The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1898-04-14
The Cattle Industry in The West

1t is within two or three years that the
industry has taken the form it now has.
Briefly stated that form is the embodiment
of the following facts: the best breeding
places for cattle are probably Texas, New
Mexico, Arizona, Oklahoma, aud the
Indian Territory, where the climate is
mild; the best grazing places Tor catlle
are Montana, Wyoming, western Kansas.
and western Nebraska the home of the
native grasses on which the great herd Of
buffalo used 10 Craze; the best feeding or
fattening places for cattle are eastern
kansas, eastern Nebraska, Missouri. and
Iowa, where the corn that ripens them is
grown; the best killing places for cattle
are nearest the feeding places, where the
finishing process in food preparation is
put on, providing freight facilities are
adequate.
In a broad way this movement in the
cattle industry is now followed Vast
herds are produced in the warmer regions
to the south of the Middle West. After
reaching suitable age they are sent to
tie great grazing grounds in the Middle
West-grounds apparently designed by
nature for this purpose. When they reach
the age for killing they are forwarded
AGAIN W ieeuthS- StdllOHS, most OF which
are within 200 miles of the packing
houses, and after stay there to acquire
havor weight, and fat, they are slaugh-
tered near the stockyards. The great
trains of cattle that followed the disuse of
the cattle trail are being duplicated to-
day, but in different way. They are
used to transport the cattle to the gazing
grounds. | met stock man in Kansas
m n Lose II, 4
trips to Oregon, where he purchased ma
tive cattle, and, in special trains, has
sent them into Wyoming on the range.
Hundreds of such special trains went
speeding over plain and mountain in 1897
as they had been doing for several years.
and as they will continue to do for manv
years to come.
The statistics of the year show that
295, 900 cattle were brought into this
country from old Mexico in response to
this movement, and an estimate has been
made by the cattle experts at Kansas City
that in the same year, 1897, no less than
925, 900 cattle were brought into Kansas
to 60 upon the grazing grounds or to be
FED for killing. A Dodge City correspon-
dent of the New York Evening Post told,
in an article published in the middle of
December last, of the trip of wealthy
young Kansan to Texas to buy cattle to
place upon the range. He took cowboy
band to Fort Worth in special Pullman
car decorated with cattle horns and ban
ners. He bought As, 600 CATTLE His band
paraded the streets and made music
typical of the return of good times. The
correspondent added.
s'Ten trains brought the first install
ment of the herd northw ard, and the
animals are now eating Kansas grass
This movement takes place in great
magnitude when the national quarantine
is lifted. One of the otficia of the Santa
Fee Railroad in Topeka told me that in
the first seven days after the quarantine
was lifted that railroad alone brought into
Kansas no less than 35, 600 head of cattle,
and that the other railroads brought in
about the same number. These cattle
were distributed in all parts of the State.
/ Fran III Mot in, $50, III