Baraboo weekly news. [volume] (Baraboo, Wis.) 1912-197?, 1912-02-08
DRY FARMING IN
SOUTH DAKOTA
No Rain Fell For Nine
Long Months During
Last Year.
(From Mondays Daily.)

The following letter is from Mrs w.
III. Beaver of Baraboo who is visiting
her daughter, Mrs. Grace Lewis, at
Belle Fourche, South Dakota:
During my visit in South Dako I
have seen and heard many things of
extreme interest to myself and taking
it for granted that they will be inter.
es ing TO the News readers as well,
will take the liberty of asking you
to print this open letter for the readers
of this paper.
western states have had an exception
ally hard winter. Our conception of
South Dakota has always been that it
i a country of cold winters with
much snow. At Belle Fourche this
winter there fell more snow than had
ben on the ground for six years.
Seds were in use for the first time in
five winters. In this country there
has been an open winter usually, stock
of Ill kinds remaining on the open
"a ge all winter. There are a few
facts of interest [ wi give. Belle
Fourche for many years has been the
largest shipping point for sheep and
cattle in the United States Single
firms ship as many as $4,000 cattle ia
a season. The steers here run wild on
the ranges for three years; then they
are rounded up, sorted and shipped to
market; and they are remarkably fat
and in fine condition. They have
nothing at all except the short grass
that abounds and will often round up
at three years of age weighing fifteen
hundred pounds. The ranchmen are
breeding almost Herfords entirely and
fine sight it is to see big bunch of
these cattle just off the range, fat and
sleek and wild as cattle can be.
They Starve and Freeze.
No shelter of any kind is ever pro-
vided for the majority of the cattle,
the ranchmen taking chance on
having an open winter. This winter
has been extremely hard on all tie
stock. Hundreds of cattle have
frozen and starved to death. When
the snow falls heavily and crusts over
they cannot paw to tle grass and
as no hay is stacked for them they
simply grow thinner and thinner and
finally starve and freeze.
The hard winters, however, are
much more disastrous 10 sheep than to
cattle, Sheep cannO5 shift for them
selves at all. When the storms come
they simply pile up in the draws,
small guIlies with which the country
abounds, and smother or freeze to
death. One man knew Of lost four
hundred in single night; another
started to drive into town fourteen
hundred head and reachet here with
four hundred. They starved and
froze. 1t is an actual fact that they
died SO fast that the herders could
hardly keep the road open for the live
ones to pass.
Wonderful Sheep Dogs.
A word about the way they raise
sheep. In Wisconsin if man has a
hundred sheep he has a big bunch.
Here one has 1900 and calls it fair
bunch. They are in charge of a
herder and his assistants, couple Of
valuable sheep dogs. These dogs are
truly wonderful in their intelligence.
Two dogs will handle 1900 sheep per-
| fectIy with a herder to direct them.
They work entirely By signs. very few
words being spoken. 1t is quite a
distance across bunch of 1900 sheep
80 the dogs are trained 20 work by
signals of the hands. II is really a
beautiful sig to se3 couple of good
dogs work the sheep. Tney seem TO
possess human intelligence, they turn
the sheep wherever they wish and
keep them together all the time,
no AXE the laggards hurry to stay with
the bunch and protect them from
coyotes. 1t is always said that a
her.ier and two dogs can do more
with sheep than dozen men.
The coyotes and wolves are great
menace to the sheep. They stay
about a bunch all the time, hoping
to pick off a lamb or stray sheep
now and then, often making a
raid ct night, killing a dozen OF
more. Wolves and coyotes attack
sheep differently, wolves hamstring
them and coyotes cut the throat.
All herders are provided with rifles
and poison to help protect their
charges.
Shear $4,000 Sheep.
Each snrino the sheep are driven to