Las Vegas daily gazette., 1886-03-19
Ca,tIe Raising ON the plains.

cattle In the seml-arld belt of Kansas.
| had provided no food for my stock.
knew that cattle could and did
winter on the plains far north and
west of where was; but / did not
know that there was a difference in
the nutritious qualities of the differ
ent prairie grasses. l did not under
stand the peculiarities of the climate
of the semi.arid belt, nor the effects
of rain falling on dead grass. Stupid
of me. OF course, but had plenty of
company. My neighbors were bright
Germans. intelligent Englishmen.
and keen Americans from almost
every state in the union. We
were hopeful band, young, strong,
and eager. When we gathered into
our wretched novels O. nights, and
the pipes were glowing, our talk was
of cattle, cattle, cattle. The sales of
steers of the range at six cents per
pound, live weight. made the previous
spring, were strongly dwelt upon.
was repeatedly told that Kansas win
ters were so mild that l would not
need coat. The height the new
prairie grass would surely be on the
first of March was measured on table
legs by outstretched and dirty index
fingers for my instruc ion and en-
couragement. There was not one of
all the band of eager men who rode
the Kansas plains in those days who
did not firmly believe that our for
tunes were made. The cIuutry was
full If cattle. November came in
with blizzard, and, with slight in
terruptions, kindly allowed by Ma
tuIe for the purpose Of affording us
opportunities to skin dead cattle,
the blizzard lasted until March,
and the cold, stormy weather
for two months longer. There
was no new grass until the middle of
May. In all the Texas herds held IN
Kansas the losses were heavy. Hardly
a herd lost less than so per cent, and
60, 70 and 80 per cent losses were
common. By spring we learned hat
great herds of heavy beef cattle, held
on the Smoky, Cottonwood, and Ar
kansas rivers. had been frozen on the
range, and that the Texans mad sad.
died their horses and gone home.
The creeks were damned with the
decaying carcasses of cattle. The air
was heavy with the stencil of decay
ing animals. The cruelties of the
business of starving cattle to death
were vlvidly impresst d on me. Ev-
cry wagon sent from the cattle ranges
to the railroad towns was loaded with
hides. The next summer, bankruptcy
stalked over the Kansas plains and
struck me down. Our trouble was
that none of us knew that the tall
blue-joint grass was worthless for win.
ter feed unless it were made into hay,
none of us knew that the tall rains
had washed the nutriment out of il.
and none of us knew that about once
in ten years there is hard winter in
the far west, during which the mer.
curry modestly retlres into the bulb of
the thermometer, and blizzard chases
blizzard over the plains in quick sue
cession. Some of us learned the les.
son at once; others, who claimed that
the cattle needed protection, not
food, erected sheds, which proved to
be death-traps, the cattle stacking"
under them during cold weather, and
tried it again, and went into bank
ruptcy promptly after the second VEN
ture. AS it was in Kansas, so it is,
in less degree, in the so-calied "cat-
tie county," A wet autumn, fol-
lowed by a hard winter, kills the cat
tie held ON northern ranges by the
thousand.
The cattle growers who Craze their
herds on the northern ranges have |
kept the fact to their being engaged |
In that business SO constantly before |
the public that they have created the
impression that the larger portion of
the cattle in the country Craze on the
arid plains or in the Rocky Mountain
valleys and parks. This is a mistake.
In 1870 there were % SOL 1897 domes-
tic horned cattle in the United States.
In 1880 the census shows that there
were "a. .931 $40 cattle in the county
AN increase of IL. .490, 1888 during the
decade. OF this increase 5.022, 1868
were in the five corn states of Illinois,
Iowa, Missouri, Kansas. and Nebraska.
When the last census was taken,
more than one-fourth of the cattle in
the country were in these states. In
1890 our production of corn was
1854, ,591 ,676 bushels. The five corn
states produced 1,071 sos ,344 bushels
more than half the crop. 1t is
plainly seen that where the land
yields large crops OF corn, there the
cattle naturally gravitate.
In 1880 there were, in all that ex-
tensive area composed of Montana,
Wyoming, Colorado, New Mexico,
Arizona, Utah, Idaho, Nevada. Oregon
and Washington, 1885, 1862 cattle, or
594, ia less than there were in Him
ois, aud but 351, ,974 more than there
were in the young state of Kansas.
New York, which is never spoken of
as a cattle-growing state. contained
in 1880 SOC, ,0S8 cattle-616, 1876 more
than then grazed on the whole of the
arid belt, the much vaunted grazing
grounds of the West. In my opinion
the census of 1890 will show that
there will be more cattle in the three
coru-growing states of Illinois, Iowa
and Missouri than in the entire plain
region, excepting Texas, of course.
And there will not be as much acute
suffering, nor as many miserable
deaths from starvation and cold, in
the three states as there will be
among the cattle existing through
the winter in q single county in the
so.called cattle country.
In 1880 there were 1894, 102 in Tex
as. The Texas cattlemen so thor
oughly understand their business,
and the state is so well adapted to
raising cattle, that nothing need be
aaid of than or THAR La r,dn Ii t.