The daily morning journal and courier., 1901-12-16

rule, keep their cattle away from other
 mems territory But sheepman has
 no such scruples. He goes all over the country, without let or scruple.
 The sheep are started out to graze in punches of twenty-five hundred, each bunch being in charge of one man, who
 lives in little house on wheels and drawn by a couple of horses. Each
 shepherd also takes with him a number l of dogs. As soon as the sheep are started out they will form a line per | haps quarter of mile wide, and will l go straight across the country, clearing off the grass and all vegetation as | closely almost as prairie fire. Cattle, 1 on the contrary, scatter and crop grass over a wide extent of territory. It is a | strange fact that when bunch of cat | tie on the range comes to one of these l sheep trails they will refuse to cross it, | and will turn away in some other direc- | tion. E4
 Some shrewd sheepmen have taken | advantage of this fact by feeding their sheep in huge circle, thus inclosing a
 great extent of good grazing territory, into which the cattle refuse to enter.
 In this way a sheep herder sometimes
 reserves enough country to pasture his flock for an entire season, to the great wrath of neighboring cattlemen
 One of the localities where the fight between the sheep and cattle men has reached a climax of violence is the
 northwest corner of Colorado. There
 the cattlemen are in control, and are
 apparently determined to maintain
 their supremacy at all hazards. Some
 time ago a bold sheep herder defied the
 cattlemen and drove his hand of twen-
 ty-five hundred sheep over the state line nto the promised land. A few
 nights later the cattlemen of the vicin- ity rode down on the band of sheep,
 started it down a mountain road i'll panic, and never stopped until most of the sheep had been driven ovter high precipice to destruction. The remnant of the band was taken out of the cattle country as quickly as possible.
 On another occasion a band of sheep were driven into cattle district in the face of repeated warnings. One night when the shepherd was asleep some cat tlemen rode among the flock with pick axes in their hands. and did not stop until near fifteen hundred sheep had been slaughtered as they lay
 The fight Is likely to come up in some form at the Chicago convention, though exactly what action can be taken look ing to it's settlement is difficult to see.
 As for the cattlemen, they are not satisfied even with cutting down the time required for preparing their cattle for market from six or seven years to two years. Some of them are at pres ent engaged in raising what is called "baby beef" In the process of prepar- ing this "baby beef formarket a calf is taken shortly after birth and put into what is practically a forcing room It is kept eating almost all the time, and only the most nutritious of foods are given it. In this way weight is put on with great rapidity, so that it attains almost it's full growth before it becomes a two-year-old. Many people do not like "baby beef" and 1t is not likely that the plan will be generally adopt ed One of the most Interesting fea- lures of the convention is expected to be the announcement of the results of the recent census of live stock In the United States, in taking which the Ma tional Live Stock association co-opera- ted with the census authorities. This is expected to be the first complete live stock census ever taken in this country. Chicago Tribune.