Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1885-02-13
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fhs Kansas Member q he Animal Industry
Commission TALK.

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Mr.. Fullenwider was appointed last
August, and the country west Of the
Mississippi assigned to him. On &C
count Of the previous panic caused by
black-leg and pleuro-pneumonia, as well
as alarm from Texas fever, the position
was one Of high responsibility.
The cattle within his district embrace
about half the number in the United
States, the number being A, 100000.
The expense of producing beef cattle
ready for the market by the ranchmen
and by the farmers, he estimates at two
dollars per hundred for the former and
four dollars for the latter. He makes
an intelligent contrast between the ma
tive" cattle of Texas and other western
portions, and what are generally called
domestic" or graded" stock. He
says: ut is a fact established beyond
successful denial that thoroughbred
Short Horn or Hereford steer will cost
no more to raise than q native, and at
the same age 1t will weigh more and
command more ready sale at better
price" and that the farmers and small
herdsmen are beginning to fully realize
that fact. He seems to have instituted
a large correspondence with the most
celebrated breeders of all classes and all
portions of the country, and his predic-
tIons are in favor of HerefOrds and Short
Horns. "Out of l24 expressions Of opin-
ion, sixty-seven favored Shorthorns
(Durham) and about one half Of that
number favored the Hereford, POlled-
Angus and Galloways next in their or.
der" That was for beef only.
We copy Mr.. Fullenwider's contrast
between the expense Of producing a
three-year-old steer in the different sec
tiOns embraced in his district:
Kansas-Range steer, 50 cents to s.;
beef fat, 81 per hundred weight.
Nebraska-Range steer, 81 to S2.S7;
range steer, beef fat, So; farm steer, beef
fat, 81 per hundred weight.
Minnesota-Farm steer, raising, 81 to
$500; farm steer, beef fat, So per hun
dred weight.
Missouri-Grass fed, 40 cents; corn fed
50 per hundred weight.
Montana-All grass fed, SO cents to
81 per hundred weight.
Dakota-Grass and corn fed, ST. to
$3.50 per hundred weight.
Texas-Grass fed, IS to So cents per
hundred weight.
Idaho-Grass fed, sl.5O per hundred
weight.
lie adds, however, that in those re-
gions where Durhams and Herefords
are used, that more cattle are turned
into market at two years old just in pro-
portion to the number of each produced.
Here he reports at some length on the
condition Of cattle in Kansas, from
which we quote:
Marshall county-Fall condition, good
shelter, hay sheds; death rate, very
light.
Ford county-Fai condition, splen-
did; shelter, none; loss Of flesh all win
ter; death rate, two per cent.
Sheridan county-Fall condition good;
shelter, natural; loss of flesh, ten per
cent; death rate, five to ten per cent.
Wabaunsee county - Fall condition,
good; shelter, timber; loss of flesh con-
siderable; death rate five per cent.
Davis cOunty-Fall condition, very
good; shelter, very little; death rate,
i two per cent.
Edwards cOunty-Fall condition, good;
shelter. straw or corrals; loss Of flesh,
/ ten per cent; death rate, i've Der cent.
Barber county-Fall condition, good;
shelter, none; death rate, three to eight
per cent.
Pawnee cOunty-Fall condition, good;
shelter. very little; loss OF hesh, fifteen
per cent.
Compare Marshall county, Kansas,
where hay sheds are used, with Sheri-
dan county, Kansas, where there is no
shelter except such as Is afforded by ma
ture. Where the hay sheds are used
the loss Is almost nothing; where the
cattle have nothing but natural" shell
ter, the loss in flesh Is ten per cent, and
the death rate is from three to five per
cent. Follow the same comparison
throughout the table, and no argument
will be necessary to induce the farmer
10 shelter his cattle, be the mode ever
so ruce, as has been suggested above.
Nothing is better than good straw
shed.
After a careful investigation, he has
come to the deliberate conclusion, that
the system Of reaching the market in
the near future is by refrigerator cars,
the advantages greatly in favor of that
system being both economy and the fact
that the beef can be shipped at all sea-
sons of the year, while the live stock
gluts the market in August, September
and October.
The Texas fever takes quite chapter
Of the report. We abstract some of the
noted losses: In 1888, 500 head Of Ar
kansas cattle communicated the disease
in Harper and Barber counties and
more than l 900 head died. Up till No
vember S, 1884, one herd at Dodge City
lost $50; in Lyon county, so died out Of
800, and Capt. Adams, Of Shawnee
county, lost 1s0 out Of 200. A case is
cited in Cherry county, Dakota, where
one herd of Texas cattle caused the
death of 1000 in that county alone, while
thousands of others were lost or endan-
gered along the line Of the drive. The
report quotes few cases of smaller i'm
portance in states east Of the Mississip-
pr, and in some of these cases the dis
ease can only be accounted for on the
| theory that IL was communicated by
straw or litter from cars or pens where
Texas cattle had been fed. He recon-
mends that where Texas cattle are
shipped in the months during which the
disease can be communicated; the trans
portation be in separate cars, properly
handled, with separate pens for resting
places, and that railroad companies be
compelled to destroy all litter by burn
ing 1t.