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U.B.C. LIBRARY

U.S.A.

THE LIBRARY

THE UNIVERSITY OF
BRITISH COLUMBIA

Gift of
H. R. MacMiUan

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2010 with funding from

University of British Columbia Library

http://www.archive.org/details/beefbonanzaorhowOObris

THE BEEF BONANZA;

OB,

HOW TO GET EICH ON THE PLAINS.

BEING A DESCRIPTION OP

CATTLE-GROWING, SHEEP-FARMING, HORSE-RAISING,
AND DAIRYING

IN THE WEST.

BY

GEN. JAMES S. BEISBIN, U.S.A.,

ATJTHOR OF " BELDEX, THE WHITE CHIEF," " LIFE OF GEXERAL GRANT,"
"life of J. A. GARFIELD," "LIFE OF GEN. W. S. HANCOCK."

WITH ILLUSTRATIONS.

PHILADELPHIA:

J. B. LIPPINCOTT & CO.

LONDON: 16 SOUTHAMPTON ST., COVENT GARDEN.
1881.

Copyright, 1880, by J. B. Lippincott & Co.

CON'TEIsrTS.

Introductory 9

Preface 13

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST.
CHAPTER I.

THE LAND TO THE WEST OF US.

The Great Grazing-Lands of the Plains — Increase of Pop-
ulation and Decrease of Cattle — Cattle-Kings of Nebraska
and Wyoming — The Herds and Where they Graze . . 23

CHAPTER II.

GREAT LANDS AND GREAT OWNERS.

Ranches along the Platte River — Herds in Wyoming and
Nebraska — Their Increase and Profits — Cattle-Kings —
Great Stock-Drivers, who they are and how they Operate 28

CHAPTER III.

ESTIMATED FORTUNES.

Profits of Cattle-Raising in Nebraska — Manner of Managing
Herds — Some Notable Ranches and the Profits . . 35

CHAPTER IV.

THE MONEY TO BE MADE.

An Investment of $25,000 for Six Years and the Probable
Profits— The Same for Pive Tears— The Cattle-Supply . 45

3

4 CONTENTS.

CHAPTER V.

MILLIONS IN BEEF.

PAOE

An Interesting Letter from One "Who Knows — A Generous
Ofifer of a Fortune — Just what can be done with Money
and Brains — Figures that Tell 59

CHAPTER VI.

GREAT LANDS IN THE SOUTHWEST.

Texas Cattle-Kings — Who they are and what they own —
Mammoth Ranches — Letters from Cattle-Owners on the
Plains — Cattle-Grasses 73

CHAPTER VI L

MORE ABOUT CATTLE-LANDS.

Interesting Letters — The Testimony of Generals Reynolds,
Meyers, and Bradley, Edward Creighton, Alexander
Street, and Governors McCook and Campbell — The Fu-
ture of the Plains 81

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST.
CHAPTER VII L

GREAT OPPORTUNITIES.

The Raising of Sheep — Where it is Done — The Wool Crop
of the World — Sheep- Walks of the Plains — A Fortune in
a Clip 93

CHAPTER IX.

GREAT PASTURE-LANDS.

Where Sheep can be best Raised — Who the Sheep-Owners
of the Plains are — How the Ranches are Managed — Letters
from Sheep-Raisers 106

CONTENTS. 5

CHAPTER X.

A SHEEP-RANCH.

PAGE

What Kind of a Kanch to select — Profits of Sheep-Growing
— Mr. Post's Herd — Letters from Hon. William D. Kelley,
Senator Conkling, and Hon. J. B. Grinnell . . 119

HORSE-RAISING IN THE WEST.
CHAPTER XL

HORSE-RAISING IN THE WEST.

Who the Horse-Raisers are — How they Manage their Herds
— Profits of Horse-Eaising under Favorahle Conditions —
Horse Notes 143

DAIRYING OUT WEST.
CHAPTER XII.

THE GIFT OF THE COWS.

The Growth of the Dairying Business — Butter and Cheese
produced in the United States — Letter from a Dairyman —
What can be made in the Business 151

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST.
CHAPTER XIII.

MONTANA.

A Great State — The Chances for the Emigrant — Farmers of
Montana and what they own — A Stock-Grower's Letter
and Experience 1G3

APPENDIX.
Cattle-Raising in Colorado 197

1*

LIST OF ILLUSTEATIOIJTS.

PAGE

Herd of Steers on the Prairie .... Frontispiece

A View from Safe Quarters 28

Eounding Out the Calves 61

Branding Cattle 74

Washing and Shearing Sheep 120

Lassoing Horses 143

Waiting for the Fog to Clear 175

A Quiet Inspection 193

INTEODUOTOET.

On the atlases of thirty or forty years ago, when the
stock of information concerning the territory now com-
prised in the flourishing States of Kansas and Nebraska,
and in Eastern Colorado and Dakota, was exceedingly
limited, the whole of it was represented as the " Great
American Desert." The boy who studied geography
then conceived an affection for this desert, a fact which
did honor to his patriotism. His country had the
highest mountains, the greatest lakes, and the largest
rivers in the world, and it flattered his national pride to
see on its map a desert which rivalled in size anything
the Old World could produce in the same line. There
was one natural feature of the Eastern Continent which
humbled his pride of country somewhat. This was
the terrible Maelstrom on the coast of Norway, that
furious whirlpool which the Western World had
nothing to match. But he has lived to see that un-
matched whirlpool robbed of its terrors. It is almost
surveyed out of existence, and in its present condition
it does not greatly outrank the late Hell Gate in New
York harbor. With the disappearance of the hated
Maelstrom, however, he has had the mortification to see
his favorite desert vanish from the map. That barren
terra-incognita of his youth is now one of the finest

9

10 INTROD UCTOR Y.

grazing regions on the globe, and a large portion of it
is yielding excellent crops to the agriculturist. This
ancient desert has been for a long time the favorite
pasturing ground of the buffalo, and it doubtless now
contains more domestic cattle than it ever did .buffa-
loes.

