Little Falls transcript., 1886-04-16
ON TILE PLAINS.

4 Csatls Rsissr Rslatss His Expsrisncs.
Frank Wilkeson, in Harper's Aasasins. ss sSS
During the winter of 1871 and 1879
! engaged u the handling Of Texas
cattle in the semi arid belt Of Kansas.
! had provided no food for my stock.
s I knew that cattle could and did win
ter on the plains far north and west
OF where l was; but I did not know
that there was a difference in tho nu-
tritious qualities Of the different
prairie grasses. did not understand
tho peculiarities Of the climate of the
semi-arid belt, nor the effects Of rain
falling on dead grass. Stupid Of me
of course, but I had plenty ofcom-
pany. My neighbors were bright Ger
mans, intelligent Englishmen and keen
Americans from almost,every State in
the Union. We were a 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 pre-
vious spring, were strongly dwelt upon.
l was repeatedly assured that the Kan
sas winters were so mild that would
not. need q coat. The height the new
prairie grass would surely be on the
LIST OF March was measured on table
legs by outstretched and dirty index
fingers for my instruction and encour-
agement. 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
We're 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 affording us opportuni-
ties 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 mid
die of May. In all the Texas herds
held in Kansas the losses were heavy.
Hardly a herd lost less than so per
cent, and so, 70 and 80 per cent losses
were common. BY spring we learned
that the great herds Of heavy beef cat
tie, 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 creek was damned by the decay
ing carcasses Of cattle. The air was
heavy with the stencil of decaying ami
mails. The cruelties of the business of
starving cattle to death were vividly
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 Kansas plains and struck
men down. Our trouble was that
none OF us knew that the tall blue
Joint 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 lis knew that about once in
ten years there is a hard winter in the
far West, during which the mercury
modestly retires into the bulb OF the
thermometer, and blizzard chases
blizzard over the plains in quick sue
cession. Some of us learned the les
son once; others, who claimed that
the cattle needed protection, not food,
erected sheds, which proved to be
death traps, the cattle 'stacking" un-
der them during cold weather, and
tried it again, and went into bank
ruptcy 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
Thousand