Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1902-01-11
FOR THE BRITISH
Arthur Mcpherson Writes from Ore
gon of the Business of Selling
Is Horses to British.
Thriving Traffic Done in Furnishing
Animals for the Battles with,
Beers in Africa.
An Interesting Letter Telling a North
Dakotan's Impressions of, the
Pacific State.

Pacific State.
Editor Tribune: Having a little
spare time at my leisure, I thought a
short letter from this section Of Uncle
Sans domain would not come amiss
to the readers Of the Tribune. I will
try to give a brief description of the
country and Malheur county in which
l reside. The greatest industry is
stock raising and the ranges in this
county are extensiye-it being the
next largest county in the state. 1t is
164 miles long north to south and sixty
miles from east to west, and it affords
pasturage for thousands Of horses,
cattle and sheep, for which there is a
good market for all at the present
time. The Boer-British and Spanish
American wars helped to rid the ranges
OF many thousand head of horses
which were practically worthless when
I was out here four years ago. Now
one IAN ride for half a day and can
scarcely find any range horses. The
British government has established a
camp for buying and inspecting cav-
airy horses at the Steele & Adams
ranch six miles from Vale, the county
seat, and now have 1000 head on hand
which are being held for inspection.
These horses and hundreds of others,
which have already been accepted and
shipped, have been gathered from Ore
gon, Idaho and Nevada. At an in
spection held two weeks ago 5000 head
were accepted and shipped to Lathrop,
Missouri, where they will be kept for
some time and shipped to South Africa
by way of New Orleans. In operating
the camp some forty men are employed,
twenty are expert riders, who can ride
the widest broncho that ever lived
and rather enjoy the work. Horses
to be accepted must be between 5 and
= years old, between 14h and 15h
hands high and weigh between $50 and
LOO pounds. The average price for
such animals bring $35. But when
they become British property and are
accepted and branded. they stand the
government $3.50 each, leaving the
contractor who supplies the animals
at. this point a net profit Of $12O on
each animal. I am informed that
these cow ponies and cayuses cost the
British government 1916 per head de-
livered at Cape Town. On an average
there are about 1000 carloads of live
stock shipped out of this county annu-
ally from Huntington and Ontario,
which are the principal shipping points
on the o. r. & N. R. R. Mining is
carried on to a considerable extent in
the northern portion of the county.
Some of the Oldest placer diggings in
the state r located around Maltheur,
but are nov practically worked out,
except Rich creek, which was worked
last summer by In Iowa company. The
Eldorado ditch, which furnishes
the water for the Rich creek diggings
is 135 miles long and is used for min
ing purposes only and cost $500, 900 to
complete it, but it never paid. At
present there are a number of good
quartz mines being worked. The Red,
White and Blue and Golden Eagle,
Which joins OUR ranch on the east and
is about six miles from town. Aside
from these there are a number of good
quartz prospects lacking only the ne
cessary capital to open them up. There
are no guess work about the crops.
he irrigation system is in vogue in
this section and there are a number of
splendid irrigating canals in the south.
ern part of the county and a plentiful
supply of water for all the land that is
suitable for cultivation. The Eiin-
ciple crops are hay and alfalfa, of the
latter which is cut two or three times
a a and produces from four to
eight ions per acre 'for the 1lree cut
tings,' when properly irrigated and
suitable soil and readily sells here
for ~ Or So per ton in the stack. Not
one ranch in twenty on this creek,
Upper Willow, raises even enough
grain to feed a few chickens and very
few horses know what grain is. They
do not bother with grain, everything
soWn to hay and alfalfa, and a few
ranches still have the native wild hay
in the meadows. There are thousands
OF acres of government land open to
settlement, and will be for thousands
Of years to come; it's practically
worthless except for grazing purposes
and a great majority OF it is covered
with dense growth of sage brush, from
the valley clear up into the mountains.
All desirable lands which could no In.