The Colfax gazette. [volume] (Colfax, Wash.) 1893-1932, 1900-11-09
SHEEP RUIN THE CATTLE RANGE
The Cause of the Bitter Feud in
the West

the West.
The perennial fight between Western
cattlemen and sheepmen is study for
both the psychologist and the economist.
At first glance the interests Of these
great divisions Of the livestock industry
would appear to be in common. But, in
truth, this can never be. Cattle and
sheep can no more occupy a range 10
common shan oil and water can float
coherently. The COW puncher hates the
shepherd with hatred that is deep and
ofttimes picturesque, and the herder be
girts himself with artillery and suddenly
stands on the defensive.
The trouble between the cattle and
sheep industries mainly proceeds from
the natural differences between the two
classes of livestock. Cattle are home
keeping in their habits. They are as
bard to lose as a house cat, unless, per
chance the cheerful and ckOniDg
rustler happens along. A range COW
naturally will make her run where she
was born. Her owner 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, if 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 Il hundred miles, and
back she will drift, though her return be
to feeding ground by far the worse.
Back home she will come, though it be
to starve and die.
Sheep, on the contrary, are necessarily
nomadic. They are gregarious, "bunch-
ing" by instinct One man with his dog
can care for even 1000, though only half
that number is usually allotted. 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 defoliated 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 iourneying never follow
one another. To use a pat military ex-
preston, they come zen echelOn," in q
path parallel to and abutting one edge
OF the strip devastated by the preceding
woody army. Thus, if one flock eat out
half mile strip, ten fOcks will leave q
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 effect of such a raid on a cattle
range. The rage of the cattIemen is not
hard to imagine.
A quarter OF 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 the area of untenanted or
unclaimed land has shrunk, the two
branches of live stock have been driven
In upon each other more and more. IN
til they are now in contention for DOS
session OF the same field. Little bv little
the herders and punchers have been
forced from the plains ND into the
mountains. Western Kansas, Nebraska
and the DakOtas. the western portion of
oregon and Washington, and all of Cali
fornla, which were once free ranges. have
become less and less available. Even
Colorado and Utah and a portion al
wyoming, because OF the advance Of
farmers ana miners, afford q constantly
shrinking pasturage. Both sheepmen
ana cattlemen have been Obliged to seek
the nigh and untenabIe lands in the
mountains, where the forests and the
watersheds are the only sections that
afford sufficient feed.
The struggle between them, therefore.
Is waged chiefly in what is known as the
plateau region of the continent. From
lower New Mexico and Arizona and
western Texas nOrthward to the Ameri-
can boundary, and from the eastern
Montana line westward to the sum-
init OF the Cascade mountains, the sheen
men and the cattlemen are fighting for
the control of the remaining ranges
Inc sheep go into the verdant meadows
OF the forests, and the cattlemen seek To
eHpel them. The cattlemen occupy some
section where the grasses are succuIent
ana the water plentiful, only to find the
sheep working into the same district
cropping the grass to it's roots and
talntlng the air with the smell which the
cattle cannot endure. The closer set
tiement crowds in upon the formerly un-
settled lands the more bitter becomes
the antagonism, Frequently it breaks
out In brief shooting matches. in which
the cattlemen generally prove them
serves the most expert. More often If
eliminates IN strained sentiments and
press reports OF trouble threatened he
tween cowboys and sheep herders F"
AGAIN 1t breeds feuds which are fuIlvsas
swift and decisive as those of kentuckv