The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1876-08-31
on THE PLAINS.
Stock Taking the Place OF the Bufialo---
Western Cattle Kings.

stock Taking the Place OF the Buhalo.-'
Western Cattle Kinss.
AS the train glides on over the plains,
writes Western correspondent of the
World, we see the ruins of the little
dugouts-half house, half fort-which
used to be inhabited by the squads of
soldiers who guarded the railway line.
Small herds of antelopes stand and gaze
within rifle shot, or speed nimbly away.
The prairie dogs bark and skeet into
their holes like mad, to the delight of
the children at the windows. Not buf-
falo is to be seen. The cruel fun of
shooting at and sometimes manning
them from the car windows can no more
be enjoyed. They have been scared
and murdered away. Besides the
reckless slaughter by tourists and pleas
ure hunter thousands of them have
been killed during the past two or three
winters for commercial purposes. The
hides were stripped off and sold, some
times for $1.50 each. The bones were
gathered in heaps near the railway sta
tions and freighted eastward, to be used
as fertilizers. 1t is estimated that in one
winter on the lines of the Union and
Kansas Pacific railroads over one hun
dred thousand head were killed.
The retreat of the buffaloes is COM
pensated by the advance of the stock
rnisers. AS we approach the Rocky
mountains the outposts of hundred
| herds of tame cattle are visible On either
sido. The rich nutritious grasses with
which the plains are covered are here
found in all their excellence, and the
territory east of the Black Hills, north
to the North Platte river and south to
the gulf Of Mexico, now sustains mil
lions of cattle and sheep. All around
Cheyenne and Denver are the ranches of
stockmen-men engaged in growing cat
tie, sheep, horses and mules for market.
No hay is cut for any of these animals
except sheep and the cattle kept for
winter use. Winter and summer they
live on the native grasses, although it is
sometimes hard for them to subsist
through the winter storms We're it
not for the fierce winds that then de-
nude the submits of the ridges while
lillirg the hollows between them with
snow, the wretched creatures would
perish from starvation. As it is, thou
sands Of them do annually starve and
freeze at the climaxes of tempests so
bitter that they have compelled even
the buf1aloes to approach blockaded To-
comotives at night and lean up against
them for warmth and shelter.
The experience of Mr.. Iliff, the
:" Cattle King of the Plains," whose
great ranch in northern Colorado in
ciudes hundreds of square miles of bot
tom and upland ranges, is typical of the
whole. During the severe winter of
lS7l-72 there were deep SHOWS that re-
manned long time, and the storms were
incessant. In the midst of them Mr..
lift visited his ranch and found his cat
tie dying and scattered by thousands.
In spite of all lie could do, less than
half of them were recovered, and those
lad strayed at springtime into two diff
ferent States and four different Terri
tories. More than $40, 900 were expend-
ei in efforts to find them. At last, in
the spring of 1875, 5000 undiscovered
head were charged to profit and loss.
Gould these have been sold the previous
fall they would have brought at least
SlS Lead-a total of 100000.
Yet the cattle king, and many cattle
princes, besides him, make money from
cattle raising on the plains, for they
learn by experience, and the demand is
great enough to warrant all their risks.
Mr. llitf has now more than twenty-six
thousand head of cattle, of all ages,
flzes and conditions. Nearly five thou-
sand calves were branded on his ranch
last year, and he sold about the same
number of four-year-old steers and fat
COWS. AT the average selling price of
S32 head, net, 1000 head brought him
1928, 600. He employs from twelve to
thirty-iive men to take care of his i'm
mense herds in summer. By the intro
duction OF thoroughbred Durham bulls
tho herds are rapidly graded up, and he
estimates the Increase, outside Of pur-
chases and sales, to be about seventy per
cent. per year. Besides the cattle raised
on his ranch he deals largely in Texas
and Indian cattle, and last season adver-
tised for 20, 600 head of Texas cattle to
be delivered during the driving months
of 1876. If he does not obtain this
number from Texas he expects to sup
ply the deficiency with Oregon and
Montana cattle, which are beginning to
come East.
The Laramie plains, higher up, among
bie uolutalHs, are paradise Tor stock,
especially sheep, and away over the
mountains toward the Pacific there are
stock ranches that throw even lifts in
the shade. In the Humboldt valley,
some five hundred and fifty miles east
from San Francisco, one cattle firm have
20, 600 acres fenced in. 1t is seven miles
across from their eastern to their west
ern fences. The fences, made of red
wood posts and Oregon boards, cost
about 5000 mile, and there are twenty
miles of them. The firm own 10000
head OF cattle, which are mostly shipped
to San Francisco. The stock is all of
good quality, and some of the best
blooded animals in the country are an
nually purchased to improve the grades.
The snow here seldom falls deep, does
not stay long, and the grass makes its
appearance early i'll the spring.
Grass, though, does not seem essential
to the we'll being of some of the fattest
cattle on the continent. Further down
the Humboldt valley, where nothing
else but sage brush, greasewood and
alkali dust is to be seen, the Central Pa
cific trains have to slacken speed to
avoid manning heavy herds, for which
the green greasewood bush is alleged to
furnish abundant provender.