The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-11-13
THE GREAT PASTURES IN TEXAS.
Enormous Areas that are under the Con-
troll of Single Management.


| Very few people at distance, in think
ing OIL western Texas understand That
| nearly the whole of it is at present fenced
up IN mammoth pastures, yet such is the
| case. Many of them are larger than Or
| binary counties, and some of them en-
brace large parts of three or four coun-
| ties.
just west of Belcherville, Tex, come
the Sllverstein, the Ikard and the Wor-
sham pastures. This latter contains
oo,ooo. acres, and has one line of fence %
miles long. Pastures of about this size
continue In almost unbroken succession
until we reach Armstrong county. There
we nna what is known as the Goodnight
ranch, the southern boundary Of which
IS a little string of fence miles long,
Charley Goodnight, as the owner is ia
mlilarly known, is considered one of the
rlcnest men in the Panhandle, but 1
really feel sorry for his boys if he ever
senos them out on hot afternoon to
stop hog holes in that line of fence 1t
IS hardly likely that this is the case, how
ever, as all fences in this country are
pu u TO turn cattle and without refer
ence to hogs. There is little railway
station called Goodnight, which consists
al al .o1 m Goodnight residence ana the depot.
WI; uoo9nlght lives in almost baronial
sGyle; His park contains deer, a drove
VI eIks, and one of the few herds of
nuftaioes to be found in the United
Another fair-sized holding of land is
Inat OF the Espinella Cattle Company.
takes in parts of Dickens, Crosby and
Emma counties If the land were in the
form OF square it would be about
nifty miles each way. The Matterdore is
smaller, but still includes rather more
Than 10000 acres. These are both
owned BY syndicates, with headquarters
IN London, and they are only two select
ed at random out of a large number. If
It were not for the railroad Commission,
the uniform Text Book bill, and the
alien landholder question Texas politics
would not be worth shucks.S
The largest of these alien land holdings
belongs to what is called the Capitol
lisyndlcate; "A few years ago the old
W as decided to build another on a mag
n11lcent scale An English syndicate
agreed to put it up, and in payment
therefor they received 5000, 600 acres of
public lands. Does the reader realize
how big 100000 acres of land is? I'm
agine a slice of land "a miles wide and
extending clear across the State of Mis-
souria at its northern border. Such a
strip would include the whole northern
tier of counties, and would be larger
than several States of the Union. This
would be about the extent of the Capitol
syndicate's pasture. Few people have
any idea that there is such a thing as
single pasture in one body and within
one fence larger than some States in the
Union, yet such is the fact. More than
that. 1T is owned by a foreign syndicate.
Ii takes in half of Deaf Smith county
and parts of sveral others.
Another large pasture is that of the
XII. i. Cattle Company 1t begins with
the Colorado line and extends several
counties back this way. The Fort Worth
and Denver railroad runs through it.
Some idea of it's size may be gathered
from the fact that the regular night ex-
press train enters on the south side Of
the pasture at 11.O5, and, after continue
GUS running, leaves it at $3.50 next morn
ing. A pasture which it takes an express
train three hours and quarter to cross
would be considered large in some
countries. st. Louis Globe-D Democrat.