The Stourbridge Observer, Cradley Heath, Halesowen & District Chronicle.
Stourbridge, West Midlands, England, 1880-09-04 00:00:00

THE REPORT OF MR. READ AND MR.

PELL, M. P.
The Times of Wednesday published portions of the
report of Mr. Read and Mr. Pell, M.P., dealing at
considemable length with the question of cattle grazing
in the Far West. The report states that the ways of
breeding, rearing, and grazing cattle in the older
States " all exist under more or less similar conditions
in the old country." The most usual food is maize or
Indian corn

"Of the enormous crops of maize raised in the middle
States of America, the quantity exported has never ex-
ceeded 7 per cent. The rest must be consumed within the
Union, a large portion of it close to the spot where it grew.
By converting his maize into beef and pork, the American
farmer expects to receive double the value he could com-
mand for his corn. The manure from the stock so fed is
esteemed of no value, and is generally regarded as a nui-
sance. This way of regarding it is altogether different from
that of the English farmer, who, when he uses grain or other
artificial food for his grazing animals, has invariably to look
for a large portion of his return in the improved value
of manure thus produced. No great amount of cattle
are raised in the maize zone of the States. They come
mostly from the West, and are grazed by the farmers
who grow the maize. A class of moneyed men give
the grower so much per bushel for his Indian corn, and
furnish him with stock to eat it, :or they provide the cattle
and pay 6c. per pound for the increased live weight of the
cattle. Others buy the maize from their poorer neighbours,
delivered at their own homesteads, and they feed large
numbers of cattle and pigs. A well-bred three-year-old
steer is supposed to weigh about 1,1001 b., and in six months
will eat a ton of hay and about 90 bushels of maize, or half
a bushel (281 b. per day, and is expected to gain from 2501 b.
to 3501 b. live weight. The greatest rate of increase would,
at 6c. per pound, give the grazier 20 dols. for his 90 bushels
of maize, and the profit on the pigs would certainly pay well
for the hay, the attendance, the interest on the money, and
the risk of losses, the latter apparently being very small."
The Commissioners give a picturesque description of
cattle-grazing in Texas :
"The enormous increase of cattle of late years has been
upon the plains of Texas and the far West. Texas has been
known as a great cattle State for years, but outside this,
what was described in our old school maps as the great
American desert,' is now stocked with tens of thousands of
cattle. A vast number of the best bred young steers are
driven northward every year, probably to be kept as grazing
stores on the ranches of Colorado and Wyoming, and to be
eventually grazed on some of the middle States. Large
droves of heifers are also sent away to found herds upon
the eastern slopes of the Rocky Mountains. Texas seems
essentially a breeding district, and cattle that will not come
to any great size if kept in that State invariably grow
considerably when taken to other localities. The great
heat, the occasional drought and scarcity of water entailing
perhaps a daily ramble of some thirty to forty miles, may
be the reasons why highly .graded cattle do not flourish
so well in Texas. These vast Plains appear to the stranger
in the autumn fearfully scorched and sterile. There is not
a sprig of anything green to be seen for miles. The short,
stunted herbage is quite brown, and looks burnt to a cinder.
But this apparently worthless grass is in reality self-made
hay. It grows rapidly in the spring, and is cured by the
sun before it ripens. Should a drought be followed by
heavy rains in July and the grass shoot up again, this
latter growth is generally killed by the frost before it is
dried by the sun, and is comparatively worthless. There
are severe snowstorms called 'blizzards,' sometimes quite
early in the autumn, which last for a day or two, and then
lovely open weather may prevail until Christmas. Great
falls of snow are rare. When they happen cattle suffer
severely, but more generally the snow quickly drifts into
the hollows, and the stock can get at the grass without
much trouble. Cattle of both sexes and all ages herd
together. The cows drops their calves at any period of the
year, and about 25 cows are allotted to each bull. The
dexterity with which the cow-boys single out a wild calf
and lasso it, riding at full speed on their slim ponies, is
really wonderful. Each stock-owner has his own brand,
which is registered at the State office, and any infringement
upon it is severely punished. The first lot of meaty cattle
are generally sent away early in the summer, the last drafts
ending early in November. Some of these droves have to
walk from 200 to 500 miles to a railway station, and are
then shipped East, being mostly consigned to salesmen at
the first great cattle market, and sold by commission. it is
very interesting to mark how the cattle in these great ranges
are bunched up for the night. Towards sun-down the
distant stock which have been grazing over the plain are
gradually driven by the cow-boys into the centre, and when
they are congregated into a sufficiently small space, the boys
on their ponies continue to ride quickly round and round
the cattle, halloing and cracking their long whips. The
boldest calf does not venture to escape from this magic
circle, but first one and then an4aer of the older cattle lie
down, and in a comparatively short time the whole herd is
on the ground. The boys then camp close by and roll them-
selves up in their blankets for the night, and no movement
takes place in the herd until the morning."
The Commissioners describe Texan fever as a
"mysterious disease," which adult cattle imported
into Texas invariably take and die, though the cattle
of Texas rarely develope it. Happily the Commis-
sioners do not consider there is much probability of the
disease being imported into this country. The report
shows that the profits of the stock-owner are very
great, having aveaaged for years 33 per cent. The
labourer in America is thus described :
