Rensselaer Semi-Weekly Republican, Volume 34, Number 26, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 29 November 1901 — FROM THE CATTLE AND SHEEP RANGES OF THE GREAT WEST [ARTICLE+ILLUSTRATION]

FROM THE CATTLE AND SHEEP RANGES OF THE GREAT WEST

URING one week in December of JR) each year 2.000 men who represent QzJ what is said to be the largest industry in the world hold their annual con▼ention in Chicago. These men are the delegates of the 8,000,000 live stock raisers of the United States. They repre•efitThe oWfters of nearly 50,000,900 -cattle and as many sheep, and a total capital investment of $4,500,000,000,--Moat of the delegates to this annual convention of the National Live Stock Association come from the great cattle sad ranges of the far West, Whence come also most of the cattle and sheep which feed not only the United States but a constantly increasing proportion of the civilized world. As a rule they are quiet, well-dressed, prosperous men, used to the good things of the world and accustomed to handling large business affairs. A visitor to their ranch houses on the western prairies and mountain slopes would probably be surprised to find oriental rugs on their floors, grand pianos in their parlors, and all the luxuries of modern life at their elbows, for they are men who like to live well and who are not afraid to spend their money. At the same time a visitor to the cattle country would look almost in vain for the cattle baron of ten years ago. Within that time the cattle business has been completely revolutionized, and instead of a few hundred men practically controlling the cattle and sending out great herds of 100,000 or more head each, there are now millions of owners, and the great bulk of the beef cattle run in herds of a few huhdreu. Less than ten years ago the cattle shipped in to the great markets from the ranges were all “long horns,” and they went .directly to the stoek yards from the ranges to be cut up into beef. These long horns were surprisingly hardy. As cattlemen put it, they were the best "hustlers” in the world. They could live "on air” and could stand almost any amount of hardship and privations. Also they were cheap, and a loss of a few hundred head in a blizzard did not mean much to the owner of 100,000 when he could buy others for from $5 to $lO

each. They were sent to market when they were 5 to 7 years old, and they brought about 3% or 4 cents a pound on the hoof. Now the cattle bred on the western ranges are grade short horns and are brought to maturity and market when they are 2-year-olds on the average. Nor does the man on the cattle range ship his cattle directly to the market. All but a small proportion of them are sold as “feeders.” That is, as soon as the young steers have got their growth they are taken off the ranges and sold to farmers and dealers in the great corn raising States. The average “feeder” weighs 800 or 900 pounds, and the stockman gets 4 cents a pound for it. The corn raiser feeds it on corn for five ot six months, by the end of which time the “feeder” weighs from 1,200 to 1,500 pounds, and is sent to the stock yards as “prime - beef,” where it brings as high as 7 cents, or even a fraction more, a pound. In other words, the present cattle raiser of the great West sells his 2-year-olds at present for at least as much money as he got for his 5-year-old long horns five years ago. At the same time the man who prepared “feeders” for the market makes a profit not only of several cents a pound, but also adds from 300 to 000

pounds to each of the cattle he handles. This revolution in the business haa been brought about by the substitution of pure bred beef cattle for the old long horns. These pure bred animals not only mature in one-third of the time taken by the “Texas steers,” but they furnish a much better .article jSI beef. They cannot be left to take care of themselves, however, as could the old long horns. They must be given much m'ore attention and must also be protected from undue exposure and privation. Where a long horn would go out and rustle a good living for himself one of the new grade steers would lay down and die. Consequently it is no longer possible for a man to handle so many of them, and the average size of the herds has been cut down to less than one-ten th their old size. The gradual settlement by homesteaders of the most fertile parts of the old cattle ranges has also had its effect in cutting down the size of the herds. It is also true that within the last five years hundreds of cattlemen have gone out of that business and started into the raising of sheep. The demand for both wool and mutton has been an increasing one, and the sheep men have been as a rule exceedingly prosperous. This great increase in the number of sheep men has necessarily greatly cut down the amount of country which is open to the cattlemen, and as a consequence there is at present a bitter rivalry on between the breeders of sheep and cattle. In many instances this rivalry has broken out into open warfare, and in some of the Western States the cattlemen are organized for the purpose of keeping out the sheep at the point of the Winchester rifle. On one occasion in Colorado, where the fight between the cattle and sheep men reached the climax of violence, the cattlemen at night rode down upon the flock of a bold herder, started the sheep down a mountain road in a wild panic and never stopped until most of them had been driven over a high precipice to destruction. To appreciate the bitterness of feeling which exists between the two classes of live stock men it is necessary to understand something about the results of feeding sheep in a cattle country.

Up-to-Date Beef Steer

Old-Time Long Horn.

GETTING RID OF SHEEP.