Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-07-21

A short time since Richard Johnson,
agent for the bureau of animal Industry
in an interview with an Associated Press
reporter made statements to the elect
that the cattle OF the Northwest he'd
greatly deteriorated. This statement
has raised a storm around the head'F9f
Agent Johnson, who 10y the way is much
better informed on some other subjects
than he is on that of cattle, and the
cattlemen of the Northwest are pushing
him into q corner. In answering Agent
Johnson s statements, L. W. Gilchrist,
secretary of the Nebraska state board of
transportation, says:
Now I say. with all due Difference, that Mr.
Richard Johnson dOesn' t know what he IS talk
ing about. II is weL-known TACT TO all who
have visited Western Nebraska. Wyoming and
Montana, that all the men who have been raising
and breeding cattle out in that large cattle re-
gion have, for the last fifteen years, been oper-
Eting large amounts of money IN buying thor
oughbred and higE-grade bulls, which they
baye turned on their ranches and the result is
that to-day it can be seen by even partial OBJ
server that instead of a deterioration in the
quality aud size of cattle, the reverse is true.
The range cattle to-day are much improved
beef breed over the stock fifteen years ago.
If the gentleman who Is so well posted on the
condition of cattle will take pains to visit some
Of the feeding establishments in Nebraska,
where cattle are brought in from the range and
finished up with corn he viii be able to see some
large SIZED. unely formed ana good TAT DeeVeS
as were ever raised in the blue grass region of
Kentucky any other equally favored portions
of the United States. Mr.. Johnson also thinks
that the cattle of to-day have greatly decreased
in weight. This statement is easily accounted
for. Four years ago nothing but four-year- old
steers were shipped from the ranges, while to-day
cows and two and thTeey earOld steers are sent to
market. Any person can readily see that this Is
the reason why the cattle of to-day weigh
less when marketed than formerly. But don't
think the average weight has decreased as much
as Mr.. Johnson imaCineS. / have seen this year
carloads of steers shipped which weighed at
Chicago betwt en- one thousand six hundred and
one thousand seven hundred pounds each. Re-
Carding what he says about Oregon cattle, I can
say that in a good many years experience in and
acquaintance with cattle raising have scarcely
ever heard of such breed. There is one ques-
tion I would like to ask the head of the bureau
possible to obtain an animal that was fve-SixthS
Durham, or anything else, for that matter. He
SAYS the Oregon cattle were invariably three
quarters or five-siXths Durham
Dick Johnson is like a great many
other people in Office-he has been put in
the wrong position. That makes no d'f-
ference with him, however, as any office
under government will fill the measure
of his desires Under Grant he was United
States counsel in China, and since that
time he has been q constant applicant for
position His appointment to the posi-
ton he now holds was the reward of his
uncompromising Republicanism and
could not have been made in view of ilils
peculiar fitness for it.