Bismarck daily tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1881-1916, 1912-08-22
MAKE PLANS FOR
HOUSING STOCK
Northwest Farmers Prepare
For RigOrs Of Winter
While Il Is Time
Past Experience Has Served
As q Warning to Old
time StoCkmen

In planning for the coming winter
let us not forget the past One. When
we keep no more stock than We can
house, feed and care for, there will
not only be less work, worry and risk
but there will be more profits. Feed
was high last winter, ruinously high
in many parts OF the west. Much
good stock was lost because of the
scarcity and the very cold winter
combined, and there was much suffer
ing from exposure in caring for some
Of the stock that was brought
through. IT'S true we may not have
SO hard a winter again for many
years; but it is also possible that an
v trying one is just ahead
of us. Too much feed can generally
be disposed Of at a profit. At the
worst, II but put up well, it can be
carried owe and stock, increased to
profitably consume it later, but to be
short of feed is to invite loss, and
often it insures work and exposure
Of the most trying kind. Referring
to experiences Of this kind last win
ter right in u own territory, the
American Sheep Breeder says:
"A striking example Of the hard
ships Of u cold winter is the ex-
perience of shelby Ball and his right
men who endeavored to save 5000
sheep. The band first ran out OF
food e a Finger Buttes, Montana,
where the snow was so deep that
no grazing on tho open range was
possible. They moved to Belle
Fourche, s. D., a distance Of 60 miles.
The trail was blazed by a snow pillow.
In order to get feed along the route,
four-horse teams hauled hay from
Belle Fourche, the wagons being com-
peeled to bt<ak the road on account
OF deep snow. This hay cost $40 per
ton, and the expense of hauling it
made the cost exceed SIS per ton. 1t
took 16 days to make the sixty.mile
trip, but only 300 sheep were lost in
making it,
This is but n instance of many
where most heroic efforts along with
heavy loss and a great expenditure OF
money was required to prevent the
absolute wiping out of the savings OF
years Not a few lost all the sheep
they had. Many of our new settlers
are misled in the matter of providing
both food and shelter for stock, by
over sanguine boomers, or downright
rascals. They are told, as we were
the first year in Dakota, that the win.
ters were mild, little or no snow fell,
and as a rule stock could get most OF
their own living. We were caught
just once by this shameful misstate4
ment of facts, and ever after had ev.
erything comfortably Sheltered, and
ample feed for a six months siege
hauled either under cover or near
where the stock was to be wintered
There has not passed a single winter
since then when the feed was not
needed. Nor one when it's nearness
to the barns and sheds did not have
good money. Ours is not a mild eli
mate. The winters as a rule are Sc
we're and long, but we have few If
any winters when stock cannot be
comfortably and safely carried
through and easily cared for, If prop.
er feed and shelter, such as is pro-
vided for stock in other northern
countries, is made ready for them.
ne sooner we drop these false ideas,
handed down from old time stock
gamblers, who were satisfied if only
half their cattle persisted every three
years, and all did not die oftener
than once in seven, and put up feed
and shelter, just as all other far north
sections do, the better for us and for
the future of the stock business.-Da.
Farmor