Vermont phÅ“nix. [volume] (Brattleboro, Vt.) 1834-1955, 1886-06-18

THE DREADFUL WORK OF HUNGER, THIRST AND
COLD AMONG THE CATTLE on THE GREAT
RANCHES OF THE PAR WEST.
tLas Animas, Colo, despatch to the Boston Globel
Nobody can estimate the amount Of agony
which has been inflicted ON the cattle in the
West In the last ten or fifteen years as a re-
suit of the mistaken notion that all that was
necessary TO bring rich returns was to turn
cattle loose on the ranges and leave them TO
shift for themselves. II g. 10, 10, or even 30
per cent Of them died in the SHOWS Of hun
ger and cold, or were frozen stiff in their
tracks, it was easy enough TO send out re.
ports to the contrary, and the skeleton
strewn plains are not often under the eye Of
any one who will take the trouble to describe
what he has seen. The cruelty to animals in
the East, to suppress which there are socie-
ties in all large cities, seems 30 Insignificant
in comparison with the wholesale barbarity
practised in the West in order that few
men may become rich that it is strange that
no national movement has ever been started
for its suppression.
Travellers on many Of the railroads in the
West and Southwest at this season Of the
year will see from tbs car windows hosts of
whitening skeletons, in some cases great piles
Of them. They are the remains of cattle which
a few months ago found their way to the
railroad track AZ the only place within their
reach that manifested signs Of life, and there
they stood famishng aud freezing until death
put an end to their sufferings. The greed OF
men was responsible for all THE. Trusting
to luck for food and water thousands OF these
poor brutes have been turned out every year
by their owners to experience the most pitt
ful suffering and death, while those that have
survived have been scarcely more fortunate.
Last winter, when the Kansas Pacific rail
road was blockaded with snow, aud great
steel plOughs we're attached to the locomo-
tives, it was frt quently found impossible TO
'bunp out the cuts, because beneath the
mass Of snow were scores Of cattle that had
huddled together in these places in the hope
Of mitigating in q small degree the ferceness
Of the blasts. Some OF these plouRhs, after
one or two enconters with such obsruotons
of dead CATTLE ice and snow, looked a. though
they lad been run through a slaughter house.
just now there are more than 100 900 head
Of cattle en- route to the North from Texas on
the old Dodge trail. The suffering OF these
animals from the drought have been most
agouizing. The whole earth is parched and
as every body trusts to luck in summer for
water, ~ is the rule in winter for food the
failure Of the natural supply has produced
hardship that almost rivals that of the bleak
northern ranges in winter. The trail over
which these thrsting cattle pass e lined with
been unable to endure the torture. The
ground is dry and parched aud the believing
Of the suffering herds can be heard for miles.
All through the cattle country to the west
aud south Of here the same condition of af-
fairs exists Coming out of u winter that
was unusually severe, the surviving cattle
we're hardly able to get their strength before
they we're made the victims Of the drought
In some cases herds have been found so weak
from this cause 10 make a round up im-
possible, hundreds OF cattle being on their
knees and too weak to move. On all the
ranges carcases are met with by the hundred,
and in some places by the thousand, by far
the greater number having perished by cold
and hunger during the winter. One man
who drove 1000 yearlings into the Arkansas
river country in this vicinity last fall found
only fifty of them alive this spring. About
ne.half Of the native cattle and nearly all
the pilgrims on these ranges have died.
Iu the early days Of the stock industry the
buffalo grass, which was then plenty, was
dep, ndtd upon to keep the cattle alive dur
ing the winter. 1t grew luIuriantly, and
after the first frost became like hay in ap-
poarAnce and quite as nutritve. When this
last,d the cattle that could get TO it were able
to survive the winters, il they we're not too
severe but 1t is a singular fact that, with
the disappearance Of the buffalo, the grass to
which his name was given has gone Also, and
on none OF the ranges east Of the mountains
is II now to be found in any quantity. 1t has
been succeeded by a grass that Is good
enough when green, but after it has been
touched by the frost, IL is of no more value
~ feed than common straw. Cattle driven
to desperation will sometimes fill the hemselves
full of this stuff, but, as it contains little
nourishment, it generally hAstens the dis.
tempers which result in their death.
Approaching the situation now as never
before, a number Of big companies have come
to the conclusion that il they are to continue
in the business they must do something more
than turn a few thousand cattle loose on the
range to shift for themselves. Where this
decision has been reached great barns have
been built, or are now in course of construo-
tion, which cover several acres of land, and
in which thousands of cattle may be properly
housed and fed during the severe weather.