10 INTRODUCTORY. 



grazing regions on the globe, and a large portion of it 

 is yielding excellent crops to the agriculturist. This 

 ancient desert has been for a long time the favorite 

 pasturing ground of the buffalo, and it doubtless now 

 contains more domestic cattle than it ever did buffa- 

 loes. 



The eastern boundary of the old desert was the Mis- 

 souri River, and it is fresh in the memory of many that 

 when settlement began on the west bank of that river 

 it was supposed its natural limit would be in the imme- 

 diate vicinity of the stream. Gradually the desert was 

 pushed westward a hundred miles, as far as the Big 

 Blue, which was fixed upon as its eastern boundary. 

 But the farmers did not stop here. They continued to 

 plough up the eastern edge of the desert until it was 

 moved another hundred miles west, to Fort Kearney, 

 where it was supposed it would forever remain. This 

 frontier was about in the middle of the desert as origi- 

 nally laid out by Lewis and Clark, and it was thought 

 that here at least the spirit of innovation would be satis- 

 fied. Nevertheless, the farmers continued to push 

 westward, and now the occupants of the remaining 

 portion of the great waste are viewing with alarm the 

 persistent demonstration of the fertility of their desert 

 domain. The great cattle-kings claim that the country 

 is utterly unfit for cultivation, to which the farmers 

 reply by ploughing up a strip on its eastern edge every 

 year some ten miles wide, and raising good crops. 



The cattle-kings fear the utter destruction of their 

 fine ranges in prospect unless something can be done to 

 establish their desert character. They need have no 



