The daily chieftain. [volume] (Vinita, Ind. Ter. [Okla.]) 1898-1902, 1900-11-14
CATTLE VS.. SHEEP.
Cause Of a Bitter Feud in the West
ern Country.
Natural Differences between the
Handlers of Two Kinds OF Live
stock-DevaNtatiBg Eject
of sheep.

both the psychologist and the eeono-
mist At first glance the interests OF
these great divisions of the live stock
industry would appear to be in COM
mon. But. in truth, this can never be.
Cattle and sheep can no more occupy
a range in common than oil and wa
Ter can float coherently. The cow
puncher hates the shepherd with
hatred that Is deep and ofttmes pic
turesque, and the herder begirts him
self with artillery and sullenly stands
on the defensive, writes Capt. james
NJ. McClintock, in Ainslee's.
The trouble between the cattle and
sheep industries mainly proceeds from
the natural differences between the
two classes OF live stock. Cattle are
housekeeping in their habits. They
are as hard to lose as o house cat,
unless, perchance, the cheerful and
reckless rustler happens along. A
range COW naturally will make her
run" where she was born. Her own.
sr and his cowboys expect to find her
within easily defined limits, usually
along some certain cattle trail that
starts at a watering place and leads
back to higher ground. In ordinary
weather, II water be easy OF access,
about all the cattle will be found some
time during the day along the creeks,
in the shade or luxuriantly hook deep
In the mud The night is spent back
on the feeding ground. Drive the COW
away, even 100 miles, and back she
will drift, though her return be to a
feeding ground by far the worse. Back
home she will come, though It be to
starve and die.
Sheep, on the contrary, are necessa-
rily nomadic. They are gregarious,
punching" by instinct. One man with
his dog can care for even 1000, though
only half that number is usually al
lotted. A flock of sheep is about as
devastating as a prairie fire. Where
it has passed the grass is gone, even
to the roots, the sage brush is defo-
tagged and the track so reeks with the
Sleeps peculiar odor that cattle and
horses avoid the ground for weeks
afterward, And the herds in their
ceaseless journeying never follow one
another. TO use a pat military ex-
preston, they come zen echelon," in
path parallel to and abutting one
edge Of the strip devastated by the
preceding woolly army. Thus, if one
flock eat out half-mile strip, ten
hocks will leave a barren area five
miles wide. The better the feed the
slower the rate of travel. The flock
moves on when the grass Is consumed.
No diagram is needed to show the eff.
feet of such raid on a cattle range.
The rage of the cattlemen is not hard
to imagine.
A quarter Of a century ago. when the
wild west was virgin land and pasture,
there was plenty of room for both
cattle and sheep. But as the country
has filled up and as the area of unten-
anted or unclaimed land has shrunk,
the two branches of live stock have
been driven in upon each other more
and more. until they are now in conten-
ton for possession of the same field
Little by little the herders and punch
ers have been forced from the plains
up into the mountains Western Kan
sas. Nebraska and the Dakotas, the
western portion of Oregon and WASH .
ington, and all of California, which
were once free ranges, have become less
and less available. Even Colorado and
Utah and a portion of Wyoming, be-
cause of the advance of farmers and
miners. afford constantly shrinking
pasturage. Both sheepmen and cattle
men have been obliged to seek the
high and untenable lands in the noun
tains. where the forests and the water
sheds are the only sections that af-
ford sufficient feed
The struggle between them, there
fore. is waged chiefly in what is known
as the plateau region OF the continents
From lower New Mexico and Arizona, i
and western Texas northward to the
American boundary. and from the east
ern Montana line westward to the sum-
nit Of the Cascade mountains. the
sheepmen and the cattlemen are fight
ing tBr the control Of the remaining |
rasges. The sheep go into the ver-
dant meadows of the forests. and the
cattlemen seek TO expel them. The
cattlemen occupy some section where
the grasses are succulent and the water
ol~atiful. only to find the sheep work
ing into the same district. cropping /
the grass to It's roots and tainting the
air with the smell which the cattle
cannot endure. The closer settlement
crowds in upon the formerly unset
tied lands the more bitter becomes the
antoronfern Frenucnffr II hfralr ont Il