Pierre weekly free press. (Pierre, S.D.) 1889-19??, 1909-04-15
CONDITIONS HAVE CHANGED.

A'ttioI meat ~ supposed 10 come
from. Almost invariably men have
written about the cowboy. the end
| less herds OF longhorns and The ro-
matte, wasteful methods once in
vogue but little has ever been told of
the tremendous change that has come
over what was once the range coun.
try.
The westward press Of settlers, the
coming OF railroads, have taken the
poetry and romances out Of the cat
tie business, but the prose is left and
it is fuller of meat than ever. The
cowboy with his buckskin breeches
and his branding iron have gone TO
sleep except in the extreme south
west, and i'll his place the small far
mer with his limited range, his scien-
titic methods is supplying the nation
and lands across the seas with more
and better meat The old-time knew
his cattle by his brand; the new far
mer knows about every steer by sight.
Every one gets special care and atten-
ton; none is ever lost The waste
fulness and abandon of which men
have written SO much are gone.
Not many years ago in central
Nebraska, where the alfalfa belt and
the corn belt merge, only the blue
stem and buffalo grass waved on the
unbrolen plain. These were the days
OF the cowboys glory, even up to tf
teen years ago when'the gradual tran
sition began.
/ Vast herds Of Texas longhorns,
ranging northWard from the breeding
grounds Of the south, passed in count
less procession like the great army Of
Napoleon marching across the step
pes Of Russia. The squatter from
his sod house door beheld at dawn
the vanguard of these mammoth
herds darkening the plains. AT nigh
he saw the sun dip below the prairie's
rim and still the stragglers came.
In Nebraska the cattle men "cut
out their stockerS for fattening and
south was an ideal place for the herds
to reproduce, the Nebraska grass was
not fattening like that of South Da-
kota So the cowboys started the
herds north early in the spring and
the gigantic migrations were begun
which were to end in the killing pens
OF the Sioux City stock yards. All
through South Dakota, cropping the
succulent grass, the great herds
wandered. Here was nation S meat
on foot, tramping, tramping, to fat
ness and the slaughter.
They ranged as far north as North
Dakota, followed by the cowboys and
the chuck wagons, until fall found
them fat, sleek and surfeited Of the
rich prairie grasses. Then they were
rounded up, counted and headed for
the SHAMELESS This was the day of
beef III the abstract.
} When men Of the cattle outfit want
ed mcat they slaughtered a yearlng,
cooked the best cuts and left the
rest for the wolves. Cattle were
everywhere, but not a drop of milk
or pound of butter could have been
! bought for any price. 1t was day
Of magnificent wastefulntss. The by
: product was unheard Of. Tho hide
couldn't walk, so it was never taken
to market. Men did not know what
: 1t was to feed a steer or watch the
little details which are making the
rich farmers Of the present day.
Cattle men Of those days would
never have believed that the day
would come when the land would
be SO high and the problem so intense
that ranchers would sell the milk
from their beef cattle to add to the
profits Of the business. Y ct that day
has come in the same west the old
timer knew.
In the days when no one owned the
land and grass was as free as the air
it waved in the loss was nothing
But with cattle raised on land worth
from SO to $50 an acre, fed corn at
90 cent bushel and alfalfa hay at So
a ton, the case is reversed.
1t is a peculiar fact that the same
country through which the cattle
ranged five years ago to fatten on the
prairie grass is now al ideal section
for the other kind of cattle raising.
This is largely due to the fact that in
this same section the corn and alta fla
belts now overlap and the two pro-
ducts furnish an ideal combination
for fattening cattle most speedily and
economically. How it came to de-
velop in the new direction is partly
| history.
4 The AlaSka-Y ukon exposition eX-