Fergus County argus. [volume] (Lewistown, Mont.) 1886-1946, 1905-12-15

ter Mountain. The character of the
business is changing SO rapidly that
many of the growers find it difficult
to keep pace with the new conditions,
and because of that and other reasons
not few of them are going out of
business. Mr.. Davidson not only has
large cattle interests, but is interest
ed in sheep. The wOOlgrOwers have
much to be encouraged with the out
look, but the cattlemen are not quite
so fortunate, he says:
Il would not like to give the i'm
preston that the cattlemen of Mon
tana are hard pushed" said Mr.. DAY.
iGson at the Finlen this afternoon, "but
| will say that they ARE up against it,
az they have been at few times in the
history of the industry in this state.
All of us realized some time ago that
the range industry was thing of the
past as compared with those other
days when there were countless acres
of grazing lands included in the pub
lie domain. The range has been con-
tracing SO rapidly that those cattle
men who have not provided for pas
ture must now except in a few local
tiles, go out of business. Not few of
the large outfits are closing out, al
though the range difficulty is not the
only thing that has influenced them
to do so.
Gentlemen all over the state are
feeding now as they never did before.
Our own company, for instance, is in
a position to keep more cattle in the
winter than in summer. That is a sim
gular situation but it is the way we
find ourselves this winter. A number
Of years ago the cattle grower never
thought of feeding his stock; now it is
the exception when a man does not at
least feed mis- young stock in winter
The range question, as I said, is
not the only serious one that con-
fronts the cattlemen. Today he finds
beef low in price while young stock
is high. Because of low prices last
year many cattlemen held over much
stock that would have made good mar
ketable stuff. 1t became necessary
| to ship all these cattle this year and
! for that reason as many cattle were
sent out of Montana this year as when
the industry was in it's prime. While l
have no exact figures, l think it is
safe to say that from 100000 to 30O,-
600 head of cattle were sent to market
from this state this year. That is
ABOUT as many as were Scul OuI vi IiC
state when high prices prevailed. The
reason, as l have explained. is plain
enough. The cattlemen could no long.
err hold over the stuff they held last
year and it had to go, no matter what
the price.
"Unless conditions change I do not
anticipate heavy importations Of young
stock next spring from the south as is
usual. The young stock is held too
high to permit much buying with beet
at it's present prices. In speaking
of prices I refer to what the grower
receives for his cattle and what the
consumers pay for their beef. So far
as I can see there has been no reduc'
ton in the prices the consumers pay,
although the grower receives about
s35 for a ster that would have sold for
$50 or SIS a few years ago.
"The quality of stock throughout
the state is certainly improving. and
will continue to improve. More atten.
ton is being paid to blood. for the
growers have at last learned the les
son that a thoroughbred eats no more
than an animal worth one-fourth as
much"