St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1886-03-11
CATTLE ON THE PLAINS IN WIN.
TER.

which appear reliable there has been
, more than the usual suffering and loss
i, of cattle on the plains this winter
Whatever profit the business paws, it
ought to pay larger profit if the cat
tie were sheltered and fed through the
storms and the severest part of the
winter, but whether the profit would
be more or less the exposure of cattle
: to such suffering ought not to be. The
cold on the Western plains is greater
and the winter storms more severe
than in New England. Excepting that
we generally have a greater depth of
snow, and the grass is fed or cut for
hay in the simmer, cattle would suffer
less here, if turned out to shift for
themselves during the winter, than
they do on the great plains of the
| West. A Colorado writer describes in
the New York Tribune the actual con-
dition of the cattle on the great ranch
es in winter, with evident truthfulness.
He says:
"'Our Western Cattle Kings looks
very well in print, and raising cattle
on the vast plains, where one has but
to brand his calves and round up the
fat cattle for the market in the fall
seems a very fine and worthy business
from a distance. But closer in
spectiOn changes ones opinion, and
half years residence in this country
is calculated to convince him that
less 'kingly' business it would be diff
cult to find anywhere. To come to the
facts
Late last summer a large number of
Texas cattle, most of them yearlngs
| and twO-year- Odds, were turned loose
upon the range. They had been held
in quarantine at the state line and
were very poor; consequently, when
the cold weather came Oh they were
still thin in flesh, unacclimated, and
utterly unable to live through a.
northern winter on the range. With
in ten days Immediately preceding this
writing-January lit is safe to say
that not less than % per cent. of these
'dOgers,' as they are called, have starv-
ed and frozen to death. Nor are the
'dogers' alone dying. During the Sc
we're storm of the 9TH three ShOrthOrn
cows died near the stacks of a field1
into which the cattle had broken as
they drifted before the storm. After |
the storm there were found in two |
fields, which together inclOse about |
one square mile, forty three dead cat
tie. In another smaller pasture were |
twenty five. This is partial record |
of one storm, the first of the season. Is
it strange that somewhat notorious
sharper of Denver said Il may be |
thief and Il rascal, but I've never been
mean enough to go into the cattle |
business and starve to death dumb |
brutes that are incapable of helping
themselves!
We call this civilized country. Is
that country civilized wherein men are
allowed to turn dumb animals loose
upon a range, knowing that not less
than twO,I frOm that to ten, twenty, fifty
out of every hundred, must starve or
freeze to death My Eastern friend,
suppose a farmer near you turned out
into an open field hundred cattle.
Suppose that he threw into that field
at the beginning of winter just what
hay would keep them alive until spring
if they shared equally. Then suppose
he left them thereto get water, if
they could, or eat snow; the strong
ones to menOpOlize the feed and the
weaker to starve; and each morning,
as you went to your work, suppose
you had to pass this mans field; to
hear the lowing of his starving cattle,
to see their thin, shivering forms hud-
died together under some bank, trying
to escape the biting blast, some with
their hind feet frozen to the hook and
beginning to rot off, down by the wa
ter-hOle few that had slipped on the
ice and were too weak to get up, al
ready stiff in death or slowly freezing.
My brothers, East and West, is it
right for any man to own cattle that
he cannot keep from starving and
freezing? | call upon the lawmakers
of the nation to make laws which shall
stop this heartless slaughter. | call
upon the societies for the prevention
of cruelty to animals, and upon all hui
man men and women, to speak out in
denunciatiOn of this most barbarOus
business, to raise their voices for these
dumb sufferers, and blot from this civ
iliZed Christian nation this most saw
age and heathenish abuse"
Is This to be a EsBirdIess Country ?o
A correspondent of the New York
Sun writes to that paper as follows
The selling of skins of insectivOrous or
song birds as hat decorations should be
made unlawful then the killing of
birds would stop. There are persons
in a New Jersey town who own an
enormous net, which they set near the
haunts of birds during their migration,
and at night with long poles and shouts
drive the birds within the enclosure.
One of these said that he caught 600
purple grackle in one drive. A few
years only birds of handsome plumage
were in demand, but now even the
plainest birds are marketable, as the
dealers have a method of dyeing and
gliding the feathers in gorgeous style.
| saw lady the other day who wore
six swallows on her bonnet; but recOg-
nized them by their forms only. Our
millinery store windows display humid
reds of bird skins, which, although
twisted into the most brilliant hues,
can readily be recognized as the skins
of wellknOwn sOngsters. If measures
are not taken to prevent this wholesale
destruction, the United States in the
not distant future will become like
France, "birdless country"
How They Keep Warm i'm Dakota.
OF the many hardships with which
the pioneer has had to contend, none
have perhaps been greater than that of
providing his family with the necessa-
~ fuel for winter. Twisted hay has
been the settlers main fuel, for with
soft coal at s. and hard coal at Sl2
per ton but few could afford the luxury /
of IA coal fire. While twisted hay is
not to be sneezed at as IA heat producer,
still it has its draw backs not the least |