, 1907-03-19
SOME N SENSE.

IL >nAS
He hits harder blows thar any man
who has yet touched the subject anu
presents arguments at once sane and
incontrovertible. He shows In n con
elusive manner why the big sheepmen
J IRE unfavorable TO any sort of leasing
and gives a cattleman OF unsaVory rep
utatjop n Few things to consider.
He Classics the range robbers as
follows:
First and foremost ARE the sheep
men who live in towns, often out of the
state, who occupy and take the grass
from Off hundreds of thousands Of acres
OF Wyoming's best grazing lands with
out q care as to their future usefulness,
for they are on them constantly with
sheep. Those who acquire forty acre
tracts of script land. file reservoir sites
at SO apiece, have their sheepherders
file homestead filings here and there,
and an occasional timber and stone act
filing on springs and water holes, and
in his way occupy and claim a range
forty miles square, without even own
Ing and sustaining one ranch property
worthy of the name of ranch, and these
same leaders in politics in our state
avoiding every cents worth of taxes II
is possible to avoid. And who is there
In his state with a speck Of gray mat
ter in his head that will say that in this
forty mile square there is any place
for the small ranchman or dry farmer?
who is robber number two? Why,
he is the up-to-date open range cattle
man, like the one e me, In northern
Laramie county, who buys at an ex-
horbitant price n small place on a run
ming stream. only 100 acres, at $4,000.
tears down what little fences there are
on the place, allows the little log shack
to 20 to ruin, placing n o a cents worth
of improvements in their place. what
for? To make a drinking place for
range cattle twenty-five miles from his
home ranch, west, which under the
damnable and hoggish custom OF today
will allow his foreman to domineer eV-
cry foot of range and give orders TO
every small cattleman who has a moor
of stock inside of this twenty-five miles
west of his home ranch. This modern
range vampire also goes out east TWEEN
ty miles from his home ranch n puys
another piece of land with running wa
ter on it, and treats 1t as he does the
former, opens 1t up in order to Craze
his Texas dogies inside everybody
pastures, besides taking all the ieee
outside OF the small cattlemen's fences
who are unlucky to be inside this TWEEN
ty mile strip. His outfit is the only
one opposed to some form of regulating
or leasing the government range lands
in northern Laramie county to my
knowledge.
"Robber number three? Why, he IL
the man who hogs everything within 9
half DAVIS ride from his ranch withou'
a care for the needs of his near-pA
neighbors and who has carried a SIX
shooter so long to bulldoze these neigh
hors into submission, that the gun has
become a part of him; this robber oil
the peace, contentment and rights OF
his %neighbors, under our present mag
unanimous open range system. builds a
two wire fence around his range, five
bv nine miles in extent, and turns a
good portion of his 700 cattle outside OF
his pasture in summer, and herds out
all other stock in order to save the feed
inside for winter. The man has told
me of ha~mstringing outside cattle, and
locking numbers of them in his tight
corral for a week or ten days at a time
without feed or drink, for he says they
are glad to stay outside after n treat
ment like this. Humanity? Humanity ?
Where is it under this fiendish free
range system? There is but one o
these men, thank heaven, to my know
edge. but he is here.
why do I rush into print? Because
no other writer has touched these ques'
tons which appear so vital to the hun
dreds of home builders like myself
within our county and state. Every
where | go l meet men who look wor-
ried and tell me they are worried over
the prospect of having to tear down
their fences and open up their pastures
for the benefit Of the hogs have men,
toned. Stopping their endeavor at
breeding up and improving their cattle.
And In this connection I can say truly
that 1t is possible within good encles'
ures and an impossibility upon the op,
en- range. l have within seventeen
years bred up from the common range
cattle, for which I paid Mr.. voorhees,
500 for each cow and calf, by using
full blood bulls, a herd that produces
calves that sell from $40 to $50 pei
head at weaving time. n l have solo
nv entire heifer calf crop at sever
months old al $25 around. One sucf
lot went to MI. ] c. Spencer OF New
castle, wyo. mention this gentleman
for he ia q prominent man and cal
n. this assertion. can CIV