fight with nature and the grasping conditions of commerce and
transportation of that time. The western Canadian farmer of today
is a cherished, almost a petted being. But no one ever showed any
mercy to the American farmer who moved out West.

As always has been the case, a certain number of wagons might be
seen passing back East, as well as the somewhat larger number
steadily moving westward. There were lean years and dry years,
hot years, yellow years here and there upon the range. The phrase
written on one disheartened farmer's wagon top, "Going back to my
wife's folks," became historic.

The railways were finding profit in carrying human beings out to
the cow-range just as once they had in transporting cattle.
Indeed, it did not take the wiser railroad men long to see that
they could afford to set down a farmer, at almost no cost for
transportation, in any part of the new West. He would after that
be dependent upon the railroad in every way. The railroads
deliberately devised the great land boom of 1886, which was more
especially virulent in the State of Kansas. Many of the roads
had lands of their own for sale, but what they wanted most was
the traffic of the settlers. They knew the profit to be derived
from the industry of a dense population raising products which
must be shipped, and requiring imports which also must be
shipped. One railroad even offered choice breeding-stock free on
request. The same road, and others also, preached steadily the
doctrine of diversified farming. In short, the railroads, in
their own interests, did all they could to make prosperous the
farms or ranches of the West. The usual Western homestead now was
part ranch and part farm, although the term "ranch" continued for