Joseph Farwell Glidden patents first practical barbed wire on 11/24/1874.

First use of any sort of barbed wire was 1867.
By 1890 fenced pastureland had virtually replaced the open range in the West.
That, in turn, replaced the old West.

          He was only a common puncher, such as the punchers were,
          When life was life on the prairies and people didn't care;
          When there wasn't no derned wire fences from the Strip to the Rio Grande;
          When the cutter answered an insult and a boy could burn a brand;
          Only an old-time cowbow with ways that would shorely jar
          On the nerves that come in with the railroads, the nester, the bum and box-car.
  
                  "Panhandle Cob," Cowboy Songs, Lomax.
  
  ALSO:
          Some day, when the bobwire flings its band
          Like a fisherman's net 'round the last rangeland,
          The last round-up wagon will roll its way
          To the last bedground, at the end of the day.
          Lord, don't let me live to see.
  
                  "The Last Wagon" Words: Bennett Foster, Music: Slim Critchlow.
                  Sung by Critchlow on The Crooked Trail to Holllrook Arhoolie LP & CD.

So sad it's his only record.

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