New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-10-20

arc to be supplied with beef and mutton.
with hides and wool, and horses. Tn
doubtedly. much of this region VIII eventi-
| aIIy he opened to agriculture, but before
| that time comes the problem OF irrigation
| must be solved by sinking numerous arte-
| sian wells. bringing hidden streams 10 the
| surface. and turning the waters If the rivers
! from their natural channels to percolate i'll
canals and rivulc.s over the arid soil OF the
plains. -
That time, however, Is far distant. even il
il ever comes for many hundreds OF miles
Of high and rolling prairie which makes the
divides between tho rivers. 1 he problem,
indeed, is solved already for those sections
of country bordering the rivers, where
irrigation has revealed the fact that the
soil only needs sutiiciency of water to
render it the most fertile and the most
certainly productive of crops of any land
upon the continent. But. when all this land
shall be redeemed, and as agricultural
population shall have covered all the region
so easily redered fertile by irrigation. there
will still remain an immense stretch OF
country. hundreds of miles in extent, hlgh,
dry salubrious, and rich in its own peculiar
way, on which the agligulturailst Will not
cncroach, but where the herdsman WILL
gather tens of thousands of cattle aud of
sheep, for whose sustenance nature has
made the ampiest provision, and winch
NAV be multiplied in numbers Sufficient
almost to feed the wuCld.
1t only needs that man shall provide for
water by wells and reservoirs. or keeping
near enough to the Ewing streams, and ma,
ture has done the rest. ''Ail flesh Is grass
in another sense than the Scriptural, and
the plains are supplied with a natural herb
age for stock, which needs no other moist
ure during the long dry season than that
which fell from the clouds in the early
spring and started it IN its growth. 1t ma
lures its short blade and seeds and is cured
into hay upon tho ground III the steady
summer heat, and so preserves Its sweet
ness aud nutrition all winter long that ami
mails feeding upon it are fatterin the spring
than in the fall Domestic cattle Will leave
any other food for this, and, in the long
range from North to South, herds may be
driven the year round from ranch to ranch,
and never fail of finding an ineXhaustible
supply. But, by careful selection of locali-
ties, even this may be avoided, and the
range confined within II few miles.
On these fields millions of buffalo and
antelope have rOamed and fattened from
time immemorial. and that alone is evil
dence enough of the peculiar fitness OF tins
region for tho raising of domestic animals.
even had the experiment not been success
fully tested by putting upon them herds OF
Texas cattle, which thrive and fatten and
improve there better than on the different
grass of the more Southern plains.
To sum up, then-this wide extent OF
country, which, till recently. has been held
to be desert utterly unfit for any human
use is, in reality. i'll its high and rolling sur
face, the saluhrity Of its climate, the food
with which it Is covered all the year round,
and in the very difficulty of devOting it, for
want of rain, to agriculture. peculiarly
adapted to the raising of domestic animals,
and to become the great source of supply of
animal food for the people of the whole
country. To stock it We have the cattle of
Texas and New Mexico, which only need to
be crossed with our own breeds to secure
the best qualities of both.
Through the centre Of this region. hith-
erto supposed desert. runs for four hun
bred and fifty miles the Kansas Pacific Rail
way, and it is the opening of that road that
will render the raising of cattle in Western
Kansas and Colorado 80 profitable and so
important to Eastern markets. The bust
ness of that road on its eastern sections
shows how immense the trade in cattle is,
and how dependent the whole country is
upon this supply from the West and South
west. From May | to October l of the
present year. the number of head of cattle
brought eastward oycF the Kansas Pacific
Road was IS, GGS. and in September alone
the uunl, was 1883.
The increase is very rapid. being about
$4,000 head more than the figures show for
the corresponding months last year. and the
demand seems limited only by the capacity
of a new road. AS that capacity increases.
the demand increases, as shown in the Sep
tember figures; and as the country will want
all the cattle that can be raissd upon the
plains-raised at little cost and at enormous
protit-so the road which runs through
these plains will he able to bring them to
market. Upon the probable growth of tins
new branch of commerce it would be use
less to speculate. for, based upon an actual
necessary Of life for the production of
which a new region is discovered with ia
cilitics hithreto unknown. all speculation
upon its importance and its growth would
probably be at fault.
A German forest-keeper, eighty-two years
old, not wishing to carry to the grave
an important secret. has published in the
Leipsic Journal recipe he has used for
fifty years, and which he says has saved
several men and a great number OF animals
from horrible death by hydrOphobia. The
bite must be bathed rs soon as possible with
warm vinegar and water, and when this has
dried, few drops OF muriatic acid poured
upon the wound will destroy the poison of
the saliva and relieve the patient from all
present or future danger.