The grass-tufted upcountry savannas of southern Guyana yield profits only to the rawest, roughest kind of rancher, but Ben Hart was that sort of man. Immigrating from South Dakota in the early 1900s, he married a half-breed of Amerindian-Scotch parentage and fathered six boys as tough as he. They tended their herds, sleeping in tree platforms at night to fend off attacks by pumas, and they carried water in buckets for the shade trees they planted. Before Hart died in 1961, they put together a spread of 185,000 leased acres, with buildings and ranch houses worth $200,000. Hart and...
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