"The farm labourer can hardly be said to exist as a dis-
tinct class in the United States, unless it be among the
coloured people jai the middle and southern States. These
appear to be settled, domesticated, and contented to stick
to one industry. In many respects agriculture suits them.
They are fond of animals, and the attachment appears to
be reciprocated. At a large sale of shorthorns in Kansas
City a negro in charge of a bull expressed to us a hope that
he might not be separated from him by the purchaser, and
that to wherever the fortunes of the auction took the bull
he might be allowed to migrate. But with the whites
employed in the cultivation of arable land, the case is
wholly different. In the large farms of the West the bothy
system is carried out, and buildings are put up in which
the summer men mess and sleep. In winter they are off to
the towns and cities, and it is seldom the same faces are
seen two years running on the farm. Mounted overseers
or foremen are also engaged for the season at better pay,
and these men, long-witted and keen-eyed, leave very little
on trust to the ordinary hand. It should be remarked that
though wages may appear high, the hours of labour from
spring to autumn are long, and winter is a period of almost
complete cessation from work for man and beast on the
American farm. The horses and mules then lay on flesh
against the lengthening days when the soil will be released
from the grip of winter, and the men either take to drinking
or school, or, probably, go lumbering.' All seem well
dressed and well fed, and very ready with the implements
under their care or direction. There is no need for the
exercise of muscular strength and endurance, for which
our labourers were once so famous. Machinery does all
the hard work. Ricks are small, the hay lofts are filled to
to their further end by machinery, the ploughs and cultiva-
tors are fitted with seats, and reapers with metal arms cut,
gather, bind, and deliver the wheat, oats, and barley. As
much cannot be said of labour on the smaller. farms ; there
the owner, to all the mental cares of ownership, adds the
physical stress of manaal labour of the severest description.
No other class of men toil so unceasingly, enduring the
life of savages for a while, in order to conquer the back-
wood or civilize the prairie. The man, sedate and serious,
is attempting almost single-handed, to perform the work of
two, if not more, English labourers. It is true he is not
cultivating, but only cropping the soil, and, as far as Ile is
able, leaves to machinery and animal power some of the
drudgery that falls to the lot of the European field hand.
His children are full of health, turbulence, and energy,'
and their school education is carried on beyond the period
whicla closes it with us; but the wife, though ready to meet
the ills of life without fearing and without braving them,
betrays in her appearance the terrible trial through which
the family are passing, and she, at all events, seems con-
scious of the fact that her lot is not lightened by the inde-
pendence which is held to accompany the possession of the
soil by the cultivator.
"A point of interest in the future production of wheat
is the supply of farm labour. We failed to see that scarcity
of farm hands which we anticipated. In the very busy
season of the year good labourers may be scarce, but, as a
general rule, when the men are wanted they are to be found.
The very few labourers that are required upon a great
wheat-growing farm in America during the dead winter
months is surprising. In 'one instance we were told that
only two men wore kept upon 5,000 acres. There was
actually no live stock upon that farm save the horses and
mules, and these fed in the roughest manner. When the longer
days and the harder work of the American labourer, together
with his being employed only when he is wanted, are
taken into account, the annual cost of labour per acre
is much less than the amount paid in England. The supply
of labourers in the future must depend mainly upon the
quantity and quality of the emigrants. There will be sure
to be numbers of intending and expecting farmers, who will
for a time be forced to work for others before they can
farm for themselves. And there will be thousands corn.-
mencing farming on their own account wino will be desirous
then, as now, to earn good wages for themselves and horses
during the busy months of the agricultural year, although
their own land would probably pay much better in the end
If that labour was bestowed upon it. The serious depression
which so long existed among the commercial, mining, and
manufacturing industries of America no doubt tended to
draw the labourer from the town to the field. Previously
the high wages and constant employment of the artisan,
together with the comparative comforts of town life, made
the labourer rather prefer the great cities of the East to the
prairies of the West. A continuance of the recent burst of
prosperity in all branches of trade in the States may again
tempt men from agricultural pursuits back to the towns.
Should the tide of emigration cease to flow from Europe, or
the general movement of the American population towards
the West be checked, agricultural labourers may be scarce,
and the husbandman find himself without hands in his
busiest seasons. But at present a failure of a fair supply
of farm labour does not seem imminent. The prospect, for
some time to come, points rather to higher wages than to a
really short supply of farm hands. In domestic servants,
however, there is not only a scarcity, but in farmhouses a
perfect dearth of female helps. In many towns good house
servants are hardly to be found, and those that are employed
are mostly recent arrivals from Ireland or the Continent.
The highly-finished education which the poorest girls in
America receive seem m s to make the contract dislike to
domestic service: In the South the coloured population are
the chief domestics, but in the far West no indoor servant is
to be had, and all the household labour falls with crushing
severity upon the farmer's wife, or upon his children, as soon
as they are able to do any work."