In 1888, Carson County was organized, and Panhandle became the county seat. J. C. Paul, an early settler of Carson County, described the Plains accordingly: "It was a beautiful smooth prairie as far as the eye could see, not a tree, not even a shrub knee high, to hide a jackrabbit, for miles in every direction. No fences, no roads, no houses, only a handful of people around Panhandle, the only settlement then in all that Plains country." The cattlemen were reconciled to the arrival of farmers because they produced needed forage crops, such as hay, and introduced more families with eligible young women for the cowboy bachelors of the cattle kingdom.