Thesis (M.S.)--Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University, 1992. / Vita. Abstract. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 149-155). Also available via the Internet.

Thesis--Sevilla. / Includes bibliographical references (p. [425]-444) and index.

Thesis (M.S.)--Brigham Young University, Dept. of History.

This thesis is an examination of the origins and development of the British Columbia ranching community and livestock industry. The argument is based on the assumption that the settlement of the Southern Interior Plateau stimulated the growth of a peculiar agricultural economy dependent primarily on stock raising, which in turn, played a prominent role in the region's political, economic and social development. The British Columbia ranching frontier was preceded by the practical foundation of agriculture and animal husbandry in the Oregon country under the guidance of the Hudson1s Bay Company and its maturity under the independent American settler. With the discovery of gold in British Columbia, the American ranching frontier extended northward temporarily to fulfill the demands of the mining market and in the process the Interior livestock industry was established. Through the implementation of a pre-emption system and the hesitant introduction of pastoral leases, the colonial administrations slowly came to realize that the settlement of the Interior Plateau depended initially upon the promotion of stock raising. In its first stage of settlement, the isolated ranching frontier did not experience serious competition for site nor did one ethnic, social or economic group control the region's development. With the gradual decline of the mining industry and the frustrations surrounding the transcontinental railway, the new province of British Columbia entered a decade of economic recession. For the Interior ranching community, however, it represented a period of gradual economic expansion and growing influence in the political sphere. Once railway construction was finally commenced in 1880, the ranchers' concentration upon stock raising during the past two decades stimulated a period of unparalleled prosperity and land consolidation for the established Interior ranching population. After 18 8 5 the character of Interior settlement and the livestock industry began to experience the inevitable transitions of a more mobile and industrialized society. While the cattle ranchers, as the largest landowners, maintained a comfortable livelihood, they were visibly alarmed by the formation of large ranching companies and the growing competitive strength of the Alberta ranching frontier. Nevertheless, while the broader problems of the ranching industry now required a more united front, the established ranchers continued to operate on an independent, individualistic basis. Ultimately, this led to tension within the ranching community itself and a declining role in the economy of the province. / Arts, Faculty of / History, Department of / Graduate

Call number: LD2668 .T4 1938 S56 / Master of Science

No description available.

One of the most fascinating subjects in all American history is the story of the great cow country. Its heyday was the twenty-year period from 1868 to 1888. It extended from below the Rio Grande on the south to well up in Saskatchewan in western Canada on the north. East and west it reached from the Rocky Mountains to about the Missouri- Arkansas border. It occupied a region nearly 2,000 miles long and from 200 to 700 miles wide--almost a million square miles in one vast open range. For countless years this region had been the home of millions of wild buffaloes, but in a very short time after 1868 it was transformed into a gigantic cattle kingdom. After two decades of spectacular existence, it just as suddenly passed away, and the cattle industry entered a new and in many ways an entirely different era. Texas cattle and Texas cattlemen played leading roles in this great drama of the West. The warm southern plains of Texas were the breeding place-the "incubator"-f or thousands of longhorn cattle, the broad prairies to the north were their feeding grounds, and the newly established railroad towns in Kansas and other states were the shipping points.

Standing on the threshold of a new decade, Texas agriculture is faced with three major problems. The first of these problems is the imperative need for a sound soil and water conservation program. Texas has been struggling with this problem for fifty years and has made some progress toward its solution. During the war, however, it was an all-out production of food regardless of cost, either in terms of dollars or resources. As a result, the conservation problem is more acute today than ever before. The second problem is that farm production is out of balance. Lucrative prices for oil and grain crops, plus the increasing shortage of farm labor, turned thousands of farmers from the more stable diversified farm program which had been built up during the '30s. Now, they are again faced with quotas and acreage allotments. This calls for necessarily early and probably extensive readjustment of the entire agricultural production program. The third major change in the agricultural picture is the rapid industrialization of Texas during and since the war. This increase in urban population in this state means an increased market right at the farmer's door for more livestock, dairy, poultry, fruit, and vegetable production. Fortunately, the solution of these three problems is found in one answer. Pasture grass, forage crops, and legumes provide the best means of soil and water conservation and soil building. Inclusion of these crops in a diversified and balanced cropping program will solve the problem of marketing quotas and acreage allotments. Marketing through livestock will provide the abundance of these foods which is needed to meet the growing demands of Texas markets.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--Michigan State University. Dept. of Agricultural Economics, 2006. / Title from PDF t.p. (viewed on Nov. 17, 2008) Includes bibliographical references (p. 120-124). Also issued in print.

Thesis (M.S.)--Montana State University--Bozeman, 2007. / Typescript. Chairperson, Graduate Committee: Gary W. Brester. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 114-120).