The Oroville weekly gazette. [volume] (Oroville, Wash.) 1905-19??, 1918-01-11
BUMMG FOR COAST MARKET
Putting a Large Sum OF Ready Money
In Circulation Among the Cow
People Of this Section.

only industry known In OkanOgan
county, outside of perfunctory mining,
was cattle raising. The range was un-
limited. The succulent bunch grass,
the best beef making forage known,
grew riotously and cattle rolled in fat
on every hill. 1t was an ideal stock
country, and there were none to dis
pute the right of the few white men
to the free range of this wide domain.
But time crowded thes cow man into
narrow limits. 1t was found that the
soil of Okanogan was rich in the
chemical elements that insured the
bountiful production OF almost every
thing that grows in the temperate zone
and settlers looking around for homes
land of promise, and In few years
that eye-sore to the stockman, the
barbed wire of civilization. was en-
closing the broad acres in valley and
ON hill top. The limits of the range
gradually shrank, and no longer were
the hills dotted with thousands of cat
tie, no longer the picturesque and
mercurial cow boy made gaudy the
scenery or noisy the mining camp.
The cow business was not entirely
down and out, but the big herds
shrank to smaller proportions until
stock raising has become a closely
calculated and carefully conducted
business, with the grJAer housing and
feeding in the winter and depending
largely on the national forests for
summer range. The herds have been
reduced in size. That does not mean
that the cattle industry has been aban-
doned in this county. Far from it. The
herds have increased in number, if less
in size, as more men have gone into
the business on modest scale.
That there are cattle in Okanogan
county, good cattle, retaining the old
of being the best beef that
reaches the market, is fully demon
strated each year by the large ship
ments of live stock from this section.
AS stated above, single individuals
may not count their cattle by the hun
dreds, as in the old days, but many
are now in the industry of production
on smaller scale, hence in the aggre-
gate the annual output of beef is al
most, If not equally, as great as in
those days of ancient history.
A feature of the industry that has
grown up with years is the sharp
rivelry among buyers for the market
who yearly, or semi-annually, invade
the territory dickering for beef to be
turned off. These men buy for the
large packing houses. They are exper-
fenced stock men, keen in trade, tire
less in chasing down prospects, and
tenaciously sticking to prospective
sellers.
Among these buyers, the oldest in
point of service, the most successful.
taken year in and year out, and best
known among cattle men and packers
Is Jimmie Jackson, an Oroville resi-
'dent. He has been in the game for
years. He doe snot always land a pros
pect he goes after, but whether he sue
ceeds Or fails nothing ever affects his
natural cheerful disposition. A prince
of good fellows, man whose word is
as good as minted gold, there is not a
more popular resident of the county.
1t is entirely due to that popularity
and his integrety upon which there
has never been blot, that Jimmie
Jackson generally comes through the
season with the bulk of the beef buy
ing in the county to his credit.
AS showing what he has accomplish.
ed recently in the way of cattle buying
1t may be stated that during the past
fourteen weeks Mr.. Jackson has pur-
chased and shipped to the coast mar
kets 2,O33 head of cattle, and in return
for that amount of beef distributed
among the stock men of the county
the munificent sum of one hundred
and sixty.six thousand, seven hundred
and seven dollars and thirty five cents,
the 35 cents probably being his profit
what? That is some money for one
man to distribute in the northern part
OF the county for the single item OF
cattle, and it goes to show that the
stock industry is still one of very
considerable importance in Okanogan
county. And Mr.. Jackson's dealings
were only portion of the cattle sales
OF the year, although he may have
been the largest individual purchaser
and therefore the total amount oi
cash received for stock going out o.
the county must have been enormous
1t is evident from the number of head
handled and the amount of money dis.
tributed that Mr.. Jackson kept hol
foot on the beef route, not overlook
ing a chance, during the purchasing
campaign. Mr.. Jackson does not usu.