Everything being snug for the winter, orders
were left to ride certain fences twice a day,--lines where we feared
fence-cutting,--and I took my departure for home.
CHAPTER XX
HOLDING THE FORT
As in many other lines of business, there were ebb and flood tides in
cattle. The opening of the trail through to the extreme Northwest gave
the range live stock industry its greatest impetus. There have always
been seasons of depression and advances, the cycles covering periods
of ten to a dozen years, the duration of the ebb and stationary tides
being double that of the flood. Outside influences have had their
bearing, and the wresting of an empire from its savage possessors
in the West, and its immediate occupancy by the dominant race in
ranching, stimulated cattle prices far beyond what was justified by
the laws of supply and demand. The boom in live stock in the Southwest
which began in the early '80's stands alone in the market variations
of the last half-century. And as if to rebuke the folly of man and
remind him that he is but grass, Nature frowned with two successive
severe winters, humbling the kings and princes of the range.
Up to and including the winter of 1883-84 the loss among range cattle
was trifling. The country was new and open, and when the stock could
drift freely in advance of storms, their instincts carried them to the
sheltering coulees, cut banks, and broken country until the blizzard
had passed.
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