Democratic Sentinel, Volume 20, Number 41, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 16 October 1896 — FORSAKE BY MAN. [ARTICLE]

FORSAKE BY MAN.

VAST HERD OF 125,000 HORSES THAT ROAM THE WEST. Owners Ready to Give Them Away—Electricity and the Bicycle Reducing the Noble Animal to His First EstateImagine a herd of horses aggregating 125,000 for which no practical use can be found. Stockmen of the Northwest are to-day considering what disposition can be made of this immense number of animals. This great herd roams the prairies of Montana, North Dakota, Washington and Northern Idaho. They are grazing upon grass that is required for the sustenance of cattle and sheep, and are practically worthless for any purpose. The cause of this serious condition is due to the bicycle and to street car systems operated by electricity and by cable, the use of which within the last few years has so largely done away with the employment of horses. In some of the districts named the horses are increasing so rapidly in numbers that they are actually crowding live stock, used for supplying the meat markets of the country, off ranges where they find grass on which to subsist.. The men who own this vast number of horses, ranging, as they do, over such a large expanse of territory, can devise no means of relief, and they are practically helpless. Excellent horses, unbroken, can be bought for from $5 to sls a head, but even at this low figure no buyers can be found, while the horses too valuable to be destroyed, and at the same time too expensive to keep alive, continue to multiply. As a result of the policy adopted by the Northern Pacific and other railroad companies of the Northwest, after measures were adopted by the government to circumscribe and keep the Indians within certain bounds, the great ranges at one time occupied by the elk, buffalo, deer and antelope were quickly taken up by capitalists who, having heard of the fame of this region as hunting grounds, established ranches there and began raising stock on a large scale. Hundreds of thousands of dollars were invested in cattle and large herds of stock bought inTexas, Arizona, and other states and territories in the Southwest and driven to the rich ranges in Northern Idaho, North Dakota, Washington and Montana to fatten on the nutritious bunch grass which grows so luxuriantly there. Immense fortunes were made in this way and cattle kings were numbered by the score. Many capitalists invested in sheep and raised wool, but the rapid increase in the herds and changes in the tariff laws so affected prices that it was found that the investment no longer paid. Among these stockmen were many who raised large herds of horses, either separately or in conjunction with cattle. When the Northern Pacific Railroad was completed much greater accessibility to the horse markets of the East was possible. So encouraging was the investment in horses that many owners increased their herds to as high as ten or twelve thousand head. Attention was given to raising finer grades of horses and abandoning the half breed and bronco grades. Large draught horses, at one time, fouirr ready sale in the Eastern States and in Europe. It was also thought that there would be an excellent market for horses in large cities where street car companies use these animals for motive power. For a number of years there was much profit in raising stock for street car use, but when electricity and the cable system were adopted the profits in horse raising gradually diminished until, Instead of there being gains, there was a constant loss. Importations of fine breeding stock from Kentucky and Eastern States, as well as from England and Scotland, were made, but it was found that the horse industry was on the decrease. Shipments to Eastern and Middle Western states over one railroad alone dropped from 10,000 head yearly to 2,000. To such an extent did the market depreciate that instead of making money horse owners found that they stood a good chance of going into bankruptcy. Then the bicycle eame into general use and the horse raising industry received its final blow. Those who had been in the habit of using saddle horses found that a bicycle did not require to be “broken in,” nor did it require feeding or stabling, while in many ways the machine was capable of being applied to greater use than a horse. This surplus of 125,000 horses consists not alone of bronchos or cattle horses, but in it may be found such stock as coach and Clydesdale horses, nearly all of which, however, are unbroken. Among them pre the descendants of some very high priced stallions. One rancher near Walla Wallla, Wash., has 3,000 horses on his range, all of which are finely bred. These he is willing to sell at $lO per head, “big and little,” as the saying is among cattle men, which means colts as well as the grown animal. He can find no purchaser for his stock. The question which is now agitating these stockmen is, “What can be done to rid the ranges of this immense number of horses, in order that pasturage may be provided for the large herds of cattle and sheep?” For cattle of this description an amount of pasturage is required which a person other than a stockman or one conversant with the situation cannot imagine. Of course, there is no feeding in that part of the country for cattle during winter, for they range out of doors during the entire year; therefore they must depend for food entirely upon the bunch and other grass which grows- on the prairies and in the mountains. In 1895 an experiment was made with a view of providing a way out of the trouble. A plant was established at Portland, Ore., for the purpose of slaughtering horses and canning the meat for export to France. The plant was operated less than one year, however, but it did not succeed. Horsemen then sought to induce beef slaughtering, packing and rendering establishments in the United States to take horses for slaughtering purposes, but the attempt failed. The packing house ' owners absolutely declined to add horse ; slaughtering and canning to their beef ! slaughtering industry, on the ground I *hat if jt became generally known that

they were canning horse meet the sale of their canned beef would be materially affected, if not entirely destroyed. Proprietors of rendering establishments refused to go West to buy horses “from the range,” for the reason that they jvere able to obtain in the cities all the discarded horses they needed at a few dollars per head, or at the slight cost of hauling them from different parts of cities to their establishments. Horse owners in the West were thus again disappointed in finding a market for their stocks in large cities as they had expected.—New York Herald.