News and citizen. [volume] (Morrisville, Vt. ;) 1881-current, 1884-04-17
A NATIONAL DISASTER.
THE FOOT AND MOUTH DISEASE In
KANSAS.

| fUOI AND NhOtfb D7A@ShhSAS AA'
KANSAS.
An Interesting Sketch of the Cattle Busi-
of the West7How the Cattle
are Kept.
To appreciate the imminence of the
danger that threatens the cattle-g growing
industry of the West, the differences In
the systems of handling cattle in Kansas,
and their movements must be understood.
These systems are the natural outgrowth
| of the clim ate of that State. Imagine
| the Tooth meridian to be sinuous line,
winding southwark in great bends across
the State, at one point approaching the
99th meridian, at another pushing west
| close to the 101st. That imaginary line
would divide the State into two zones.
To the east lies the agricultural land;
westward the great plains stretch to the
foot hills of the Rocky Mountains. On
these plains no agriculture, unless the
lands are irrigated, is successful. They
lie within the arid zone. The wheat
lands of Kansas begin at the eastern
edge of the great plains, and extend
eastward to about st. Mary's on the Kan
sas Pacific Railroad. From there to the.
Missouri river lie the corn lands of the
State. The bottom lands of the wheat
belt are productive corn lands, but the
uplands are strictly smaIl-grain lands.
Throughout the corn lands, cattle that
are generally driven from the Western
cattle ranges are fattened for the Eastern
markets during the winter. During the
summer such cattle as are held in the
corn belt are close herded or are in
closed in pastures. In the wheat-grow-
ing districts the cattle are herded in the
summer. During the winter they run
to straw stacks, feed on the dry grass
standing on the unbroken prairie, or
Craze on the wheat fields when the
ground is dry. West of the Tooth meri-
dian the cattle roam at will. Kansas is
on the border of the great plains,
known among the cattle growers as
"The Range"
The movement of young cattle IN the
States bordering on the Range is toward
the west. The native cattle move to the
east. In eastern Kansas, where culti-
waited grasses are grown and enormous
crops of corn secured, the business of
breeding high grade and thoroughbred
calves has been added to that of fatten-
ing the cattle coming from the Range
for market. There are many breeding
herds in that portion of the State
Young bulls, singly, in pairs, and in car
loads, are constantly being shipped to
the cattle range of the plains to replace
the losses incurred during Arctic-like
winters. Many men are busy during
the early fall and winter, in the eastern
portion of the State, gathering young
females into herds preparatory to driv-
ing them to the straw stacks of central
Kansas, or to the great plains. There
is ceaseless movement of cattle to and
fro in Kansas-fat cattle going east,
young cattle going west In New Mexi-
co, Arizona, Colorado, Wyoming, in fact,
everywhere on the Range, young cattle
from Kansas are to be found. When
spring opens in the southern portion of
the cattle range, the shipment of young
bulls begins. Then the drive of the
young females, that have been gathered
into herds, sets in.
The breaking out of the foot and
mouth disease, which is highly conta-
gious and generally fatal disorder, in a
State from which cattle are distributed
broadcast throughout the cattle region,
is a disaster that may become national.
If the disease makes its appearance in
any herd on the Range the industry of
cattle growing will be we'll nigh ruined.
There the cattle wander at will. A dis
eased animal might not be discovered for
weeks. 1t would walk for miles, poison
ing the earth at every step. Tt would
infect thousands of cattle, and they,
roaming at pleasure from valley
to valley, from plain to plain, would
communicate the disease to other thou
sands. These half wild, diseased, fever
ish cattle could not be prevented from
wandering. The disease, if controlled
at all, has got to be stamped out in Kan
sas. Once it spreads westward beyond
the land of inclosed pastures and close
herding. it will be beyond the control of
human agency.
The alarm felt by the stock growers
who hold their cattle in the great plains
is plainly indicated by the meeting of
the Wyoming Stock Growers Associa-
tion who will take Immediate steps to
quarantine their range. Many of their
herds are over 1000 miles from the cen
ter of the disease in Kansas, but they
are Justifiably alarmed. They realize
that enormous losses would speedily fol-
low the walking of single diseased ami.
NAL over their range.
The great danger of the spread of the
disease lies in the fact that men owning
cattle that are dangerously near the in
fected herds, and that may be diseased
but have not reached the febrile stage of
the disorder, will endeavor to protect
their property by driving them west
ward or by shipping them to Eastern
markets. The Kansas Legislature
should take prompt and heroic action at
once. There is no known cure for the
disease. All infected animals should be
killed and burned. The ground they
have been feeding on should be burned
over, and plowed. If Kansas is unable
to cope with the disease through lack
of money the national aid should be ex-
tended. If this disease is not speedily
stamped out in Kansas it will probably
spread to the great plains, and will also
be carried to the stock yards at Kansas
City, and from there distributed through
out the eastern Mississippi States. This
disease may easily become a national
disaster, and money should not be
spared in the efforts now to be made to
coutrol it. FRANK WILKEsoN.
NOT ANY FOR KATE.-SOme malicious