On the lower range in the old times no one cared much about a cow.

Why should one do so?
There was no market for cows--no one who wished to buy them.

If one tendered a Mexican cinquo pesos for a yearling or a two-year-old, the owner might perhaps offer the animal as a gift, or he might smile and say "Con mucho gusto" as he was handed a few pieces of silver.

There were plenty of cows everywhere in the world! Let us, therefore, give the old Spaniard full credit alike in picturesque romance and in the organized industry of the cow.

The westbound thrust which came upon the upper part of the range in the days of more shrewd and exacting business methods was simply the best-known and most published phase of frontier life in the cow country; hence we have usually accepted it as typical.