"The old free-and-easy system of cattle-raising on the public domain is rapidly drawing to a close. The great cattle trail is blocked by farms and wire fences... To succeed today, the cattleman must buy his land, fence it with barbed wire, and cultivate crops to feed his stock during the severe winters. The business is falling into the hands of foreign syndicates and large corporations, who can afford to purchase immense tracts of land..."
— Frank Wilkeson, "The Cattle Industry of the Plains," *Harper's New Monthly Magazine*, 1886
Which of the following historical developments in the American West during the late nineteenth century is most directly reflected in the excerpt?
- The consolidation of western agricultural and ranching industries under corporate ownershipAnswer
- BThe strict adherence to a laissez-faire economic system that prevented the federal government from aiding private western businesses
- CThe success of urban Progressive reformers in enacting federal laws that dissolved corporate cattle monopolies
- DThe implementation of federal land policies designed to protect and preserve communal Native American tribal lands from commercial expansion
Answer
The consolidation of western agricultural and ranching industries under corporate ownership
The correct answer is correct because the source describes the demise of the open range and the concentration of the cattle industry into the hands of large corporations and foreign syndicates. This mirrors the broader economic transformation of the West, where individual homesteaders and miners were increasingly replaced by or consolidated under large-scale corporate enterprises that could afford the capital investments (like barbed wire and land purchases) required for modern commercial agriculture and ranching.
Step-by-Step Solution
Key Concept
The transformation of the western economy from individual ranching and farming to consolidated, corporate-dominated agribusiness and extraction during the Gilded Age.