St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1893-04-10
a loss of about 50 per cent, as previously


reported.
1t may be that this splitting up of
herds In both Montana and Wyoming
will result in fattening more quickly.
marketing earlier, in getting better
prices, and in a general benefit to the
range interests. There are those, how
ever, who hold that live stock will do
Just as well Tor better on the open range
as they would with hay feeding. The
experience in Wyoming seems to
DIsproye This Theory.
The trouble has been that where the
herds were SO large it was exceedingly
difficult to hold the cattle at feeding
points, even if the owners had hay
enough to keep these large herds in
good condition. The losses of the winter
of 1886 were very severe to the stock
men of the Northwest, but the methods
of running stock helterSkelter over
hundreds of miles of free range and free
grass were so thoroughly implanted in
the minds Of many range cattlemen that
it is difficult for them TO adopt new
system. A sudden change seems to be
undesirable, if not impracticable, on
account of the serious financial losses 1t
would entail.
To those VINO have been in the range
cattle business for many years it may
at first seem almost impracticable to
divide the great herds into small hold
ings. They have lived so long under
the customs of the Western ranges that
these customs seem almost like laws to
them. TO GUST the range cattlemen
inStanter would be an unexpected hard
ship to them. They would lose the bus
mess, with its Ordinary profits, and
they would have to make large sacri-
fees in making sudden disposition of
their stock. Furthermore, the expenses
of winding up business quickly would
be onerUuS. 1t would seem like
wrestling with unnecessary impetus,
from citizens of recognized high stand
ing in their communities, property, to-
gether with privileges which they have
deemed from established customs.
to be their rights. 1t IS scarcely i'm
agined that any free range district
would care to have large cattle herd
driven from its limits peremptorily. 1t
would rather see the course pursued of
giving reasonable notice of such an in
tention and atfordlng ample time for
marketing the property during series
of years, according to the ages of the
cattle. Were the breeding stocks Of the
large herds divided into small holdings
OH OF near their accustomed ranges the
result to the StatesWould be better than
the perpetuatiOn OF the old free range
system. On the part of the Northwest
ern states there seems to be no desire 70
suggest
Any IA ideal Change
in the cattle range methods, but rather
to let the course OF settlement deter
mine the outcome during the course of
years. Immigration and severe winters
settled the range controversies in East
ern Kansas, and they promise to do the
same i'll the Northwest. Had the move
ment to establish national trail from
Texas to the North been successful,
then a reservation OF the Bad Lands
districts for range cattle purposes
might have been feasible, but it would
have been repugnant to the spirit o t
national institutions. The railroads
now serve the purposes Of national
trail, and oft times carry the stock more
cheaply than the cost of cattle-drvlng.
The policy in the Northwest, EVEN
among the leading cattlemen, seems
now to be to divide the large herds into
smaller holdings. should settlement
progress rapidly the occupation of the
bench lauds, in addition to the water
rights, would shut OFF from water thou
range cattle districts of the Bad Lands,
where the short, curly buffalo grass,
the native feed for game and stock, is
about the only desirable vegetation.
But such settlement is unlikely for a
long time in the future. This conclusion
virtually answers the question concern
ing the decline of the range cattle bust
ness, excepting that the large herds
will be divided more and more
rapidly from now on, and the
business will take on features
more akin TO the Eastern methods of
handling cattle. There is an immense
amount of valuable agricultural land
for settlers in this country. and home
seekers are not necessitated to bury
themselves in the Bad Lands. The Sc
newcomers are we'll informed, and even
now they are fockIng into Minnesota
and Washington, while years ago moth
ing but California gold mine in pros
pect would tempt them to make loca-
ton. As to cattle, however, for those
who understand the business, the North
west stands pre-eminent, for the winters
of the North are nowhere near as dam
| aging to cattle interests as the dry sea-
sons of the Southwestern plains.