Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1902-06-12
Big Demand the Past Few Years Has
Depleted the Ranges.
tDrovers' Telegram


tDrovers' Telegram]
The many predictions advanced DUR
ing the winter and early spring that
range horses would sell on a higher
plane of values this summer were fully
verified this week, when the first draft
of western horses of the season We're
sold here. No large consignment WAS
received, and nothing of choice quality
was offered to test the strength of the
market, but what few animals were
sold went to buyers at figures chat
looked $40 higher than last year. An
advance of $40 per head on a native
horse, originally worth 500, does not
seem startling. but on the ranger it
means a great deal The bulk of the
range horses sold here last year proba-
oily did not average S25 per head TAX
ing that liberal figure as a basis, how
ever, and it Will show that rangers
opened the season this year selling 40
per cent higher than they did in 1901.
Several causes conspire toward max
ing western horses higher this season.
and 1t would have been great sur
prise to the trade If good prices were
not paid this week. One of the reasons
for better appearing prices this season,
when compared with those of 1901, is
that values We're greatly depressed last
year on account of the drouth COM
pletely paralyZing the range horse in
dustry. Kansas, Missouri and Nebras-
ka farmers, who in the ordinary course
of events would have been glad to have
fed the rangers and marketed them in
the fall as chunks and workers, could
not do so because of the failure of the
corn crop and their total inability to
secure cheap feed.
Another TN natural reason for high
priced rangers this spring lies in the
fact that the British government has
during the past winter completely
secured the plains of the west for geld
ings to send to South Africa to fight
the Beers. No accurate data as re-
CARDS the number actually bought on
the range has yet been secured, but it
is certain that thousands of western
branded horses that in the usual
course of events would have been
thrown upon the markets of the Mis-
sour, river this season, We're corralled
early in the spring and back in the VIM
ter and shipped across the ocean.
Another reason for the enhanced
value of rangers, and one that is the
most insidious, stable and permanent
of all, is that the ranges that We're
formerly devoted entirely to the bron-
cho are now being converted into farms
or cattle ranches. Travellers who were
familiar with the west a few years
back would not recognize many OF the
broad prairies We're they to visit them
at the present time. All along the riv-
ers in Montana, Wyoming, Idaho and
other states settlers from across the
ocean and from the east have staked
off their regula alton 100 acres, or capi-
talists have bought up sections of land
and fenced them off for their cattle
herds Back from the water courses
where farming is as yet improbable.
the farmers have not intruded to any
extent, but the cattleman has. Beef
has advanced, and the broad acres of
the territories of the southwest and OF
Texas have been filled with cattle to
such an extent that new grazing lands
had to be utilized, and the horse is
slowly being pushed to the wall. 1t is
said that the horse breeders have about
given up the business entirely and are
devoting their attention to cattle, or, If
their lands are near streams, are selling
out to settlers
1t looks as If the sun of the range
horse is setting. No wonder prices are
advancing when the article itself is be-
coming scarcer from year to year, and
soon promises to be no more. Before
another decade branded horse may be
seen only in museums or in circuses.