The Fargo forum and daily republican. [volume] (Fargo, N.D.) 1894-1957, 1910-05-21


placed upon tho alfalfa fields In that
valley.
When within few days drive Of
the valley no less than four different
men rode out to meet the herd TO Sc
cure the cattle for their fields. They
offered the very best of alfalfa hay at
three dollars ton dn the stack, with
the use Of the fields about them for
feeding during the two months when
the alfalfa doesn't grow there. As
Tor the green feed, they offered to en-
ter into contracts for green alfalfa
pasturage as soon as the weather per-
mitted. at 20 cents per head per month,
and not count calves, of which there
would be many.
| Today the stockman wishing to feed
cattle or stock Of any kind there must
needs look UP the alfalfa farmer and
plead with him for the hay or pastur-
age. His hay IL now worth from eight
to ten dollars ton On the stack, and
| pasturage has crawled up to two and
three dollars a month per head.
Exactly the same conditions prevail
in the great alfalfa-raising regions of
Colorado and other western states.
When they discovered the great feed
ing value of cotton seed and it's hulls,
which previously had been treated as a
waste and burned to get It out of the
way, the stuff could be had for the
hauling away. Then it's value began to
rise, until today II costs the stockmen
at the cotton-gins somewhere around
$1S per ton, and the price is still rising.
Corn, too. has steadily crept up the
a a A.
so cents per bushel for corn this
winter-that Is, those who have the
nerve to tackle steer-feeding with corn
at those prices are doing so.
Meantime, well-meaning government
officials were straining every nerve to
open up new avenues for our food pro-
ducts abroad. Take corn, for instance.
Foreigners knew almost nothing about
the food values of corn, either for man
or beast. Well-posted agents were sent
abroad to educate the foreigners to
the use of our corn products All over
Europe they went, talking. advertising
and showing with true American ag-
gressiveness the great benefits of corn
as a food. Their work was indeed
well done.
Much the same conditions have as
sisted in the rise in values of cotton
seed and hulls for stock feeding pur-
poses. When the southern cotton
ginners found their once despised
waste was worth something, they were
not content with the local demand, but
set about finding new outlets for its
sale. The supply was apparently UNI
limited and the demand at first very
mn 4
abroad. A sort of educational campaign
was begun with most excellent results.
The German farmers especially took
kindly to the food. 1t furnished them
in a highly concentrated form a fat
producing element for which their
needs were very great. They knew a
good thing when they saw 1t, and to-
day the export demand for cotton-seed
and hulls is almost. If not quite, as
large as the home consumption. Look
ing at the matter from one point of
view we seem to have been hoist with
our own petard, in that we now need
the material, both corn and cotton
seed, right here at home for our own
uses . .e-
One Of the most potent factors en-
tering into the cost Of meat produc-
ton in the United States is the ytreS
mendous rise in land values all over
the Dakotas, at one time doubtless the
best open ranges for raising we
had, the inroads of the settlers early.
in the nineties forced out almost all
the larger steer handling outfits, and
the business of moving great numbers
of young southern steers to the north
ern ranges has since then rapidly
dwindled.
The same conditions followed all over
the range country. In eastern New
Mexico, western Texas and southeast
ern Colorado the settlers, especially the
dry farmers" swept down upon the
stockmen's ranges like an invading
army. The prairies were dotted with
their little shacks as far as the eye
could see, while their wire fences cut
up the range to such an extent that
the herds could not be handled to
reach many well-known shipping
points.
The Handwriting on the Wall.
Many OF the great herds, both. sheep
and cattle, were gathered up and ship
ped away to be dumped upon the mar
ket for what they would bring. and
their owners quit the business in dis
gust
In Texas the big stockmen generally
have recouped themselves for their
losses in cattle by the rise in land
values. Pasture lands there, especially
on the stake Plains" which had gone
begging for years at dollar an acre,
jumped rapidly to So $40 and as high
as $50 an acre, under the impetus of
this new farming system, plus one of
the most gigantic colonization schemes
the world has seen.
To raise cattle on land valued at
such prices and make a profit was an
impossibility. 1t took from fifteen to
thirty acres to raise an animal when
the grass alone WAS the feed and the