It'll give you a foothold--something better than wages, if you stay with your claims and prove up.

Of course, I can't say anything about us buying out your claims--that's fraud, according to Hoyle; but you ain't simple-minded--you know your land won't be begging for a buyer, in case you should ever want to sell.
"There's another thing.

This will not only head off the dry-farmers from overstocking what little range is left--it'll make a dead-line for sheep, too.

We've been letting 'em graze back and forth on the bench back here beyond our leased land, and not saying much, so long as they didn't crowd up too close, and kept going.

With all our claims under fence, do you realize what that'll mean for the grass ?" "Josephine! There's feed for considerable stock, right over there on our claims, to say nothing of what we'll cover," exclaimed Pink.
"I'd tell a man! And if we get water on the desert claims--" Chip grinned down at him.