The times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1897-1901, 1900-04-08
TALES OF sheep RANCHES
Incidents Ofihe Life Peculiar TO thi,
Western Industry.
Risks That Have to BE Assumed by
the GrOwer-The Solitary Life of
the Herder and, Its Ehects-An In
stance Where n Herder's Devo-
ton to Duty Cost Him His Life.

! a suggestion which his speech acentuated
| There was nothing in his dress which
would distinguish him from a citizen OF
| New Mexico or Arizona, or California, or
any other Western State. and the hotel
register alone gave the clew TO his home.
How is Montana? All right; she is
always all right. Perhaps just at the
present minute Montana people are not
gazing on green lawns all spangied with
crotons and crocuses and other pretty
| flowers. like you people here. Not very
likely to, either, with the thermometer
chasing itself back and forth over the
zero mark. Right now most of us are fig
uring out how We pulled through the win
ter on stock and sheep more than laying
out posy beds.
You see, it isn't like it was years ago,
when we turned out cattle in the fall
and rounded 'em up in the spring. any
| where from the North Pole to the-the
quator. That times gone. Railroads and
barbed wire fences have cut up most OF
| the big ranges. and the price of beef is
not so far above the cost of production
| that a man can afford to take those big
chances any more. Now we put up lit
! tic hay for the stock, and when the
| 'dogies' are getting weak on their legs in
| the spring. just before the green grass
| comes, we turn 'em on to the stacks and
this keeps the losses down. You Eastern
! people think that it's the winter that kills.
but IL isn't. The green grass is what cuts
profits down. The cattle eat il greedily
and get secured by it, until they are weak
ened beyond recovery. The stockman is
more scared of warm spring day than
he is of month of zero weather earlier.
Cattle are as good as a bank account
| and about as steady, but sheep are the
things to take a fiier on in the West. They
require more care and it costs more money
to run them. but when We get good
yea; there's good money in them. By the
way, this is going 10 be a good year. For
instance, / am running a band of about
q, coo sheep UP in the northern part of the
State. That means a clip of about 140. 000
pounds of wool. The price of wool this
year, delivered at the railway. looks as il
il were going to run between 20 and %
cents. At the lowest figure. then, | ought
to get SOS GEO for my clip. The increase in
the band pays all expenses. hay, herding,
corrals. sheds, and shearing when mutton
is worth wnat it is now. so the clip is pure
velvet. ,-5
Am l going to blow myself for trip 10
the Paris Exposition? Well, son. I'll think
about that. Sheep growing is not always
the bright dream ii is this year. Back in
93, sheep that were worth 81 went begging
at 10 cents a head. while wool buyers
thought they were philanthrOpists If they
gave you more than cents pound for
the wool and usually insisted on come
back privilege at that We are just get
ting our money back now from the hard
Dpfn hay ,F
champagne business pretty freely. and it
took about four years Of storm to make US
see that woolgrowing was not always
bonanza. tell you. let 5000 or 1900 sheep
pile up on you and then get almost nothing
for what is left because they have been
eating wool and you'll know how funny
it is to sit and see few thousand dollars
melting out of your pocket day after day.
You wont forget it.
Don't you know what 'piling up
means? Then this is a chance for you to
get into the game cheap. To start in the
sheep business you must have home
ranch. Then there's the outstations. con-
nected by telephone. if you want to do il
right. You send out each herder with
from three to 1--WE thousand sheep. He
goes right out on to the range taking mis-
chuck. tent. dog. blankets. and such
things. He's got from 1000 to Sl5 900 OF
again in q month, maybe not for six
months. maybe never. But he's got your
money and that's all there is TO it. And
herders are queer People. | don't suppose
an Eastern business man would trust his
money TO lot of iunatics. but that is what
we do, and what We have 10 do right
along Montana has more inmates in her
insane asylum than in her States prison
and the majority of them are sheen herd
ers. Whether it's cumming with sheep
and hearing nothing. day in and day out.
but their Internal Baa-baa baaing' all the
time. whether it's the solitude is be-
yond me, but | know herders get uuttv as
a regular thing and it does not make any
difference whether they are ignorant or
educated. Swedes or Scotchmen. they all
go the same road. First you notice when
you go out to take them their monthly
grub they don't like to talk much: then
they get to avoiding you, actually run
away from you. and all there is 10 do is
to throw down their bacon and stuff and
leave your orders in. writing. Finally
they may meet you with all sorts OF fool
complaints. poison in their coffee. maggots
in their aour, rusty bacon kicks about
other herders they have not seen for
months. and all sorts Of chimeras. You
are lucky If they don't walk in to the
home station and leave their sheep to
drift Their voices change and they talk
and act like goats. They kick mp rocks
on the prairie and pile them up into
monuments If they do come into the
home ranch all you can do is to give them
their money and let EN- go tic town and
throw it away. When it's gone they get
good sense and come back to work.
What makes EN- act like thai? | don't
know; | didn't make EN-. Cowpunchers
don't get that way. sheepherder gees
out in the morning. and after he reaches
feed. he sleeps more or less. He don't get
his meals Regularly, because he is too
lazy or careless or something. Then. at
night he don't sleep well. II anyone cores
to see him he is apt TO talk all night as
not There's good reason for that, though. |
At night he runs the sheep into corral. |
Now. if anything happens, there is trouble. |
1t may get! too cold. or a wof or coyote
may bark. or twig break or the ice in
the creek crack, or a piece Of paper blow
across the prairie in the moonlight. Then
those sheep get to milling. and unless
they are stopped they circle round and
round. huddlng toward the centre. until
one or two go dpwn, the others pile up On
them, and go on top, and keep it up until
there is d heap OF wool and mutton which
used to be worth several thousand dolla s.
The sheep that are inside soon smother,
and you'd be surprised to see how few
are left alive. It's very painful surprise.
too | can tell you, 10 the man just start
ing in the business. Now. the dogs. who
usually know ten times as much about
sheep as any herder. will go and wake
him up when the sheep get uneasy, ard
in that way he becomes accustomed to
lying awake nights. | presume that does
him no special good mentally, either.
Then a man has to guard against his
Ia