Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1883-01-14
The Ranch system.

Whether the ranch system of cattle
raising in this county is to become u
permanent institution or not Is u qties-
ton of some interest. That il will
flourish Tor long time yet, at least,
and certainly until the lands occupied
are needed for settlement, we regard
rs one of the positive indications of
the times. In letter to the London
LiUe Stock .Iouradt however, Judge
Jones of Delaware, Ohio, an takes al
together different view: "The ranch
system of rearing and grazing cattle
for beef, besides the fact that few
proprietors have realized large profits
from it, has SO little to recommend 1T
that cattle breeders can hardly antici-
pate that it will become II permanent
Industry, so as to justify prudent men
in breeding with reference TO supply
ing a demand from this quarter. The
system will not produce beef of good
quality, and the grass, mostly inferior
in quality, is rapidly diminishing.
The business is only profitable where
there are no settlements. An indus
try in which proprietors, in. estima-
ting profits, make allowance for large
annGal losses by exposure to severe
storms, and by the starvation OF the
dumb brutes under their care, and in
which the employees in charge of the
stock are required TO endure all the
hardships and privations to which the
uncivilZed Indians are exposed, can
hardly be said to merit encouragement
in Christian land.n In taking
one-sided view of this matter, Judge
Jones has omitted to note two or three
important facts-that in most districts
the grass shows no appreciable deter
ioration from year to year as the effect
of constant grazing; that the asperities
/ herding and ranch life are constantly
| being lessened that the risks of loss
are diminished every year; that
| ranchmen are steadily imp owing the
| standard of quality in their herds
| that many of the leading and proverb-
/ ialIy cautious capitalists of both Eu-
rope and America are investing quiet
4 freely In the business in short, that
/ even with margins considerably les
sened within the last two years, il is
| the most profitable branch of the live
! stock business in the known world.
AS to the inferiority of plain grasses,
| In the possession OF flesh-forming ele-
ments, the West is full of men who
will take issue with him on this point.
4 AS TO the improbability that it will
"iustify prudent men in breeding with
reference to supplying demand from
this quarter it Is Sufficient re-
futation to say that the demand for
thoroughbred bulls, and good ones,
too, on the ranges is greater than from
the majority of other sources combin-
\ ed. and is growing every year Now
we are not wonderfully enamored OF
the ranch beeve. We consider that,
without The Introduction of some new
clement into its diet, it will never he
the equal of its rival IN the
states. II will always be in demand
hut il cannot be a iirst-class ar,
ticle, and can never drive the farm-fed
bullock from public favor Ii it not
all cur people, though, who can atiord
to dress in the finest manufactures
fabrics somebody, aud that some
body is the majority of us, VIII bt
clothed in less costly apparel. In the
same way our best states beef viii all
ways iind u market but the cheap
beef Of the ranges has on equally Sc
cure place in the public demand foi
the products Of the block. = PittsbVggi
.N0c1adn.