Plentywood herald. [volume] (Plentywood, Mont.) 1908-current, 1931-03-05

veal IlOt lCoS lildIl ou,OOU llCdu. A~uiiiCi-
Gus other individuals and firms essayed
to keep on the ranges anywhere from
10, 1000 to IS 900 head. The vastness Of
the business conducted by these cattle
kings and their allied barons and
princes is seen in the fact that at and
during the height of the grazing and
marketing operations and shipments
averaged from 5000 to 5000 for each
81 the numerous large companies OPP
Grating cattle outfits. The yearly profit,
after deducting the original cost, which
included the importation charges in
cident to the trailing the steers up
from the south, and for maintenance
on the range for about two years, was
from $4,000 to $4,000, all derived
from the free ranges of the govern
ment, given without taxation of any
kind whatever.
To understand the situation more
clearly, it must be remembered that
the broad regions utilized by the cattle
kings were not intersected by fences.
The land was not disturbed by the
pillow nor graced by fields Of grain
during the major period of the two
decades when the royalty OF cowland
ruled with a heavy hand. No obstacles
appeared for miles and miles to thwart
the operations of the numerous COW
outfits. The nutritious grasses af-
forded excellent forage for maturing
and finishing the steer. In the late
fall the grass cured On the prairie,
like clover and timothy in the stack,
and served equally for food in the dead
of winter as in the heat of summer.
Each spring there was poured into
the eastern Montana grazing lands the
gaunt, ill-shaped, long-horned and
lean-ribbed southern cattle. They were
left to roam at will over the wide ex-
panse of range country. They thrived,
waxed fat until within the period Of
about two years they became sleek and
fat and fit as beef stock to grace the
tables of the inhabitants of the United
States. During the time these south
ern cattle grazed on the free lands Of
eastern Montana they were untram-
meled as ever were the buffalo. At the
close of the maturing period they were
rounded up, driven to the shipping cor
rails of the railroad and loaded on cars
to take their last trip to the packing
centers of the nation.
Year after year fresh importations
from the south brought more cattle
when the processes of finishing were
repeated. The profits that were known
to accrue from the business tempted
thousands of small holders of cattle
to settle in eastern Montana. They
engaged in the beef producing business
on a small scale. 1t was the begin
ming of the end of the rule of the
kings. The close Of the dynasty Of the
regal house of cowland was approach
ing. The presence of the smaller OPP
orators meant the inevitable doom Of
the cattle mOnarchS. Their vast herds
were no longer allowed to roam the
ranges undisturbed. During the reg
nant period of the cattle kings there
also appeared on the horizon of their
domain an intruder with a band Of
sheep. His presence was resented. The
years were marked by conflict, when
the cowboys engaged the sheep owner
and his herders with the intention Of
driving him away. Losses were sus-
tanned by the sheepmen, but he per-
sisted. AS the smaller cattle operator
came in, he had no quarrel with the
s~heepherder. Together they gradually
broke up the territory and restricted
the grazing operations of the once
powerful kings.
The small ranchman built fences.
He enclosed the water holes. He estab-
liShed his home in the center of his
holdings and protected them against
intrusion and trespass. With the in
creasing influx of settlers, the govern
ment sent in its surveying crews and
the terrain was blocked out into Sec-
tons and these were sub-divided into
half and quarter sections. Cheap lands
were offered to the people. They came
by the hundreds. Clerks from the
stores, messengers and under-off1cers
from the banks, b~oOkkeepers, tenant
farmers, in fact, a flotsam and jetsam
Of humanity f1ocked in from all quar-
tiers of the country to become the
beneficiaries of the governments offer
Of free homesteads.
The prairies were made to yield to
the moving machine. The former free
grass was cut and stacked as hay until
many ranges we're denuded of the
natural feed upon which the herds OF
the larger cattle operators were ma
tured. Such conditions we're response
BILE for the closing. out of the cattle
princes. There was room no longer
for their thousands Of beeves.
With the restrictions brought about
by the encroachment Of the smaller
cattle operator and the coming in OF
the settler and h~omesteader, the Sc
verify of the winters in the closing
years of the nineteenth century brought
additional hardships. In the course
of one winter alone, $4,000 head Of
cattle, the property of one Of the larger
outfits, succumbed to the severity OF
the weather for no other reason than
that the range had been denuded OF
grass by the numerous smaller ranch
ers.
This fact amounted to a warning
that the most obstinate of the once