were others, men of fine parts, but the above with Menzies were the leaders. Menzies himself was a character. His forefathers had been leaders in the kirk of Scotland, and when "W. J." took to the law, the church business fell into his hands. He was splendidly versed in the history and ways of the church of Scotland, but his leanings were towards finance. For some reason or other, he had to visit the States on a business trip during his early life. The result was the organization of the Scottish American Investment Co. Its success led on to a great many other schemes, being successfully floated from this office. This does not mean they were all successful in the long run. Menzies was an optimist. He took a broad view of things, but he failed in detail. Through his kindheartedness, his judgment was often swayed, the pendulum turning the wrong way to help some friend. I lay this garland on his grave-that he had a heart of gold. His loyalty bridged many a chasm. His hospitality was never fathomed. He had a humorous twinkle in his eye and a slow, liquid voice that was catching, and ofttimes magnetic. In addition he had a great repertoire of Scotch stories, and as he could clothe them with a fine local color, they were always amusing, although many of them were oft-told and in other hands would have had a flavor of the chestnut. So in stepping through life I met George Brown; that led on to Thomas Nelson, and another step to William John Menzies, and to the last two mentioned I owe much of that success which has come my way. Both are gone, so I can write of them freely as above, and the story I am telling will develop round them more or less.

Mr. Duncan Smith, an Edinburgh lawyer, also was the managing director of the Scottish American Mortgage Co., a very successful company then and since. Like others he had his ear to the ground and he had a connection in Muscatine, Iowa, with Messrs. Underwood & Clark, who loaned money on farms in the West. Mr. Underwood had gone to Kansas City, Mo., and was president of a bank there. In this way he had got to know many of the western ranchmen.

Underwood was a bit of an adventurer, and a very smooth promoter. Anyway, the Prairie Cattle Co. grew out of that connection. It paid enormous dividends and it set the Scotch investors afire. The said dividends were paid mostly out of capital, but the Scotch folks did not inquire too closely. Soon they were all anxious to grasp the bloom before it was shed.

In the summer of 1879 the British government had appointed an agricultural commission. This inquiry took a wide range. Its members were drawn principally from the Houses of Lords and Commons, the Duke of Richmond and Gordon being the chairman. Several practical agriculturists were placed on the commission. From Scotland, Mr. Robert Patterson of Birthwood and my father were selected, whilst among several sub-commissioners the East Coast of Scotland was ably represented by Mr. James Hope, East Barns. Two members of Parliament, Mr. Clare Sewell Read and Mr. Albert Pell, were sent over to the States and Canada to report upon our agriculture and size up the future production and price of wheat. The British farmer was feeling keenly the competition of cheap wheat coming from the Dakotas and other States. I was appointed as a subcommissioner and while they as members of the House of Commons could not draw anything but expenses, I was put on the payroll of the Government and kept the work up for three years. Read and Pell were delightful men. The former farmed in the county of Norfolk and the latter after trying several localities in England, finally settled at Hazelbeech, near the town of Northampton. During the three months of their stay in this country, I made many trips in their company, imbibing from them much of their experience of British farming and politics.

The following year I was instructed to go to California and make a report on the agriculture of that state. This trip took me through the western range country and in California I saw a good deal of the live stock business as carried on there. The firm of Falkner, Bell & Co., in San Francisco

had a connection with the Scottish American Investment Co., so I carried with me a letter from Mr. W. J. Menzies to them, and in this way I met Mr. James D. Walker, the leading resident partner of the firm. This concern was an old established one of high standing and credit. They had, however, as events proved, been hard hit by a wheat speculator several years before, and they were in reality on pretty thin ice financially. Through the above party they had come into a third ownership in the Chowchilla ranch near the town of Merced, the Bank of Nevada, then controlled by the Flood and the O'Brien interest, owning the other two-thirds. Walker sent me down to this place and I spent two very pleasant days on it. One of the foremen called Scott, a very sharp, active fellow, was my guide, and it did not take me long to size up the value of the property and its possibilities. About fifteen months later, or to be exact, in November, 1881, Mr. Menzies had been in California on his way round the world, and as both the Bank of Nevada and the London partners of Falkner, Bell & Co. wished to dispose of their holdings in the San Joaquin Valley, Walker proposed to turn this ranch into a Scotch Company, and acting for the above parties he gave Menzies an option on the property, expiring April 20th, 1882. Speaking from memory, there were about 115,000 acres of land and some 15,000 cattle, the cattle as usual being overestimated. Menzies, who was hurrying homewards, could not stop over at Bow Park, but he wired me to meet him at Montreal to talk over this matter, and incidentally to advise him as to a purchase of land from the Canadian Pacific Railroad Co. He purchased, or at least carried home, an agreement by which he got 100,000 acres of land to be selected west of Brandon. We met Sir George Stephen, now Lord Mount Stephen, and put through the transaction with him personally. It was the first big block of land the Company had been able to sell, and we had a sort of love feast for a few minutes after the transaction was arranged. As a consequence of this meeting, I crossed the Atlantic with Menzies. We got home Christmas morning.

