Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1896-01-16
WAS A BANNER YEAR.
CATTLE BUSINESS FOR 1905 SHOWS AN
INCREASE OF MORE THAN A MILLION
DOLLARS OVER 1904.
Shipments Aggregated 100000 Head. ane
10000 Head Were Slaughtered for
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Helena Independent ]

Helena Indepeudent.l
The year 1885 was the greatest
cattle year Montana has had, so far
as the total receipts from their sale
are concerned. Revised figures of
the business done during the year,
prepared i'm the Office of the Montana
board of stock commissioners,
give the total receipts at $l1 OBJ, $50.
This exceeds the next highest year,
1894, by nearly a million dollars.
The secretary of the board has
handled during the year on account
of strays $l79,72l-that is, there has
passed through his hauds as receipts
for cattle shipped by Others than the
owners that amount of money,
which he has sent to the people to
whom it belonged.
The manner i'm which the range
cattle industry is now handled in
Montana by the Board OF Stock
Commissioners is the envy OF all the
other cattle-growing states, and is
business can be made. Some idea
of it's magnitude may be had when it
is said that Secretary Preuitt has
received and disbursed SSl3,SiI since
1891 from the sales of astray cattle
ou thr go tern ma kets. \ large
proportion oi this money has gone
10 the owners pf a few head of cattle
whose cattie got mixed up with a
big outfit, ana were sent TO market
without the owners knowledge.
| But the inspectors caught them, and
| if the owner had his bi and registered,
he received his money almost as soon
as il he had shipped the cattle him
self OF the money received foI
estrays. but n small proportion has
been turned into the state and even
where it has, ii a man can prove by
the records that money belonging
to him from the sale Of one stray
steer has gone into the treasury, u
is never too late for him to recover
it.
Some persons do not understand
that the members of the board o
stock commissioners do not receive
any compensation. But they de
not. The only salaried Office is tina
of the secretary, and when it is re
membered that the detail work O
the entire business falls upon tina
office, that he handles thousands q
dollars every year for other people
and that the correspondence OF hi
Office is greater than that of an.
state office, it will be seen that TIL
paid officer has not a sinecure.
The board has just made its annua
report to the governor, and it is G
interest not only to the cattle mel
but to the citizens of the stat
generally. Referring to the pas
season. the report says:
I'm many respects the year 1s9
was a remarkable one in the histor
of the stock industry. During tn
: part of the season the cry went u
all over the land that there was a
immense shortage of beef cattle, an
that the demand would far excee
| the supply-the result being tina
the markets were higher than fo
some years. but as the season az
vanced and the west poured it's ca
tie into the great markets-theI
was a total collapse, and where's
the season opened with extremel
high prices, the end was marke
with as low market as has bee
known in many years. Stockme
/ who made early shipments were e,
! ceedingly fortunate in securing III
usually good prices, but the late
shipments, especially the very lai
ones, Jared worse, as a rule, than
previous years. The early sprin
promised a very discourging seaso
ON account of short feed and scarcit
of water, but the late spring rail-
were effectual in providing both fee
and water, and as the cattle too