g the convention, and at
the close we scattered to the four winds in the interests of our
respective work. In order to give my time and attention to the new
organization, I assigned my individual cattle to the care of the firm,
of which I was sending out ten thousand three-year-old steers and two
herds of aging and dry cows. They would take their chances in the open
market, though I would have dearly loved to take over the young steers
for the new company rather than have bought their equivalent in
numbers. I had a dislike to parting with an animal of my own breeding,
and to have brought these to a ripe maturity under my own eye would
have been a pleasure and a satisfaction. But such an action might have
caused distrust of my management, and an honest name is a valuable
asset in a cowman's capital.

My ranch foremen made up the herds and started my individual cattle on
the trail. I had previously bought the two remaining herds in Archer
and Clay counties, and in the five that were contracted for and would
be driven at company risk and account, every animal passed and was
received under my personal inspection. Three of the latter were routed
by way of the Chisholm trail, and two by the Western, while the cattle
under contract for delivery at the company ranch went by any route
that their will and pleasure saw fit. I saw very little of my old
associates during the spring months, for no sooner had I started the
herds than I hastened to overtake the lead one so as to arrive with
the cattle at their new range. I had kept in touch with the building
of fences, and on our arrival, near the middle of May, the western and
southern strings were completed. It was not my intention to inclose
the entire range, only so far as to catch any possible drift of cattle
to the south or west. A twenty-mile spur of fence on the east, with
half that line and all the north one open, would be sufficient until
further encroachments were made on our range. We would have to ride
the fences daily, anyhow, and where there was no danger of drifting,
an open line was as good as a fence.

As fast as the cattle arrived they were placed under loose herd for
the first two weeks. Early in June the last of the contracted herds
arrived and were scattered over the range, the outfits returning to
Texas. I reduced my help gradually, as the cattle quieted down and
became located, until by the middle of summer we were running the
ranch with thirty men, which were