The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-11-30
ANACONDA NEWS.
SMILE IN THEIR Boards
While Snow Lies High and the
North Wind Sleeps.
DEER LODGE RANCHMEN
Give Thanks To-Day, the Gold Holds OF
and an Open Winters in Sight-While
Merchants Pray for Storms, Sleek
Cattle Browse on the Plains,
DEER LODGE RANCHMEN

cts an i'll wind which blows no man
8 good
While the trade folk of Deer Lodge
N county are saying many prayers that
f the Good Providence send cold weather,
( that the yule tide be muf11ed deep in
: snow and the red sparks of the Christ
mas fire may speed away from smok-
ing chimneys on the breath OF the
X hoarse North wind, the stockmen OF
1 Deer Lodge and the Big Hole basin are
chuckling in their bronZed Threats and
smiling deep in their boards. To-day
i will be day of genuine Thanksgiving
with them, because the snow lies high
i on the hills and the North wind sleeps
I in the caves; while the stock cattle
]; browse on the plains and shelter them.
I selves al night. That is why the sturdy
ranchmen rejoice, for so long as real
+. cold weather holds off. so long will they
4 be saved the expense of housing and
1 feeding their herds; and that means
much money to the ranchers.
Not in many years past" said an
oldtime stockman yesterday, as he
rubbed his chin in glee, have the cat
tie of Deer Lodge and the Big Hole
/ basin been in such prime condition for
!. wintering. The number of head fed
I for beef this winter will be unusually
. large and there is every reason to be-
! lieve that the spring market will find
! them on splendid hoof."
Deer Lodge Beef in Dawson.
4. Now every one knows that Deer
/! Lodge is the biggest beef county in
! Montana, but perhaps every one does
not know that away off in the frozen
! North, right under the Arctic circles
1 rim-in snow-and-ice-bound Dawson.
the Inhabitants of that out-of-the world
camp will eat Deer Lodge county beef
to-day in their mince pies and may
hap carve many a. juicy Deer Lodge
county roast in place of the immortal
bird. But it's true, and it's also true
that pretty well all the beef the Daw-
son City folk will dine upon through
out the whole of this winter is beef from
Deer Lodge county.
For last spring an enterprising ad
venturer purchased $50 head of prime
beef steers near Anaconda and shipped
the bunch to Seattle. Here the steers
were loaded onto freight boats and con-
.veyed to the town of Skagway. They
We're given a week or so to fatten, then
started on a 35o-mile drive rcr.hwarl
to Fort selkirk. Here they met their
fate Their owner had built an abator
at Fort Selkirk. where he quickly trans
formed his steers into quarters. leaving
the hide on SO as to protect the meat
from injury during the journey of $50
miles to Dawson, which was made via
mud scows.
All this beef was bought in Dawson
at something more than so cents the
pound, by quarters. The adventurous
cattleman had purchased his steers 1t
an average of $50 the head. paying $21,-
900 for the bunch Figuring that the
steers averaged 1,1o0 pounds on the
hoof when they fell beneath the aba toir
mans sledge at Fort Selkirk and that
they brought so cents the pound in
Dawson, the adventurous cattleman
must have cleaned up in profit some
thing more than $150,000 for his ven
ture. 1t sounds like a fairy tale, but
figures are so stubborn they won't lie.
Feed in the Treasure State.
Montana ranchmen have one trick OF
the trade at which their neighbors If
the Middle West are more or less wont
to scott. They feed both their stock ant
their beef cattle on nothing but hay
instead of fattening with corn after the
old-time custom in the East. Now /
may be that the agricultural Golfers @
the Treasure state yield up richer
fatter hay than do her less blessed sis
ter states; but however that may be
certain it is, and long experience ha
proved it, that Deer Lodge county
Montana, turns out for the spring mar
ket steers as hefty and sleek as an.
inat nail from STOCK farms OIL the f-aSt
where corn feeding and other expensiV
things are done to loose the great pig
assassins' purse sr:-.nSs,
OF course, Montana does not rails
"toppers,' by which is meant the Vev,
finest, sleekest and latest prime steer
which are bought Cor export on'J-eX
port, that is, on the hoof. Montana be
ing SO far away from the Chicago mar
ket, where, principally, "toppers' ar
bought, the raising of these aristocrat
is left more to the East and Middl
West. Still, some Deer Lodge cattl
have been shipped as far Eas. a
Omaha.
The ranchman of Deer Lodge and III
Big Hole basin feed their stock cattl
one ton of hay to the winter and thni
beef steers three tons; at least, the fee
averages these quantities, more b1in
required if the winter happen to be Tn
usually long. 1t costs about $50 a Ia
to fed bunch Of 1000 stock cattle all
about 500 a day to feed the same nun
Der of beef steers. The stockman quot
ed in a foregoing paragraph estimate
roughly that there are about 20, 300 tta
of stock and beef cattle on all tn
ranges of Deer Lodge county. F'ror
This it is apparent that every day aetna