The Ronan pioneer. [volume] (Ronan, Mont.) 1910-1970, 1917-12-14

in any year since 1909. In 1909 the
shipments of western range cattle
to Chicago, including Montana's sup
ply, aggregated 342,1OO head, and
the top price paid that season was
$3.50.
This year, up to December 1, 318,-
900 western range cattle were re-
ceived at Chicago, but the top price
paid this season was $15.75, more
than twice the top price of 1909, and
the highest price ever paid in the
United States for range cattle.
An interesting table has been pre-
pared by Clay, Robinson & Co., show
ing the top prices paid for western
range cattle at Chicago for the past
80 years, and these figures tell the
story of the cattle industry in Mon
tana from it's inception.
1t is interesting to note the devel-
opment of cattle breeding in the
west, as indicated in general way
by the figures shown. For instance,
scanning the top price records of the
past 80 years, it will be found that
for the first third of that period, con-
sisting of the years 1879 to 1891, in
elusive, the average top price for the
Is years was IS per hundredweight.
The top price paid in that period of
Is years was $3.50 in 1882.
Taking the second 10 years of the
period, from 1892 to 1904, inclusive,
the average top price was 1928, an
increase of only % cents over the
preceding 13 years. The top price
for the 10 years was $40 in 1902,
and there was less contrast in prices
from year to year than in the first
period.
A Huge Increase.
A very great increase in values is
shown in the third period of 13 years,
from 1905 to 1917, inclusive, the
average top price for the period be-
ing $3.50, an increase of 1888 per
hundredweight in the average top
price for the preceding 13 years. The
highest price paid in the past Is
years is the figure mentioned above
for 1917, $15.75.
It is interesting to note that the
lowest top price ever received for
western range cattle in Chicago was
in 1879, 1885, while the high price
comes 80 years later.
The huge difference in the average
top price between the past 10 years
and the 13 years preceding that, a
difference of 1898 per hundred
weight, is a matter of considerable
interest, at it amounts to difference
of $40.56 in the average top price
of an animal weighing 1900 pounds
between the two periods.
At this time 1t is of interest to ev-
cry Montana farmer to review the
1917 range cattle market and an
alyze the causes that led to Montana
shipping twice as many range cattle
to eastern markets as were shipped
from the state in 1916. Such a re-
view has been prepared by Clay, Rob-
inson & Co., which follows in part:
An Important Year.
"Whatever the future may have in
store for them, the year 1917 will be
indelibly imprinted on the minds of
United States range cattle producers.
The year opened ominously, with a
winter of utmost severity in the
northwest that, despite heroic efforts
on the part of ranchmen and onerous
expenditures of money to provide
feed for their herds, resulted in Sc
we're death losses. TO make bad
conditions worse a cold and belated
spring followed which was accom-
panied by further enormous losses
of cattle and of money, the extent of
which have never been fairly COM
puted. Accustomed as they are to
seasons of adversely and ever striv-
ing with that spirit of aggressiveness
and mastership so commonly found
among the sturdy, strong hearts of
the west, our rangemen made little
complaint of the hardships they had
endured, and when the grazing sea-
son finally came around it found
them the poorer in We rldly possess
sions, but as richly endowed as ever
with that "sticktoitiveness" that has
made the northwest the great coun-
try that it is today. Here again,
however, climatic vicissitude interior
ed with range cattlemen's plans to
build up their herds. A dry summer,
following on the heels of the cold,
late spring and rigorous winter, made
liquidation imperative. Grass be-
came parched and water holes dried
up in many sections early in the sum-
mer and, although in other more IA
vored localities grazing conditions
were satisfactory, a steadily con-
tracing range area and the certain
ty of scarcity of winter feed and
high prices for hay and other feed
stuffs made close gathering of cat
tie for shipment either a matter of
necessity or the part of prudence.
"These conditions, with the un-
Selling Forced.
questioned fact that the west had for
two or three years previous been
engaged somewhat strenuously in
laudable efforts to increase it's bo-
vine production, and therefore had
more cattle on hand than for several
years previous, made for generous
marketward movement. Feed short
~ rt