Omaha daily bee., 1902-11-12
INJURY TO STOCK BUSINESS
How Order to Remove Fences is Regarded
In Deuel. County.
COLONEL UTT SPEAKS OF CONDITIONS
Says Cattle Raisers VIII Sustain Great
Loss in Business II order of the
Interior Department
IL Enforced.
COLONEL UTr SPEAKS OF CONDITIONS

J. e. Utt. secretary OF the Commercial
club, has returned from a trip to Deuel.
county, where be spent several days hunt
ing. Mr.. UT says the people of that
county are very much excited over the rul-
ing Of the Interior department that the
fences built by the cattlemen must come
down, and they predict the destruction of
the cattle business upon IT'S present basis
as the result of the order.
They claim" said Mr.. UT, that the
business cannot be conducted on any other
basis than that now in force and that when
the fences are taken down the stock raisers
will all be driven out of business. 1t is
said that all Of the land which will raise
grass or grain has been taken up by the
r%anchmen; that this land is a very small
part Of the entire acreage of the county,
lying in small tracts surrounded by sand
hills upon which comparatively nothing
will grow, and which requires twenty acres
Of land to pasture one animal during the
summer months. The low land in the hills
is the property of the cattlemen, secured
either by primary entry or purchase. Two
sections in each township is school land,
owned by the state, and this has been
leased by the man who owns the ariable
land in the neighborhood. AS all the good
l6uQ Ia DSCn GulGAGug all LuaI IcLudluo III
the name of the government are sand hills.
and these sand hills are fenced along with
the school land and the low ground.
"The cattle raisers say that before they
fenced the land the loss in the winter from
storms was very high; that they could not
attend to their cattle in the winter, as they
would wander over a wide scope Of country.
Persons whose cattle mixed with those OF
their neighboTs did not feel like buying
high-class animals to improve the breed,
and the result was hat native stock only
wandered over the plains.
''Since the fences we're erected the loss
has been reduced to about 3 per cent, while
the progressive cattle men ave purchased
high-ciass animals, and graded stock Is now
the rule on the fenced range, rather than
the exception. These high grade cattle fat
ten easier than the old natives, so that the
country VIII sustain more stock now h
IL ever would. If the fences are taken down
the men claim that the best result will be
a return to the old conditions.
"The low ground between the hills where
the high prairie grass grows is being gen
orally plowed up and planted to alfalfa, for
this clover win grow where native slough
grass will flourish. 1t produces much heav-
Ter crops and is fed almost exclusively In
the winter by those who are fortunate
enough TO have it. The raising of alfalfa
in these sunken valleys is increasing the
number Of hogs in the west. as they will
fatten on alfalfa as readily as cattle will.
THE worst feature OF the tearing down
of fences is the fact that the cattle men
seem to be paralyzed. They hope that the
order will be suspended, and while hoping
this have taken nc steps to change their
hngfnpQa Al the gaUnp tina fhnu ara dnfnu
nothing to push It, and from the present
appearance there will be fewer cattle raised
in the west next year than there was this.
The men all desire an opportunity to lease
the government land and say that the reve-
nue. thus created could be used for develop
ing the semi-arid region, but that the tops
OF the sand hills which they now have
fenced can never be made ariable."