The Bozeman courier. (Bozeman, Mont.) 1919-1954, 1922-11-08

exhausted n by the war
finance corporation to banks and cat
tie loan companies have relieved the
banking situation but will not save
the livestock. Cowmen are mortgag-
ing their ranches TO buy hay. Losses
from the slump in prices of cattle
are heavy, and individual herders and
cattle firms will be helpless to save
their stock. Losses of half a million
head in eastern Oregon last winter
will reach into millions of the COM
winter is not mild and Open" Col.
Hofer appeared before the national
humane convention in st. Paul with
a plea for the range stock and advo-
Gates state and national action to
save the industry from terrible losses
if the coming winter is a hard one.
Asked what could be done to pre-
vent injury and disaster to livestock
the law to starve a domestic animals
on the ranges, he said: There must
be legislation to make 1t a crime to
withhold ~sustenance from livestocK
on the ranges, just as 1t is against
the law to starve domestic animals
in cities under most state laws. Gus
tom and tradition permit owners OF
herds and flocks and managers of
cattle and sheep corporations to live
in comfort in cities and winter in Cal
ifornia and Florida, while their dumb
animals freeze, starve and die OF
thirst by millions on the ranges. A
herd may lose 10 to 60 per cent in
winter and the remainder come out
skin and bones and nothing is said
and nothing done. If the price goes
up they make it back on the surviv-
ors. The last government statistics
for the winter of 1918-19 show q
/ 247,O00 cattle, 100000 sheep and a
vast number of lambs persisted from
starvation. A few years ago nearly
the entire cattle industry of Montana
and Nevada was wiped out by freeZ-
! ing and starving. The stock rustic In
two to four feet of snow and break
through the ice and drown trying to
get to the water in rapidly rushing
rivers partly frozen over
"In one valley in a western state
700 head of white-faced cattle starved
while hay just over a slight ridge
was held at $50 a ton. Our humane
officer last January found herds dy-
ing of starvation and eating willows
and trees, with hay stacks on all
sides Of them and not a ton for sale.
Greed and inhumanity to creatures
that supply our nation with food and
clothing have been carried too far.
The department of commerce and ag-
riculture can do much to relieve dam
ger Of losses of millions of stock that
it will take three to five years to re-
place. The states must act. The
The county farm agent law should
be extended to include livestock, and
county farm agents should be given
the power to 10 starving stock or
feed it through the winter, with pow
Ell to commander hay and make it a
first lien against stock, to take prece-
dence over all other claims. The
right to keep the herd alive comes
first, and if this right does not exist,
then it should be granted.
"The great cattle range country is
in a transition stage. Settlers are
~crowding in and fencing more and
more land. Large cattle companies
the best of them-have fenced lands
and provide water, feed and shelter.
The shoe-stringer still operates by
, the hundreds and is the cause of a
great share of the loses in winter. He
i being crowded out by the settlers,
and the western organizations of
wool-growers are demanding that he
be given no leases. Rules and regu-
! lations on the forest reserve require
that leases for paturing livetock be
granted only to owners of cattle anC
sheep who are able to show owner
ship OF ranch lands and ability. tt
take care of stock when it is takeI
off the reserve. That practically ex
cludes the shoe-stringer from the for
o est reserves and has reduced fatal
S ties to livestock. The shoe-stringerop
crates without owning a foot of lam
and generally without credit or cap
ital, taking his chances to make
winning on an open winter when hi
stock will get through without losse;
Some way must be found to hold hir
responsible for losses to his herds
The shoe-stringer or irresponsible
herder should be shut off the feder;
and state range lands as he is off tn
es forest reserves"