Alpena weekly argus. [volume] (Alpena, Mich.) 1871-1893, 1886-06-09
Bill Nye on the Cow Industry.

being strongly impressed with the won
derful growth of the great cattlegrow-
ing and grazing industry of that ter
ritory. And yet Montana is but the
northern extremity of the great graz
ing belt which lies at the foot of the
Rocky mountains, extending from the
British possessions OH the north to the
Mexican border on the south, extend
ing eastward, too, as far as the arabic
lands of Dakota, Nebraska and Kan
sas.
Montana, at this season Of the year,
is the paradise of the sleek, high-head-
ed, 2-year-old Texan steer, with his
tail over the dashboard, as well as the
stock yearling, born on the range be-
meath the glorious mountain sky and
under the auspices of roundup No. II.
| do not say this to advertise the
stockgrowing business, because it is
already advertised too much, anyway,
So many millionaires have been made
with "free grass" and the early-rising,
automatic branding iron that every
man in the United States who has
COW that can stand the journey seems
to be about to take her west and em-
bark in business as cattle king.
But let me warn the amateur COW
man that in the great grazing regions
it takes a good many acres of thin
grass to maintain the adult steer in
affluence for twelve months, and the
great pastures at the base of the
mountains are being pretty well tested.
Moreover, / believe that these great
conventions of cattlemen, where free
grass and easily acquired fortunes are
naturally advertised, will tend to over
stock the ranges at last and founder
the goose that now lays the golden
egg. This, of course, is really none of
my business, but if / didn't now and
then refer to matters that do not con-
Germ me | would be regarded as reti-
cent.
My intention, hewever, in approach
ing the great COW industry, which, by
the way, is anything but an industry,
being in fact more like the seductive
manner whereby promissory note
acquires 2 per cent. per month with
out even stopping to spit on its hands,
was to refer incidentally to the propo-
sition of an English friend Of mine.
This friend seeing at once the great
magnitude of the COW industry and
the necessity for more and more cow
boys, has suggested the idea of estab-
fishing cowboys college, or training
school, for self-made young men who
desire to become accomplished. The
average Englishman will most always
think of something that nobody else
would naturally think of. Now, our
cattleman would have gone OH for
years with his great steer Emporium
without thinking of establishing an
institution where poor boy might 60
and learn to rope 4-year-old in such
way as to throw him on his stomach
with a sickening thud.
The young Maverick savant could
take a kindergarten course in the
study of cow brands. Here wide
field opens up to the scholar. The
adult steer in the great realm of beef
is now walking Chinese wash bill, a
Hindoo poem in the original junk shop
alphabet, four-legged Greek inscrip-
tion, punctuated with jim-jams, a
stenographer's notes of riot, birds
eye view of premature explosion in
a hardware store. i
The cowboy who can at once Crap
pie with the great problem Of where to
put the steer with "B bar b" OH left
shoulder, "Key circle G" on left side,
Heart d Heart" on right hip, left
ear crop, waffle te waffle, and seven
hands around, with "Dash B Dash"
on right shoulder vented" waffle on
dew lap vented, and "P. d. O." and
&c. o. d." and IN. G." vented OH right
side, keeping track of transfers, range
and postofice Of last owner, has GER
tainly got future, which lies mostly
ahead of him.
But now that the idea has been
turned loose, / shall look forward to
the time when wealthy men who
have been in the habit of dying and
leaving their money to other insitu-
tions, will meet with change of heart,
and begin to endow the cowboys COL
lege and the Maverick hotbed of
broncho sciences.
We live in an age of rapid advance
ment in all branches of learning, and
people who do not rise early in the
morning will not retain their position
In the procession. I look forward
with confidence to the day when no
cowboy will undertake to ride the
range without diploma. Educated
labor is what we need. Cowboys
who can tell you in scientific terms why |
IL il always the binaest steer that eafs