We missed our connection and had to remain over Christmas Day in the old Border town of Carlisle. After the holidays it did not take long to organize syndicates to provide means to purchase both properties. There was a rush to subscribe. Through the influence of Messrs. Menzies and Nelson, I was employed to make a thorough examination of the ranch and report by cable to the folks in Scotland.

Starting from Scotland in lots of time to make the trip the steamer we traveled on was delayed by adverse weather nearly a week. Other business intervened, and it was the 4th of April before I reached the ranch. Thirty-four years have passed since that time, and yet looking back it seems no later than yesterday. We drove across the great plains of the San Joaquin Valley, guarded on the east by the Sierra Nevadas, snowclad, almost wicked looking in their jagged outline. Westward lay the coast range where lovely sunsets died away all too soon. When there before in the month of August, it was dry, dusty, nothing green but the alfalfa fields. Now the whole scene was verdant with flowers, all the colors of the rainbow, running riot and adding glory to the sunkissed scene. The buildings stood amidst a grove of trees, giant cottonwoods and fruit trees side by side. Several thousand acres of alfalfa and grain lay southwards, all of the ranch from near the line of the Southern Pacific Railway sloping gently six feet to the mile away to the San Joaquin River. A thousand four-year-old steers grazed over a big alfalfa field ready to be moved to market and eventually netting $50.00 per head. On the range the alfilaria was in bloom and the salt grass was peeping through its winter coat of greenish brown. There was a wealth of luxuriant feed and the cattle, a grade or two removed from the old Spanish type, were in fine condition. Richard O'Neil of San Francisco was manager. His cattle foreman was a Mexican and the farm boss was Isaac Bird, Jr. Manuel, the Mexican, soon left and was lost sight of. O'Neil died recently but Bird is still living in California. Dick O'Neil was a retired San Francisco butcher, an old friend of Flood, and when the above

parties took over the ranch for a bad debt he was asked to look after the property. He was one of the most clean cut men I ever met, a master of his business, silent, shrewd, persistent, decisive, with a keen, caustic wit, yet under all of it a kindly disposition. When you traveled round the ranch. for several days you felt that you were sitting at the foot of Gamaliel. When alone with him he talked freely, in fact he gave liberally of his experience. He was a student of the cattle business and possibly he knew as much about it as any man I ever came across. In the San Joaquin Valley they gave him credit for being quite the equal of Henry Miller of Miller & Lux, and that is saying a lot. They were always fighting, and yet they were friendly, but watchful. When the Scotch folks bought the ranch he retired. While I was made joint manager, I regret exceedingly that we did not try to retain O'Neil's services. A year or two under his training and guidance would have been worth a lot to any aspiring young fellow because he had grown up in a hard school and he had the mental ability to work out many problems and solve them. Bird was also a man of mark in his way. He was energetic, and having been born in California, he spoke Spanish fluently and had a great faculty of organizing his labor. He was an adept in ranch management and eventually through his ability rose to be manager of the ranch, and he remained there till it was sold some years ago. He is now a resident of Merced, respected and well thought of, not only in that town, but his name is a household word in live stock circles on the Pacific Coast.

We have got ahead of our story. The Scotch folks purchased the property and, as the story unfolds, they had never reason to regret it. They had many adversities, in dry seasons, losses by disease, heavy taxes, etc., but year by year, season by season, these were overcome and success crowned the venture.