The Democratic advocate. [volume] (Westminster, Md.) 1865-1972, 1886-05-22
Our @lio.
Cattle Raising on the Plains.

engaged in the handling of Texas cattle in
the semi-arid belt of Kansas. had pro-
vided no food for my stock / knew that
cattle could and did winter on the plains
far north and west of where l was; but
did not know that there was difference in
the nutritious qualities of the different
prairie grasses. l did not understand the
peculiarities of the climate of the semi-aTid
belt, nor the effects of rain falling on dead
grass. Stupid of me, of course, but I 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 wrctched novels o nights,
and the pipes were glowing, our talk was
cattle, cattle, cattle. The sales of steers off
the range at six cents per pound, live
weight, made the previous spring, were
strongly dwelt upon. | was repeatedly as
sured that the Kansas winters were so mild
-E-.rouIu uUt uceu a 'cuaU. TII0 ucIguI
the new prairie grass would surely be on
the 1st of March was measured on table
legs by outstretched and dirty index fin
gers for my instruction and encouragement.
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
fortunes were made The country was full
of cattle November came in with biz
zard, and, with slight interruptions, kindly
allowed by Nature for the purpose of af-
fording us opportunities to skin dead cat
tie, the blizzard lasted until March, and the
cold, stormy weather two months longer.
There was no new grass until the middle of
May. In all the Texas herds in Kansas
the losses were heavy. Hardly herd lost
less than so per cent, and go, 20 and 80
per cent. losses were common. By spring
we learned that great herds of heavy beef
cattle, held on the Smoky, Cottonwood, and
Arkansas rivers, had been frozen on the
range and that the Texans had saddled
their horses and gone home. The creeks
were damned with the decaying carcasses
of cattle. The air was heavy with the
stencil of decaying animals. The cruelties
of the business of starving cattle to death
were wildly impressed on me. Every
wagon sent from the cattle ranges to the
railroad towns was loaded with hides. The
next summer, bankruptcy stalked over the
plains and struck men down. Our trouble
was that none of us knew that the tall
blue-ioint grass was worthless for winter
feed unless it were made into hay, none of
us knew that the fall rains had washed the
nutriment out of it, and none Of us knew
that about once in ten years there is hard
winter in the far West, during which the
mercury modestly retires into the bulb of
the thermometer, and blizzard chases biz
zard over the plains in quick succession
Some of us learned the lesson at once !;
others, who claimed that the cattle needed
protection, not food, erected sheds, which
proved to be deathtraps, the cattle "stack-
ing under them during cold weather, and
tried it again, and went into bankruptcy
promptly after the second venture. As it
was in Kansas, so it is, in less degree, in
the so-called seattle country" A wet
autumn, followed by hard winter, kills
the cattle held on Northern ranges by the
thousands.
The cattle-growers who Craze their herds
on the northern ranges have kept the fact
of their being engaged in that business so
constantly before the public that they have
created the impression that the larger por
ton of the cattle in the country Craze on
the arid plains or in the Rocky Mountain
valleys and parks. This is mistake.
Given a country where corn thrives,
there will be found cattle and hogs in large
numbers. All intelligent agriculturists
know that the Mississippi Valley is divided
into great belts of land, each distinguished
by some marked popularity of soil and eli
mate that determines the use to which it
is devoted. The upper Mississippi Valley
is wheat land; the lower upper, corn land;
the upper lower, cotton land; and the lower,
so-called sugar-land. 1t is true that corn
can be raised in the wheat and in the cot
ton belt, and even in the sugar belt; but it
is not corn as the Western corn growers use
the word. The corn belt proper includes
Illinois, Iowa, Missouri, and Eastern Kan
sas and Nebraska. Portions of Ohio, In
diana, Kentucky, and Tennessee properly
belong in this belt. But | use the first
division for convenience of illustration.
Where corn grows to perfection there is
always plenty of feed for cattle. Millet
will grow and yield bountiful crops through
out the region. The same is true of oats;
and wheat, though not a sure crop in the
corn belt, is extensively sown.
In 1870 there were p, sol 1897 domestic
horned cattle in the United States. In
1880 the census shows that there were "a, :
931 $40 cattle in the country-an increase
of II, ,430, 1888 during the decade. Of this
increase 5,O22, ,968 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 those States. In
1880 our production of corn was 1,754,
591, ,676 bushels. The FIVE corn States
produced 1,O71 ,505,344 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 extensive
area composed of Montana, Wyoming,
Colorado, New Mexico, Arizona, Utah,
Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, and Washington,
1,796, ,262 cattle, or 594,714 less than there
were in Illinois, and 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 3, 300, ,098 cattle-613, ,826 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 corn-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 starva-
ton and cold, in the three States as there
will be among the cattle existing through
the winter in single county in the So
called cattle country.
In 1880 there were 1894, ,102 cattle in
Texas. The Texas cattle men so thor
oughly understand their business and the
State is so well dapted to raising cattle,
that nothing need be said of them or their
lands. All Texas cattle-growers realize
L II