A study arguing for the existence of a distinct “ranching frontier” in Canadian history, and for the central place of beef production in early federal thinking about western development. Breen contends that, before 1900, cattle raising stood alongside grain growing in shaping Dominion land policy, and that ranchers emerged as a formidable political and economic interest, often at odds with the expanding farm population. He further examines the ranching community as a socially cohesive and culturally distinct group, set apart both from neighbouring agrarian settlers and from its American counterparts.
Organized chronologically, the book traces three phases: the open-range era (1874–1896), marked first by small operators who demonstrated the viability of stock-raising in the semi-arid West, and then by large companies that tied the region to eastern capital; the period of mass settlement (1896–1911), when government immigration policy threatened the economic base of the cattle industry and sharpened regional tensions; and the years 1911–1924, when drought, political organization, and shifting markets altered the balance between rancher and farmer.
Throughout, Breen links evolving Dominion land policy in the dry belt with the sustained contest for territorial and economic control, assessing the continued effectiveness of cattlemen as a pressure group in domestic and international markets.
Notes adapted from the author's Preface.
