Middletown transcript., 1884-02-29
Consolidating Western Cattle
Ranches.

As in railroads and other enterprises,
centralization is now great feature OF
cattle raising. The work Of CONSOLE
dating Western ranches is rapidly going
forward, and whether for gain, mutual
protection, or what not, many of the
ranchmen appear to be quite willing to
sell their rights, franchises, and cattle
to corporations, receiving their pay in
company stock. A companion of the
writer in whilom expeditions through
Colorado and Wyoming, has sold his
rancho and all the cattle which are on
it, "on the Sweetwater, ." to an Eng
lish company, for hundred thousand
dollars. A colossal Colorado Cattle
Company is now apparently aiming to
absorb the ranches and cattle lying
between Denver and the Kansas border.
Only last week the company paid a
quarter of a million dollars to one
ranchman, sixty miles east of Denver,
for his claims and cattle. Mr.. Burn
ham. the Land Commissioner Of the
Union Pacific Railroad, recently told
the writer that he had just received a
proposition from the manager Of a
cattle company, to purchase the remain
ing unsold land Of the Union Pacific
Grant, for a mammoth range. Accord
ing to the official report just made, the
unsold lands amount to over eight
millions of acres-a rather good sized
rancho
University men and under graduates
still dream of this to them charmed
life, which appears to possess a special
fascination for educated young men.
l have encountered these college grad
yates, now turned cattle or sheep
raisers, all over the far West, from
Manitoba ON the north, to New Mexico
on the south, and l have yet to find
the first one to say that he was weary
of the life, and desired to return to
civilization. Whether collecting and
driving two-year-olds from Minnesota,
through Dakota to the Black Hills, or
tending vast herds in northwestern
Nebraska and Wyoming, or living in
their shacks' or dug-outs along the
Little Laramie, or gathering in their
missing sheep after a furious snow
storm in the Kiowa Valley, OF Looping
from pasturage to pasturage with their
gentle focks in the more sunny climes
of Southwestern Kansas and Southern
Celerado-these college graduates tell
you that they are happy. And they
appear to he so in their cowboy cos
tunes, with their simple fare, entire
freedom and handsome profts-that is,
when prolonged winter SHOWS, or water
spouts, or disease do not decimate the
herds and fiocks.
This Capitalization now 50 rapidly
going on, must necessarily bar out
these college aspirants for ranch life
and adventure. As the cattle and
sheep now become concentrated in the
hands Cf professionals, they will want
to conduct it on business principles,
hiring at lower wages regular COW
boys, and so monopolizing the land
generally as to afford little show for
eastern boys, who now, with a few
cattle or sheep are their own masters,
and come and go at will. Assuming
that they could find employment in the
large companies, the boys would not
consent to become mere serving men,
taking orders may be from rough, un-
lettered superintendent, and losing
their entire independence. The whole
charm of the life would then be gone.
We may reasonably conclude, therefore,
that there will soon be an end TO leav-
ing college for cattle raising on the
plains. ns.-DAvID w. JUDD, IN american
Agricultmist for March.