CATTLE INDUSTRY VERSUS FARMING

   Westerns celebrate the cattle industry; only rarely do they celebrate farming. The cowboy is a glamorous character while the farmer is typically a strong laborer (often ethnic) trying to sustain a family on a homestead. Historically, farmers and cowboys in the late 19th century were merely itinerant agrarian laborers. But on-screen, vast stretches of grazing pasture and clumps of herding cows needing little attention from the ranchers appears more appealing than stretches of farms with workers struggling over their plows.