"I've got the law back of me," was what he said; and what
he said was true. Around the old cow camps of the trails, and
around the young settlements which did not aspire to be called
cow camps, the homesteaders fenced in land--so much land that
there came to be no place near any of the shipping-points where a
big herd from the South could be held. Along the southern range
artificial barriers to the long drive began to be raised. It
would be hard to say whether fear of Texas competition or of
Texas cattle fever was the more powerful motive in the minds of
ranchers in Colorado and Kansas. But the cattle quarantine laws
of 1885 nearly broke up the long drive of that year. Men began to
talk of fencing off the trails, and keeping the northbound herds
within the fences--a thing obviously impossible.
The railroads soon rendered this discussion needless. Their
agents went down to Texas and convinced the shippers that it
would be cheaper and safer to put their cows on cattle trains and
ship them directly to the ranges where they were to be delivered.
And in time the rails running north and south across the Staked
Plains into the heart of the lower range began to carry most of
the cattle.
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