Butte semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1886-1890, 1889-07-20
WHERE THE CATTLE COME FROM.
What an Experienced exa Breeder sa
About the Source of Supply.

What an Experienced Texas Breeder Says
q About the Source Of Supply.
From the Omaha Herald" OF July 8:
Mr.. Stoddard, q wealthy c~attleman, who
lives in New York, is driving some l. 1000
head from San Antonio to Montana. This
large drove has been three months on the
trail and the two advance herds OF 5000
2-year ODDS have arrived in Wyoming and
been sold to a syndicate of Chicago capital
lists, who have formed the Dakota cattle
company Of Montana.
Mr.. stoddard gave as a reason for selling
80 many cattle that the range is getting
too limited. It has long been known that
raising cattle on so large a scale in the
Westwasbecoming more limited each year..
His advance herds were three to five weeks
longer on the tEail than last year on &C
count of being obliged to leave the old
Texas trail at 30 many places and drive
|fromGifty to 100 miles to get around
fences, as the homesteaders are fencing in
all the water, making it almost an impos.
sibility
. eaG TO FoLLow THE OLD TRAIL.
His foreman of the advanced herd stated
briefly that this would be their last year
on the old trail. By next spring it would
be impossible to get water for SO many
cattle at q time. II such be the CAGE they
| will be compelled to open up q new trail
from Texas to Montana, by the way of
eastern New Mey leo and western Colorado,
which they claim will be almostimpossible,
for streams are so few and far between.
Water is found on the trail every ten or
fifteen miles, a good days drive for a large
herd Of cattle. Should they fail to find q
suitable trail next year to drive over ship
ping by railroad would be their only re.
source; which it is claimed, would cost SO
much, and raise the expense OF marketing
these cattle, that it would be Improbable.
Thus it car plainly be seen that the cattle
business on an immense scale in the vest
will soon be ~
|ois3p A him OF THE PAST.
Texas always furnishes most all the q.
y~ear7olds raised in the west, while Colo
RADIO, Wyoming and Montana furnish the
grass to feed these cattle until fit to mar
ket. Colorado is fast becoming a farming
state, while eastern Wyoming is settling up
fast by thrifty farmers. and as soon as the
overland trail between Texas and Mon.
tana is closed the cattle business will be
Improbable. The spring drive will reach
10000 or $4,000 head. It is claimed by
cattlemen direct from Texas thatfully that
many will be ready February next and
double that amount by May next, to drive
north. Should Wyoming and Montana
fail to take these cattle and feed them I'm.
til fit to market, Texas cattle raising on a
large scale would end. .
The range was never better than it is
this spring, and the cattle are farther ad-
vanced than in former years. Rain has
fallen continuously for the last two months,
and what crops have been sown in eastern
Wyoming are growing ~splendidly. Home
steaders who f1ocked in here and western
Nebraska, last year, are very confident
and claim that what was known only a
few years ago as the Great American
Desert, will raise large crops in a very few
years.