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

i
what data there are leads to the belief
that In the entire United States there
were in the neighborhood of fifty mdl-
lion head of cattle of all classes.
About that time began the expansion
of the range-cattle business. Texas
with probably seven million cattle on
her vast ranges found herself with a
surplus OF that kind of livestock. Men
down there were cattle poor. There
were no railroads and their only OUT
let was by trail. Stock cattle were not
worth much. Herds changed hands at
| from three to five dollars per head,
counting steers, with the calves thrown
in for good measure The building OF
the railroad across the plains of Kan
sas opened up a new market for these
overstocked Texans and they were
quick to avail themselves of it's pos
sibilities
Then followed the halcyon days of
the Texas trails. Hundreds of thous-
ands Of cattle went north from these
ranges to be shipped from the new
railroad points at Dodge, Abilene and
other noted shipping centers. The
eastern country was deluged with
cheap free grass" cattle and the farm
ers of the states raised great cutlery
against their coming, claiming 1t meant
the ruin of their farming industry II
allowed to continue.
The extension of railroads into the
west gradually stopped the trail work,
but the cattle continued to go out over
the rails in even greater numbers than
ever. The Texans also spread out in
their business to the extent of stock
ing up with cattle the open ranges to
the north Of them. Kansas and Ne
braska at first, then the Dakotas, Mon
tana, Colorado. Wyoming and other
northwestern states were filed wa.u
southern cows. These enterprising
trail men worked even into Utah, Cal
fornia and Oregon with their herds.
The Deadly Winter of Eishty-six
Then came the winter Of 1888 which
put a crinp into the "Etu-range bust
ness all over that region. Hundreds Of
prosperous cowmen found themselves
ruined and with but handful of their
original stock left in the spring which
followed that never-to- be-forgotten
winter.
For the ten years succeeding 1886
the cattle business above the northern
line of Arizona, New Mexico and Ok
lahoma was almost entirely a steer
fattening one. The young steers were
shipped north from the southwestern
ranges in the early spring. grazed for
two years and then shipped to the
eastern markets. The cost of this
method of steer handling was some
baf tor ri
tenn of management.
statement of the cost Of running
one of the most successful steer-hand-
ling outfits in South Dakota during
this period shows that, counting I'm
terest on the capital, freight, losses
from winters and other causes, and
all other items OF expense, there was
an average outlay Of fifteen dollars
per head on each steer from the day
he left the southern ranges until he
was safely landed in the stockyards of
Chicago or Kansas City. AS the aver
age price of a two-year- old steer at
point Of purchase was about fifteen
dollars, the finished product cost the
steer handler about thirty dollars.
During this second period the steer
raisers at both ends Of the line made
good money on their product, and the
people of the United States were eat
ing not only the best, but in all prob
ability the cheapest, beef they will ever
have placed before them. ...
During this period the cost of raising
cattle on the southwestern ranges, ac-
ccrd:ng to the books of one of the
largest cattle companies of Arizona,
was not over one dollar per head a
year. That is, excluding losses and
interest On capital invested, a two
year-old steer stood them in in but
two dollars for his raising.
If the ranges could have been kept
at their maximum carrying capacity
and the losses from dry years elimi-
mated, the country would no doubt still
be eating cheap beef. But the evils
of overstocking, together with a sue
cession of dry years, swept some of
the ranges almost bare of cattle in
the winter of 1898 +.
When Feed was Cheap. 81
During this second period, between
1885 and 1896 all farm products were
very low in price, with a general up
ward tendency toward the close OF the
period. Farmers with feed to sell, such
as hay, corn or pastures, were offering
all sorts of inducements to Western
stockmen to bring their cattle to them
for feed. Pastures could be rented in
the prairie states like Kansas and Ne
braska for 25 cents per bushel, and one
remembers with amusement the row
we raised one year in the early part of
the period when, owing to a dry sum-
mer. we had to pay that price for corn
in southern Kansas.
In the alfalfa raising regions of the
west the same conditions existed. Take
the great Salt river valley in Arizona
as an example. In the year 1890
herd of five hundred head of mixed