The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1899-04-16

Great Falls, April 15-Just now the
cattlemen are out on the ranges trying
to estimate the number of head they
have lost and how long it will take the
balance to get into condition for the
market, and the sheepmen are up to
their necks in preparation for the
lambing season. They do not have to
hunt around much to find their losses.
for the old way of turning a herder
and a band of sheep out on the range
with perhaps a rough dugout for the
man and brush corral for the sheep,
and both possibly 50 miles from the
home ranch is a thing of the past
entirely. While there may be numerous
stations on big outfit, each station
will be connected by telephone, each
will have it's own store of hay and its
warm sheep shed; in word, each sta
ton will be as complete in it's way as
the home ranch, and it's reports can be
made daily, and even hourly, if there
lis any necessity for it. There is one
thing in which the crash of '93 was a
blessing. True it is that improvements
the panic taught every woolgrower the
, necessity of stopping small leaks and
guarding against every possibility of
loss. So it comes, that to-day the WOOL
growers of Northern Montana are tend
ing their bands just as closely as the
man in Ohio or Vermont Loss, if it
comes, appears through some extra
ordinary agency.
In Northern Montana the stock bust
ness is split between the small rancher
holding 40, rs, 200 or 300 head. or even
more, and the great cattle outfits which
can only say that at the last roundup
they counted so many hundred thou
sands of heads. and that was probably
not all they owned. They do not know
how many head they are possessed of
to-day, nor will they ever know until
the stockholders vote to close up the
business and sell every animal that can
= Ioe found. Perhaps they will not know
even then if their cattle range far
down the Missouri river or up north,
. close to the International bound ry line,
or near the larger Indian reservations.
But there are comparatively few of
these gigantic concerns left in this part
of the country and their number is de-
creasing every day. Nevertheless, they
proba bly, own the bulk of the stock in
the country. They are being pushed out
slowly by the small rancher and the
. government survey. The rancher fol-
lows the latter and where he sees a
: rich section with water, commanding a
vast expanse of range, he locates. He
., shuts off the water from his neighbors
with a substantial cattle-proof, barbed-
wire fence. He also incloses his fields,
and while he ranges his small bunch of
steers and COWS on the public domain.
he cuts hay from his own land and
stacks it for feeding purposes. In the
market he is a formidable competitor.
His cattle are ready for the abattoir al
almost any season of the year. He
runs small chances of loss from any
source save disease and poison-his loss
from exposure is practically nothing.
He can count his bunch every night
if he chooses and bring them into the
hay corral at will. They have no dist
ance to travel to water while the big
outfit may drift hundred miles before
finding a spring, and under conditions
of storm and severe weather may then
be so weak as to drown in the river
while drinking.
So it happens that the loss of the
past winter may be easily determined
in Cascade, Fergus, the southern part
of Teton and the western part of Cho-
-teau county, while at the present
time the loss in the eastern part of
:Choteau, the northern part of Teton
and all of Valley county is undetermin-
sed and is likely to remain so until the
spring roundup is over. The loss in
the first named sections, the more
thickly settled. the small-rancher dis
tricts, has been practically nothing this
winter. The rest must be estimated.
The facts are that the past winter has
been an unusually severe one on stock
which ranged widely. The early portion
of the season was favorable and the
cattle were comparatively fat without
feeding until after Christmas Then
began a series of cold storms inter-
spersed with melting spells, which only
made feed harder to get. In the Milk
River valley considerable feeding was
done, but in spite of that cattle suf-
fered. Along the railway one can see
any number of dead animals and the
M. e. Miner. one of the heavy cat
tie owners of Northern Montana, re-
Gently said in a talk ito a Standard rep
resentative that he would not care to
make any definite estimate of the loss,
but he was sure that it had been severe.
He had been absent from Montana
through a large part of the winter, but
from what he had seen since his return
and the reports of other cattlemen and
the range riders he was sure that the
season of 1889 must be ranked with
tthe seasons of loss and bad losses
= The Conrad Brothers of this city,
whose cattle range through Choteau
and Teton counties north as far as Ed
monitor across the line, have as yet re-
ceived no bad news from their stock,
but agree with local stockmen that no
reliable judgment can be made for two
weeks. At that time there will be green
grass and a warm sun, and that is the
only test of the manner in which the
cattle have wintered. The new feed
purges the stock and with the heat of
fhe sun determines the amount of
strength left in the animals. If they
pull through this test. then everything
has gone well with them; if they do not,
then the winter storms have been too
much for them. Practically. the losses
are to come. Down in Valley county
Afe report of losses will come still
later. In the big bends of the Missouri,
covered with a heavy growth of cotton
woods and the intervening spaces filled
with thick brush. cattle may die by the
hundred unknown to the owner, or, on
the other hand, they may manage to
null through nicely II is onIy wbap