ranch in one day to Camp
Apache, another military post, a distance of over 40 miles. In this case
the trail was through forest country where there was no "holding"
ground, so they had to be pushed through.

Our herd increased and throve fairly well for a number of years till
other "outfits" began to throw cattle into the country, and sheepmen
began to dispute our right to certain grazing lands. We did not quite
realize it at the time, but it was the beginning of the end. We had gone
into a practically virgin country, controlled an immense area, and the
stock throve accordingly. But others were jealous of our success, threw
in their cattle as already said, and their sheep, and ultimately we
swamped one another. The grass was eaten down, over-grazed, droughts
came, prices broke, and so the end. From 500 our annual calf brand
mounted to 4000; halted there, and gradually dropped back to the
original tally. Our cattle, from poverty, bogged in the river, or
perished from hunger. This was all due to the barbarous grazing system
under which we worked, the United States refusing to sell or lease land
for grazing purposes; consequently, except at the end of a gun, one had
no control over his range. Cattle versus sheep wars resulted, stealing
became rampant and success impossible.

Among other sales made was that of some 1500 steers, of all ages, which
we drove right up to the heart of Colorado and disposed of at good
prices. This drive was marked by a serious stampede, on a dark night in
rough country, by which two of the boys got injured, though happily not
seriously. Then another time we made an experimental shipment of 500 old
steers to California, to be grazed and fattened on alfalfa. They were
got through all right and put in an alfalfa field, and I remained in
charge of them. Our cattle were not accustomed to wire fences, or being
penned up in a small enclosure, and of course had never seen alfalfa; so
for a week or more they did nothing but walk round the fence, trampling
the belly-high lucerne to the ground. Gradually, however, they got to
eating it, and in six weeks began to pick up. Briefly stated, this
adventure was a financial failure. Like the cattle I had been myself an
entire stranger to the wonderful alfalfa plant, and I never tired
marvelling at its exuberance of growth and its capacity for supporting
animal life. The heat in San Joachin Valley in high summer is almost
overpowering, and vegetable growth under ir