Evening star., 1934-10-07
BY F. BEVERLY KELLEY.

lyrics and the Crisp hard-DOueo YER
nacular of an army lieutenant in
charge of one of the largest herds OF
cattle in the world, the ranch OF the
Ohio Relief Commission.
mile north of Delaware, Ohio, near the
site of Old Fort Morrow, the 300-acre cattie
tract lies along the lazy Olentangy, where the
Delaware tribes sat around their fiickering
campfires a century and half ago.
On this range there are upward Of 10000
Federal drought cattle, purchased by the Gov
ernment in the Northwest and Southwest, where
lack Of water and forage wrote move or die"
signal across the burning horizons OF the
drought areas. The Federal plan is to buy TO-
oOO, 900 head of CATTLE $40, 900 of which will be
allocated to Ohio where this largest OF emer-
gency ranges is located.
Nearly every day they come-in trainloads
of so, 60, 80 and 100 cars. Some are dead or
injured when the cars are unloaded, but the
vast ma jority mill through the pens and out on
the rolling Ohio SOIL gratefully wading into the
cool river that twists through the range like
giant horseshoe.
These cattle are fattened and shipped out In
trucks that carry them to Ohio packing plants
for slaughterng. The meat then will be sent
to relief canning factories and prepared Tor dis
tribution to a quarter of million needy FAM
lilies throughout the Buckeye State this Win
ter.
] Already there are nearly 300 men employed
the range, and the weekly pay roll is $1,000.
The quiet little community of Delaware, for
nearly a century the home of Ohio wesleyan
University has taken many of the aspects
of boom cow town.
Every day an unending cavalcade of hay
trucks rumble through the Streets and at all
hours huge trucks leave with cattle to Cincin-
natl packers Every Saturday night the cow
punchers come to town. attired in chaps, loud
shirts, high-heel boots and sombreros. Proud
of its ideal advantages for this tremendous
Government project, the town has gone West
ern" to the exclusion of nearly all other inter-
ests
Arriving on long freight trains, the starving
beasts from the Dakotas, Nebraska and the
Southwest soon brought the local cattle census
up to 5000. The night of July Is, when Bruce
Burgess and Ben Vincent of the State Com
modify Distribution Department. were asked to
find beds for 5000 Federal drought cattle at
once touched of the fireworks
After that, the cattle arrived almost faster
than they could be accommodated. 1t was nee
eSsary for a number of local business men to
put down their prosaic tasks and assist at the
range while organization was in the making.
Four and one-half minutes were required to.
unload each car on the first shipments. This
time soon reduced to a mere two minutes.
About 1,100 cows can be parked in the loading
pens when the rush periods on.
The stork has not neglected the Government
range. Calves are born daily at the ranch
and many are born on the trains. One little
dogie lost his ma during the unloading and there
was rest among the sympathetic COW punch
ers until a foster mother had been found and
the orphan allowed to lunch contentedly.
There is a "sick corral" under the expert
supervision of Dr. Joseph Derivan. His ma
ternity ward" now boasts hot and cold running
water. and his newest arrvals-twin calves
find life pretty smooth proposition.
NEVER on any ranch was there such mix
ture of strains there is the Delaware
tract. Here, shorthorns Jerseys Herefords, Hol-
stems, Guernseys and Texas longhorns present
as strange bovine panorama as ever haunted
the dreams of a tipsy cowboy. There even are
some of the sacred cattle of 4rahma origin.
Range authorities at a loss to account for
their presence but believe they may have found
their way into this country through Mexico and
probably before that from the Argentine. Most
imposing of these Hindu cattle is Romeo q
great bull with savage disposition. This
breed, however, once tanned can be handled like
oxen, and they are much more intelligent than
oxen.
Probably the most interesting inmates Of the
Federal drought range are the descendants Of
cattle that originally were bred with buffalo.
Range executives say that these strange crea-
lures probably came from the Anthony Jarvis
ranch in the Southwest. They distinguished
by their wide heads, almost shaggy in outline.
massive shoulders and slim hips. Bison char
acteristics are plainly visible, even though it has
been many years since the ancestors Of these
cattle roamed the plains in wild state and
bred with native buffalo.
More than 800 tons of hay were consumed
daily by the visitors" when the range at