The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1903-02-16
STOCK DYING
ON THE RANGES
Many Cattle Are Shot to Save
From Starvation.
SHEEP ALSO ARE SUFFERING
MEAGER REPORTS INDICATE
HEAVY LOSSES.

r HEEP and cattle. especially the for
y mer, are dying ike flies on the
ranges.
The fifteen to eighteen inches of snow
in the valleys and the equal number or
| feet of the pure white in the mountains
and canyons, which are filing the
hearts of the farmer and horticulturist
With joy, because the crystallized pre-
cipitation means plenty of water next
! summer for crops and orchards, are
at the same time filing the hearts OF
the sheepmen and stockmen with woe.
The heavy snowfall and continuance or
/ cold weather are costing them fortunes
in loss of their herds and fiocks.
The latest SnowstOrm, which was
breaker of records for several years,
and the continuance of the present cold
snap, which has also made an unen-
viable record for itself with the wealth
err bureau, has already cost the stock
and sheepmen of Utah and Idaho thou
sands of dollars The losses thus tar
sustained to fiocks and herds has been
very large. If there is not a cessation
of the cold shortly; if the weather does
not soon moderate sufficiently to permit
the many inches of snow in the valleys
and on the foothills to melt, men con-
versant with the conditions as they eX-
list throughout this state and the COM
Will be enormous.
Disaster Is Widespread.
From all parts of the two states, and
up into Wyoming and over in Nebras-
ka, comes the same tale of woe-Snow
too deep on the level to permit the
sheep and cattle to eat the sun dried
grass buried under it. In many local
tiles the snow is too deep to permit
even the sheep eking out an existence
by eating the smaller twigs and
branches of the sage and other brushes.
In those sections it is impossible for
the cattle and horses to find enough to
Su bsiSt uSon
Where it is possible to do SO, sheep
men and StOckmen are hauling hay and
alfalfa to their starving herds and
fiocks. In many instances that cannot
be done. The owners either have not
the money with which to purchase the
fodder, or else the distance is too great
to haul it; the stock and sheep would
have starved meanwhile. Where it is
possible to reach the starving animals
with food it is impossible to transport
hay or alfalfa in sufficient quantities
to prevent the entire herds or fiocks
from starving to death.
In those cases, where one portion of
the herds or fiocks is being kept alive
on short rationS. so to speak, other
portions are dying. 1t is now SIMPLY
case with the stockmen and sheepmen
to keep enough vitality in their ami
mails so that when a break does occur
in the weather the half-famiShed stock
and sheep win be strong enough TO
crop the grass when it appears above
the melting snow
Forced to Shoot Cattle.
From Idaho comes the information,
brought down by L. O. Leonard, gen
eral livestock agent of the Missouri
Pacific, that cattlemen in the Shoshone
district are compelled to shoot their
stock and strip the carcass of the hide,
which Will be preserved and sold for
leather in the spring. The cattlemen
are unable to furnish their isolated
nerds with food, and to prevent their
starving to death a bullet is used to
put them out of their misery.
To what extent that practice is be-
ing INDUCED in is not known, but the
fact that some cattlemen are compelled
to resort to that means does not be-
speak of very encouraging reports from
other sections of that commonwealth
when more minute details are forth.
coming. AS yet no such drastic methods
have been resOrted to in Utah. as near
as can be learned.
In the Black mountain district the
snow is from fifteen to eighteen inches
deep in the valleys. Up in the noun
many feet in depth, while along the
foothills il strikes a medium. The
sheep there are reported to be in bad
condition. Natural feed is either too
scarce to keep large fiocks alive for
any length of time, or is absolutely
inaccessible. Where it is possible
sheepmen are attempting to haul feed
to their focks, but are meeting with
Indifferent success. The haul is either
too long or the snow too deep to per-
nit of much hay being transported at
one time.
Practically the same condition of af-
fairs. exists in the Grass mountain Sec
ton of the state. There the snow is
more than a foot on the level, and
many feet deep in the higher attitudes
of the mountains. 1t is so high above
| the grass that the sheep cannot get at
the feed. The snow is up to their bel
lies, which makes it impossible for
them to scratch it away with their
hoofs and expose the nOurishment
to do so the sheepmen are hauling hay
to their fiOcks-
Feeding in Tooele County.
In Tooele county thousands of sheep
are being saved from actual starvation
by tons of hay being transported to
| them over the snow on Sleighs and
make-ship vehicles. Out on the desert
to the west. across the state line over
into Nevada, it is almost impossible to
| reach the fiocks that far from habita-
/ ton. Their fate hangs in the balance
between a continuance of the present
cold weather and decided and i'm
mediate rise in the temperature.
1t will be impossible to learn the
actual conditions out on the ranges
and up in the mountains until some of
the owners or other persons who have
| been with the f1ocks and herds since
the storm broke over this section of
the west return TO the cities and make
a report. AS soon as possible after the
storm began, and it became evident
that it would border on a record break
er, the owners of the fiocks and herds,