The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1876-01-01
HERD Law.

EDITOR OF THE REGISTER:-As the
main question at this time in Allen
county is herd law OF no herd law l will
say a few words in addition to what /
have already said In my former arti-
Gle said herd law would discourage
stock raising, consequently We would
raise less horses and cattle and persons
that are now raising colt or two a year
would give up the business and Others
that raise few calves would have to do
likewise; and then our county would
suffer by the non-prodactiOn of beef,
butter, cheese, &c. And now | will give
my reasons for saying the herd law will
discourage stock raising. First, we will
suppose there is a herd law in this coun-
ty, and as it is well known there is a
great majority of the farms and almost
all of the grazing land lying where they
have no stock water, and now suppose
each farmer has his mich cows and such
other stock as he might have, they have
either to herd them or fence a pasture
for them or tie them to a stake. Now
we have them all right until they want
water, ami DOW want to know how we
are going 10 get them to it as nearly all
of the Watering places in this county are
reached by passing through lanes before
reaching the streams. And if farmers
living adjacent to the water courses are
not compelled to fence against stock it
will be almost impossible to get them to
water. And even if there was not any
difficulty about water stock cannot be
her,led with the same success in coun-
ty where there are no fences that they
can where there are fences around every
farm, as it would take twice the amount
of help to do it and they would have to
be her,lel closer, and would not do As
well and consequently would not he
worth as much per head as stock not
hertled at all. / frequently have asked
what would be done with the mich COW
that we are obliged to have home night
and morning, and the advocates of the
herd law say We will put all of them in
a ncighborhood together and get some
person to herd them. Ali | have to say
to that is think it would he an inter
csting job for seeerdt persons to gather
up all the cows i'll neighlnrho0d every
morning and distribute them ut night in
a county where there are no fences.
The railroads charge SD much for freight
in this county that the farmers cannot
make good living at raising grain and
selling it and paying the immense taxes
that we are burlcned with, therefore
our pasture should furnis!, a market for
our corn and oats and get it in more
..,-lnn.nI f,,rp, hx-, .r.,,ln,..n,r etc n q,
feed it to. By so doing it brings more
money in the county and gives the rail
roads less.
And now let Us figure on it: 1t costs
$50 to ship car of corn (350 bushels) to
Kansas City and that amount of corn a:
this time is worth $40 iii Lola; and it
will cost $50 tn ship car of sixteen
steers mot fattemctD to Kansas City that
are worth $3.50 at lola, and the steers
have been made by grazing with but little
cost, and the car of corn that sells for
$40 has cost more than that amount in
labor and expenses of team &c. Now
let us figure little on the advantages of
raising stock as n market for our corn.
TO illustrate it will take the 16 steers
| mentioned above and will f,tten them
by feeding them 10 bushels per head
making 300 bushels for the l6 head.
Now we have Is steers that are worth
5000 leaving balance of $3.50 over the
first cost of them in favor of the 1000
bushels of corn fed to them, making 40
cents per bnShcl and in addition to that
it is worth 81 cents more per bushel if
We haze hogs to follow the cattle. The
person that raised and fed the IG steers
has first produced $3.50 oat of the grass
and that has made market for 1000
bushels of corn that will bring him $3.50
making in all $3.50. His neighbor that
might he labOring under the disadvant-
ages of the herd law wonld get S2iO for
his ! 200 bushels of corn, and this leaves
balance of $40 in favor of the grass
which brings that much more money in
the county to he assessed to help pay
taxes.
Another argument that is used i'm
favor of Il herd law is that we will have
more and better cattle. In answer to
this I will say don't think that such
law would he any inducement to farm
ers to procure better blood, and will
venture the assertion that instead of
having more cattle we will have less
than we now have in proportion to each
Let us reason little on
that point: We will suppose there to
he twelve farmers in the same locality
with equal facilities for farming and
stock raising, and six of them are com.
pelled to he at the expense of herding
their stock and driving them to water
and the other six have the privilege of
letting theirs run at large without cost,
and go to water at will. is it not rcasona-
BILE to suppose that the latter would have
more and better cattle?
The advocates of a herd law tell us of
some new counties that have prospered
where they have a herd law,
md that all may be true. They may be
wheat growing, and have other ad-
that Allen county has not, and
those same counties might be
till more prosperous if they had no
'uch law. Now let us turn our atten- !
ion for few moments toNeosho Co.
which is equally as good for grazing and
arming as Allen, and where does she
tand to-day? She has not as good cat
lie nor as many to the inhabitant as she
lad before passing that law, and taxes on
heir realestate are enormous on account |
e tho decrease of stock u CnOE