The Black Hills union and western stock review. [volume] (Rapid City, S.D.) 1904-19??, 1904-09-16


recently we looked over considerable OF
the land that has come into the mar
ket through the kinkaid bill. A great
deal of this land has been taken by the
men and their families who settled IN
this territory years ago. This Is as II
should be, but with others filing on the
same land it is but to be supposed that
there will be a great deal OF trouble
in one way and another, contest suits
and the like.
This territory appears especially Ia
vorably this season as there mas peen
more rain than for years. The grass IS
still green and shows good gr' TN. In
parts of the open range over winch we
Travelled the grass would have kept
great deal more stock than there mas
been on it. Il will not be long until
this grass Is brown and cured to hay.
This is when it is in the best condl-
ton so far Us feed is concerned, but
at that time there is no more growth,
so it requires Il great many acres 10
keep even one animal.
From what We saw we are convinced
that this is 4 much better horse than
cattle country. For the best results
! the land should be somewhat rolling,
almost to pitchiness in places, which
| affords protectiOn'to the stock during
storms, ut the same time tn" pockets
| will collect great deal Of the snow and
the range will be left bare. Horses can
stand the hard winters better than
cattle and viii come out i'll fairly Sood
shape when cattle will starve to death.
The colleges are doing considerable
! experimenting looking toward the Sc
curing Of better grass. They nave
found that by allowing the grama grass
to go to seed before it is pastured 1t
will improve greatly. Some have fenced
the stock off OF especially desirable
pieces, running a drag over the field
E, in the fall which knocks off the seed
and also covers considerable. thus pre-
venting it from being blown away. We
saw one pasture which had been treat
ed In this way upon which the grass
was long enough to make good hay.
There has been 10 stock on this pas
ture In three years. Such experiments
show plainly the results OF too close
grazing.
About the agricultural possibilities
of this semi-arid west A great deal
has been written about what can be
done by the Campbell system of crop
growing. We find that there is consld-
cradle in this as in some places we
found fairly good crops of rye, some
wheat, oats, speltZ, millet and little
corn. Don't allow anything we may
say about this country to lead you to
believe that this is a corn country. 1t
is not. Understand that thoroughly,
and from the first. True. they have
some corn there this year and may at
times of extreme moisture be able to
grow little, but even at the best, such
as this year, they do not have corn as
we are accustomed to think of corn
not by any means. But they can cut
this for fodder and have excellent win
ter feed. This is the essential point.
The man who is willing to do something
aside from riding a pony, or loafng
around with the boys in town. can
easily grow something for winter feed
Preparations should be made to feed
every hoof in the sheds or barns during
bad weather If this were done there
would be comparatively little loss from
the effects of the hard winters.
We called at one Of these little quar-
ter section homes, where we found good
evidence of a successful farmer he
had sown some small grain, the best OF
which was rye. The rye had not been
cut when we We're there. but the wheat
millet, speltz, etc, were still IN the
milk, or dough stage. There was corr
on this farm, but we very much doub,
if this crop would prove of as much
value as the lnillet. It is good only fol
forage, although there will be little
corn There may be Is or 20 bushels tc
the acre. 1t will make good feed. This
man homesteaded this place some years
ago and has now very good bunch OF
, cattle All of his stock runs on the
. open range and is put in the sheds onl!
! when storms threaten He is doing
| some little milking and is getting gooe
results considering the cost. 1t is
good deal like the honey business
} everything you get is whole cloth. Thu
women object to this life most on &C
count of the great distance to neigh
, bors. Aside from this there is very lit
~ whit cal
: When we asked for some one to taxi
j, us out and show US the country w
were told that the person possessing
the most information and one tina
would tell it straight. was a younl
lady who had a bunch of horses which
she was breaking to harness. This wa
rather novelty TO US, but we were no
averse to such company and we sen
out an order for her and her "bronks.
When she learned that paper ma
wanted to look at the country with
view to writing it up, she ballSed. Sh
would ride with cattle OF horse mer
or a man wanting to locate, or me
looking for land, or most anything
but paper man, never. However
she went out and roped two quiet
drivers which her man used in takfn
us out to see the country. IN the mean
time she caught another and when W
returned she was driving him to
cart. 1ne HORSE lldU no. DeEIl idllule
any to speak Of having been up les
than half dozen times and had bee
in the cart but once before. She is
girl of only about 20 or q years of ag'
yet for four years, since her father
DEATH she has taken charge of tn
entire horse growing operations an
has every year broken and sold abor
100 head. Few of us realize what the
means. 1t means two wild horse
caught every week in the year an
broken to saddle and to harness an
she breaks everything both single an
double To get two of these wild horse
n under control every week is no sma
undertaking, yet that is what she doe
n and she is r. king q better thing OF
Of it than many an eastern farmer
doing on his 1G0 acre farm.
Any man with the necessary amour
of sticktoitiveness could do as well. II
Il great trouble is that SO many of I
g are afraid to do the extra. amount
=, work necessary to bring their bett'
= price that means the big pay and goo
profit. The great bulk of the rans
IS horses are sold with no more handlir
p than is necessary in branding them ar
# getting them into the cars. Here is
= case of a young girl carrying on a bus
$ ness netting her around $500 or 81
ST, year, and she does not seem to thir
10 anything of it eithe". OF how mut
m more account is such girl than tt
re silly, simperins little fools who lott
~ around our cities gossiping with eve
J., young man that shows up, and who
in gadding around with their pet pood
IS under their arm or led around with
Iy string! But we had best not say t,
N much about this girl or there will 1
st an exodus of our young men in an G
m fort to rope" her. Just to prevent o.
young men from bitter disappointing
III we will say that it would most likely
es wholly useless as she now has lol
ce string of admirers, to whom she pa