a limited natural ice 

 refrigeration. Barreled beef was almost as great a 

 staple as barreled pork, and it had an immense con- 

 sumption in lumber camps and sailing vessels, besides 

 a large aggregate domestic consumption. 



Plankington and Armour owned packinghouses in 

 Milwaukee and Chicago, but with that great fore- 

 sight which seemed to make the future an open 

 book, and made a fortune for him in pork after the 



[10] 



