Morning journal and courier., 1882-07-17
Monday Morning, July IF, 1882.
CATTLE RAISING.

The high price of beef this year will doubtless attract the attention of many to the business of cattle raising, which has hitherto been profitable and bids fair to be yet more profitable in the future. The
 growth of this country and the foreign de-
 mand for our beef will, it seems certain,
 make good market for all that can be pro.
 duced
 Mir. James s. Brisbin of Fort Keogh, Mon tana, has something interesting to say con corning cattle raising. He says that four year old steer can be raised on the plains for $7, and that the meat of the animal ought not to command in any part of the United I States over ten cents per pound dressed. | That cattle raiser should make twenty, | thirty, forty and even fifty per cent per ! annum profit on the money he has invested ! in cattle MT. Brisbin thinks is outrageous, but he predicts that still more will be made
 if more people do not go into stock raising | as business, and he thinks that beef will be 1 high for ten years yet, because eastern capi- \ tai is so conservative that it will be slow to go west and engage in stock raising. 'sMany l cattle companies have been formed of late years," continues Mir. Brisbin, land, sc far as
 I know, all doing we'll. We have several l here in Montana. and they are able to declare an annual dividend of 25 per cent, besides reserving handsome surplus for in- creasing the herds. It is a remarkable fact
 that there is more English capital at present invested in cattle growing in the United States than American money. This year the ,Is sal. f enterprise, and are selling American beef at six cents per pound, live weight, which cost them less than two cents to raise. There is really no immediate occasion for alarm about
 cattle famine, as cattle are not yet so scarce as to create any great stress in the meat mar
 ket. But the spectators have got hold of the fact that there are too few cattle in Amer ica for the population, and they are using it to fill their pockets. We must have more cattle, more cattle raisers and more capital with which to raise cattle. For the next ten years believe cattle raising will be one of the most lucrative callings in the United States, and those who have the good fortune to be able to engage in it will rapidly grow rich"
 The best way to raise cattle Mir. Brisbin points out, is to associate capital and raise ! them in large numbers. It costs no more to ! take care of three thousand steers than ot one thousand and the profits are more than ! three times as large. tEvery year," he says, ''the stock men start the story East for the I benefit of the 'tenderfeet' that the stock l business is overdone and the good ranges l all taken. This is done to prevent new
 men from going into the business
 The stock men know they have good | thing and wish to keep it as long at possible. If I had two or three thousanG ! head of cattle I doubt if I would write thit
 letter, but unfortunately, not having any herd of my own, I am only interested in get
 ting beef cheaply as possible from thos' who have herds. I hope soon to see more people and more capital engaged in cattl
 raising and beef brought to some reasonable
 price by reason of it's abundance and hav
 no hesitation in saying that associated capita
 engaged in beef raising out West will pay 8,
 annual dividend of twenty-four per cent. i
 it is at all properly managed.
 ! Twenty-four per cent is big dividend
 but Mir. Brisbin's reasoning appears to b ! sound. 1t will be at least ten years befor
 well managed cattle raising in this countr 1 will cease to pay handsome profit.