The weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1878-1881, 1880-04-20
Report OF Committee or the Stock
Growers Ass0ciati0n.
To the Stock Growers of Montana Territory

draft an address to the stock-growers of Mon
tana, setting forth the reasons why It would
be to their interest to form auxiliary ~associa-
tions in each and every stock district in the
territory, would respectfully set forth the
following:
The time has passed when the individual
stock-grower can successfully and economi-
cally manage his stock interests without the
cooperation and assistance of stock-growers
generally throughout the Territory. The
rapid increase Of stock, and the wide extent
Of ranges o occupied, render absolutely
necessary a thorough organization of the
stock growing interests, thereby enabling them
to protect themselves against the serious losses
entailed upon them from the following causes:
lst-Ihe frequent occurrence of fires which
annually destroy the grass over large portions
of many of the choicest winter ranges, and
which could, IN nearly every instance, have
been ~extingulshed before much damage was
done had there been an organization and
proper cooperation among the stock-growers
of the several districts in which the fires have
occurred. End in this connection, your COM
nittee wonld respectfully call attention to the
necessity of each stock grower in every district
having at least one or more representatives Of
his interests resident therein from the list OF
July, for the reason that during his period
fires are more likely to occur; and upon the
uPpSoi diS VI liz III Ill uISGTlCU UllC SCOCk-
men can all mount their horses and speedily
reach, and usually e%xtinguish, the fire before
it spreads far.
nder our present laws, stock can he
driven or taken off the public range and
advertised as estrays, thus compelling the
owner to pay an arbitrary and often exor-
bitant bill of charges or lose his stock. BY
organizing and cooperating stock-growers can
secure the repeal of injurious laws and the
enactment of others calculated to foster and
encourage the stock interests without detri-
ment or injury to any one. At the semi
annuslr ound-ups in some of the districts it
has been the custom to sell branded cattle as
estrays which is certainly a most high handed
and illegal proceeding. And it is certain that
had there been a proper organization among
stock-grOwers, these SO called estrays could
and would have been returned to their
owners, who, through no fault of their own,
have been thus, unjustly deprived of their
property, thereby. While there is a law on
the statue books requiring a vent brand when
stock are sold, yet in a great majority OF
instances, the requirement of law has not
been complied with, which positively does
away with all the utility of having a system
of recorded brands. There have been no
prosecutions instituted against these violations
of the law, for the reason that individuals
always dislike to complain against their neigh
bors and a great many stock-growers regard
it as a somewhat trivial matter, which is far
from being the case. 1t is, therefore, neces-
sary for all the stock districts to organize
auxiliary associations for the purpose of hay
ing them cooperate with the territorial asso-
Citations in having all stock laws, and those
more especially having reference to record
brands and vent brands, properly enforced.
Under the system which prevails, to a great
extent, Of selling cattle without venting the
brand, it is utterly impossible to protect
the rights of either buyers or sellers, be-
cause if the buyer should lose some of these
cattle in driving and they should return to
the other hand, if the driver while driving,
shall pick up other cattle on the range it
would be very difficult to ascertain whether
these cattle belong to him or not, and it
places the seller in the position that if the
party to whom he sold takes more cattle than
he is entitled to from the range, he cannot
readily detect him in so doing ; and if any
of his cattle should be stolen by parties to
whom he has not sold, il would not excite re-
marks from any one who should see these
cattle being driven away because the cattle
would carry no evidence in the shape of q
vent brand as to whether they had been sold
or not.
Our object in urging organization in all the
stock districts is to thereby establish a system
that will allow each individual stock owner
to retain all the legitimate rights and privi-
leges he now enjoys, and to add such others
as experience may prove to be proper and
beneticial-a system that will not only compel
but encourage and even pay stock growers to
look after the interests of others as we'll as
their own a system that will protect our
stock OH any part of the public domain the
same as on our home range g.; that will prevent
any animals being taken of the public range
and treated as estrays because they happen to
have been driven Or estrayed from their home
range that will protect our marks and brands
all over the territory, and this, too, without
regard 10 the amount of stock owned, making
it beneficial to the small as we'll as the larger
owner, and i~nsuring that each owner, whether
large or small, shall pay his proper proportion
of the necessary expenses of the organization
and no more. The expenses necessary to
sustain a perfect organization, in our opinion,
can not exceed one dollar annually upon each
thousand dollars invested in horses or cattle,
a sum which is certainly a mere trite COM
pared to the benefit resulting from this system,
which will return it ten fold to each and
every stock grower. 1t will enable US to
know the marks and brands and vent brands,
post-office address and location of range of
every stock grower in the territory, and will
resolve them into q detective force, and pay
them to look after the interests of one anoLh-
or, which interests should be, and really are,
identical. To do this, We must organize in
every district and county in the territory,
meet together and discuss our wants and
needs, thereby finding out what they are, put
them in the shape of laws, and at the proper
time impress upon our legislature the import
ance of enacting them. After the adjourn
ment Of the next legislature it will be advisa-
BILE for the association to employ a competent
person to compile all laws concerning stock
interests which may then be in force, and
have the same published in cheap pamphlet
form for distribution, free of charge, to all
members Of the various stock growers associ-
atoms, and to be furnished to any one else