18 BULLETIN 211, U. S. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 
custom to allow all stock of whatever ownership to water at any | 
watering place, and the man who would exclude any of his neighbors’ 
stock from his water troughs would be ostracized. But this necessity 
= the business makes it possible for the stingy or thievish man to 
‘“‘edge in’? on every other owner in his district. He ‘‘develops”’ 
water at a certain place, but not in sufficient quantity to supply 
the number of animals he puts upon the range. It follows that his 
animals get some of their water from his neighbors, and water costs 
money in the range country at any place. Thus, the small man isa 
thorn in the side, especially of the large owner who has a first-class 
equipment. The latter may retaliate by throwing large numbers of 
his stock into the small man’s range long enough to eat it out in a 
short time, or by instituting legal proceedings on trumped-up charges, 
thereby causing the small man loss of time and unnecessary expendi- 
ture of money. These are but a few of the more patent of the 
competitive methods in use among cattlemen, and another similar set 
is to be found among the large ae small sheepmen. 
The battles between the sheep and cattle industries have been told 
time and again. The sheepman has the advantage in most respects. 
His stock are herded all the time; they can be held on any spot as 
long as he desires; if held long enough they will practically obliterate 
the vegetation on such an area; they require much less water than 
cattle, and with green succulent feed may go for long periods without 
any water at all; they may be driven in almost any place where other 
stock can go. He is thus able to drive over a cattleman’s range and 
leave desolation in his wake if he wants to; and he may do this, too, 
without overstepping his legal rights. | 
For convenience in handling the sheep at Aone the herders build 
brush corrals. These corrals burn readily after the brush is dry. 
When not in a corral, sheep may easily be stampeded and scattered 
at night. A herder’s camp fire at night is a conspicuous target, but 
the immediate vicinity is very unsafe when rifle practice at such 
target is going on, and a band of sheep without a herder is soon lost. 
Such gentle hints as any of these may be taken to indicate to the 
sheepman that it is time for him to move on. 
The industry is now developed to such a state that if a man wishes 
to enter it he must either buy a range and its rights or develop some of 
the few remaining unoccupied areas, where water is hard to obtain 
and where the supply of feed.is scanty and uncertain. In either case, 
he must be able to invest considerable capital in the business. This 
means that the industry is upon a much more permanent basis and 
is consequently more highly organized. 
Perhaps no other demand of the business is so well recognized by 
all those interested in it as the desirability of control of the range, 
