Gunnison news-champion., 1924-05-09
gather beef off Of the winter range,
in February and March

gather beef off of the winter ranges
In February and March.
Then the country began TO be settied
up and this In turn WAS followed by
the $40 acre Homestead Act which has
taken away practically .ur entire
sp-inR and fall range. compelling us &c
keep our stock on our home ranches
or or ave % months % on the Forest Forest Reserve. Re- aU"
This last has meant added investment
with little or no returna for II takeh
homestead to keep cow from tw. t.
two and one half months In 'he spring.
In other words. since you and ] have
been engaged in the catti. industry 4
to pasture proposition-
And what were the economic CON-
ditions which hit US at the time we.
were going thru this transition period
". W until ,h isia or rather from 1885 %
fairly weli.-he figured closely and his
dollar would buy one hundred cents
1f purchases and his expenses were
In 1914 the European war broke out
and with the millions OF men In Etrope
tsken from the neld OF production 10
with that of other commoditics bcRar
neither before nor after the time tha;
the actual producers Of cattle in Cole
rado-Amen like you and ! who have
Deen raising our own stock instead OF
:dyI :dd,pp,nE IN steer. 70 Erase-get much
Ins government wanted big steers,
quality Old not count. Yeariing steers
% quality: tuch ~ your Gunnison year.
the market and were only used for
local or home consumption.
Along With this incsease in price
shinsry and the many tSina:; SSa; We sa'% %sS %sc ;c
buy. dollar then. a. now. would buy
not much more than half what Il did
Then We were tempted The loan
compe niles and banks wanted to loan
money snd the government urged us.
e patrlotic citisens to raise more food.
argue ourselves into. A man. could run
500 head Of stock with the same AMOUNT
o. help that Il took to handle 200 head
more. Most of us did and this is what
lE the fan of 1913. good COW. were
sell At home. from $50 to SO Z head.
The following fail. after An expensive
winter Of SIX months feed bili, the
calls. towards the end OF which We had
TO pay BIS to $50 . ton for hay-these
same cattle were worth not to exceed
iss, % tsey .s ss ns.d. arss The foi,Sw,ns year
head and my opinion 10 that they are
worth about that much today.
luc reSuit was tn0t Oonk0 held cat
the paper supposed TO be loaned ON
rood security. whose valuation had
no equity left. either for the hank or
FOR the owner =
Then people began to realize that
something had happened to the cattle
The kovernment at waship<ton did
What II could under tho circumstances.
u passed an emergency tariff to stop
the importation into this country Of
frozen meats: hides. mutton and wool
from South America and Australia ii
seems that while the ships OF the
world were busy transporting soldiers
ammunition and food to Europe and
after the Armistice. bringing them
home again. Australia and South Amer
lea had beer. .accumulating . great sur
plus OF cattle. hldess wool and mutton.
The United States was the only coun-
try whose money. was worth par and
whoee people had sufficient means 70
purchaee these products Even Holland
could ship pOtatoes into the New Eng
I1en4 states cheaper than the farmers
of Maine could raiae ehesn and carry
then 20 their ON merketsx due to the
08erooce IN the rates Of exchange.
A. result OF all this and because the
u q - not e that ti1o 50 n % ~