1917

1917 is a sharply defined moment in the ranch chronology, when Phil Burbank’s reading of national politics proves more accurate than George Burbank’s business decision. The episode turns a looming war into a measure of their contrasting judgment: Phil anticipates opportunity, while George acts against his advice and bears the cost of the missed gain.

The cattle sale and the war forecast

One early morning, as cattle buyers tried to secure the Burbank herd at their own price, Phil advised George to hold off. Phil had been reading widely and closely, and expected the United States to enter the war soon; he believed the resulting conditions would let the brothers make money from their cattle. His forecast links a local business decision to events beyond the ranch, which he follows as a practical matter rather than distant news.

George did not take the advice. He resisted being pushed and sold the cattle. In April 1917, the United States entered World War I, confirming Phil’s prediction, but not restoring the opportunity George had given up. The brothers could have received five thousand dollars more, and Phil took satisfaction in hearing George acknowledge his error. The episode thus gives the forecast a precise consequence: Phil is right about the war and its economic timing, while George’s independence costs the partnership a substantial potential return.

Ranch work in its seasonal rhythm

The account of 1917 sits within a ranch economy organized by distinct responsibilities and a demanding annual cycle. George handles the books, buyers, correspondence, telephone, and Reo; Phil oversees haying, equipment, irrigation, and the start of the harvest, which is scheduled as soon as possible after the Fourth of July. His remit includes eight mowing machines, six buck rakes, six sulky rakes, two derricks, the cookshack, the dining shack, and twelve large canvas tents inspected before use. The contrast makes the brothers’ partnership concrete: George manages transactions and communication, while Phil directs the machinery and labor on which production depends.

Haying brings temporary workers into that system for ninety days. Their work is dangerous: mowing-machine cutter bars can cause severe accidents, and the eight men who drive the machines sharpen the bars after work. Their skill and exposure to risk bring extra pay and a measure of deference, including newer tents, a first choice of meat, and a voice that receives particular attention. These details show the labor and hazards beneath the ranch’s business calculations, even though the evidence does not specify that every described haying practice occurred in 1917 itself.

Hands, skill, and the work of the ranch

The ranch’s work culture also appears in its opposing attitudes toward protective gloves. Cowboys use horsehide gloves for roping, fencing, branding, haying, and riding to guard against ordinary work injuries; Phil refuses them, scorns those who wear them, and treats blisters, cuts, and splinters as things to ignore. His bare-handed toughness is part of the authority he claims, while the other hands’ use of gloves reflects the practical demands of repeated labor.

Ordering those gloves reveals another dimension of the workforce. The men struggle with mail-order forms from Sears, Roebuck and Montgomery Ward, sometimes turning to a coworker with more schooling to complete the writing and numbers. The detail complicates any simple portrait of ranch life as self-sufficient: workers depend on commercial goods and on one another’s literacy, even as their labor is organized around horses, machinery, and seasonal demands.

A year framed by wider pressures

The 1917 forecast gives the ranch a connection to national history through a concrete question of timing and money. Elsewhere, the narrative also sets ranch life against the dispossession and confinement of Indigenous people: the valley’s last residents are driven from their land, and reservation residents face restrictions on leaving without permits. The evidence does not date those events to 1917, so they form a wider historical frame rather than another incident assigned to that year.

Taken together, the dated cattle decision and the recurring routines of ranch work show different scales of time at work: the sudden April turning point of war, the annual schedule of haying, and the continuing structures shaping life in the valley. The year matters not as a complete account of the ranch’s history, but as the moment when Phil’s attention to the larger world briefly gives him the advantage in his partnership with George.