Morning journal and courier., 1881-03-23
Nebraska Cattle.
The Great Number Left to Shift for Themselves Through the Severe Win ter.

The Great Number Left to Shift for Themselves Through the Severe Win ter.
 | From the Grand Island Independently It is probable that very few people out | side of the cattle country have any idea of | the amount of stock that is raised in the State of Nebraska. We occasionally hear of herds | containing 5000 or 5O,OOO head of cattle, I but if asked for the aggregate number in l the State the replies would be very far from | correct.
 careful estimate shows that at the begin | ming of the winter there were upon the Ne I braska ranches more than half million head l of cattle. These would average $15 apiece,
 making total of about $7, 800, 900 invested | in stock in the cattle-raising portion of the | State. The usual and expected loss from the effects of cold weather and snow is five per l cent Often 1t does not reach that figure. l This winter the continued cold and depth of the snow have increased the fatality to such
 an extent that there is no probability of say ing one- half, and in many instances the loss | has already exceeded that amount, and bids fair to take off 75 per cent. of the stock upon
 many of the largest ranches.
 The causes of this wholesale slaughter are very apparent. No hay is put up for these cattle but they are expected to gain their subsistence through the winter upon the short buffalo grass which cures itself upon the ground where it grows. and Of which there is an abundance when it is not covered by the snow. The snows of that section are generally light, and there are usually ravines and hillsides where grass can be found suf- ficient for the few days when the stock is driven from the prairie by the storms. This year the snow has lain deep upon the ground for several months, and as a consequence the supply of food obtained by the stock has been
 barely sufficient to have sustained life In
 warm weather But added to the weakness Co1 hxy cto thara
 such very cold weather that the enfee- bled animals have frozen to death, or, lying
 down, have been too much benumbed to rise
 again, and have consequently per1shed. From
 these causes many stockmen have already
 lost. half their herds. and the end has not
 come vet. The fact is that the fatal time for
 cattle has not yet arrived. The heavy losses
 usually come about the last of March, just
 before the new grass starts, and the losses
 between the middle of March and the middle
 of April are expected to exceed those of the
 entire winter preceding. Should such prove to be the experience this year there will be no cattle left upon the western ranches.
 Upon pony ranches the state of affairs is not so bad These animals will paw the snow away and eat the grass they uncover, but cat tie will merely drift along with the storm un- til they drop dead with exhaustion.
 One ranchman says that $75,0OO would not compensate him for his loss up to this time. Another offers $lOO. 900 to insure him against further loss. The Olive ranch, with
 16, ,O00 head, has already lost 1000. These are only instances taken at random, and are not exceptions Reliable reports from all sections of the grazing region show that the same or even a worse state of affairs exists.
 A few of the smaller stockmen put up hay for their cattle, hardly sufficient for their own use, but probably enough to carry them through if they had been left alone. The large herds from the ranches drifting before tho storm, made short work of these scatter ed stacks of hay, and the whole country is left in the same condition of starvation and death. The loss among the smaller herds will be nearly, if not quite as large in propor- ton as that of the larger ones, and the aggre- gate loss of the cattle raisers of Nebraska can hardly fall short of 1000, ,000.
 There seems to be but one safeguard against such an experience as this, and that is for each ranchman to put up hay enough to carry his own stock through the winter. The cost, although quite an item, would be nothing compared to the losses of winter even half so severe as this.