The King Ranch

Abstract

<p>In the southernmost tip of Texas the point that juts down into Mexico along the Gulf-lies the King ranch, the largest cattle ranch of its kind in the world. The heirs of Captain Richard King now rule over a domain of 1,250,000 acres-an estate worth $22,000,000. It is so big that there is a full month's difference in seasons between the southernmost boundary and the northernmost tip. It is so large that the cars carry compasses to navigate from pasture to pasture and always go out in pairs lest they have a breakdown fifty miles from nowhere. So vast is the ranch that cars run out of gasoline between settlements and must replenish their tanks enroute from the numerous ranch-owned filling stations located at strategic points on the King domain.</p>