The eastern boundary of the old desert was the Mis-
souri River, and it is fresh in the memory of many that
when settlement began on the west bank of that river
it was supposed its natural limit would be in the imme-
diate vicinity of the stream. Gradually the desert was
pushed westward a hundred miles, as far as the Big
Blue, which was fixed upon as its eastern boundary.
But the farmers did not stop here. They continued to
plough up the eastern edge of the desert until it was
moved another hundred miles west, to Fort Kearney,
where it was supposed it would forever remain. This
frontier was about in the middle of the desert as origi-
nally laid out by Lewis and Clark, and it was thought
that here at least the spirit of innovation would be satis-
fied. Nevertheless, the farmers continued to push
westward, and now the occupants of the remaining
portion of the great waste are viewing with alarm the
persistent demonstration of the fertility of their desert
domain. The great cattle-kings claim that the country
is utterly unfit for cultivation, to which the farmers
reply by ploughing up a strip on its eastern edge every
year some ten miles wide, and raising good crops.

The cattle-kings fear the utter destruction of their
fine ranges in prospect unless something can be done to
establish their desert character. They need have no

INTROD UCTOR Y. 1 1

cause for alarm. There is an American Desert in the
far West which can never be used for any other pur-
pose than the raising of great herds. It is of these
lands and the cattle upon them the following pages
treat.

The plains of the West, instead of being barren and
worthless as early geographers supposed, have become
one of the richest parts of our public domain. The
vast beef reservoir they contain is now the fit subject
of an interesting volume.

PEEFAOE.

THE NEW WEST.

I HAVE been a resident of the West for twelve years,
and my official duties have called me during that time
into nearly every State and Territory between the
Missouri and the Pacific Coast. Almost every valley,
hill, mountain, and pass of which I have written has
been ridden over by rae on horseback, and I have
observed everywhere the unbounded capacity of the
West, not only for stock -growing, but farming, mining,
and manufacturing. To me the West is a never-ceasing
source of wonder, and I cannot imagine why people
remain in the over-crowded East, M'hile so many lands
and chances are to the west of them. The West to-day
is not what it was yesterday, and it will not be to-
morrow what it is to-day. New discoveries, new
developments and improvements are constantly being
made, and a new West springing up.

The West ! The mighty West ! That land where
the buifalo still roams and the wild savage dwells;
where the broad rivers flow and the boundless prairie
stretches away for thousands of miles ; where new States
are every year carved out and myriads of people find

2 13

14 PREFACE.

homes and wealth ; where the poor professional young
man, flying from the over-crowded East and the tyr-
anny of a moneyed aristocracy, finds honor and wealth ;
where the young politician, unoppressed by rings and
combinations, relying upon his own abilities, may rise
to position and fame; where there are lands for the
landless, money for the moneyless, briefs for lawyers,
patients for doctors, and above all, labor and its reward
for every poor man who is willing to work. This is
the West as I have known it for twelve years, and
learned to love it because of its grateful return to all
those who have tried to improve it. Its big-hearted
people never push a young man back, but generously
help him on, and so, by being great themselves, have
learned how to make others great. "Where had I best
settle ?" " Where can I buy the cheapest and best
land?" "Where will I be safe?" "Where can I
raise the best stock ?" These are questions asked every
day by people all over the East. In vain do they look
into books and newspapers for answers to their inqui-
ries; they are not to be found; at least, not truthful
ones. I do not suppose I can supply all the informa-
tion required, but I can give my impressions, which
shall at least have the merit of being honest. I believe
Kansas and Iowa are the best unsettled farming States;
Nebraska is the best State for farming and stock-raising
combined ; Colorado is the best State for sheep-growing,
farming, and mining; Wyoming is the best Territory
for cattle-growing alone ; Montana is the best Territory
for cattle-growing and mining.

It does not matter where the emigrant settles in the

PREFACE. 15

West, so he comes ; and he will almost anywhere soon
find himself better off than if he had remained East.

When I visit the Eastern States, it is a matter of
astonishment to me to learn how little is known of
the advantages, resources, and interests of the West.
The masses do not seem to understand what is west
of them, and cling to the hilly, stony, and unproduc-
tive lands where they were raised rather than move
to an unknown country. Often I hear city young
men in the East say, " If I had only come here twenty
years ago, I might now be a rich man. Land then
sold for a few dollars a foot, while now it is worth as
many hundreds or even thousands." So, too, the
young farmer exclaims, "Land is so high, I can never
afford to buy a farm. When my father settled here
and bought, it was worth only $10, $20, or $30 per
acre, and now it is held at $100, and were I to buy a
farm, and pay the purchase-money down, I could not
more than raise the interest on the balance ; therefore,
I can never hope to own a farm of my own." Every
one East seems to think the days for speculation are
over, and they regret a hundred times a year they had
not been born fifty years sooner. To the discouraged
let me say, be of good heart and come West, for what
has been occurring in the East during the last two
hundred years is now occurring in the West, only with
tenfold more rapidity. Young men, when your fathers
bought the homes and land which they now own, and
on which you were raised, there were no railroads, and
emigration was necessarily slow. Their property has
been thirty, forty, or even fifty years in reaching its

16 PREFACE.

present value. Not so the "West. Railroads are every-
where, and ten or twenty years at most will do for
you what it took your fathers fifty years to accomplish.
Millions of people are pressing westward, and settle
where you may you will soon find yourself sur-
rounded by neighbors, not in twos and threes as were
your fathers, but by hundreds and thousands of new-
comers. The growth of this West of ours has been
the miracle of the nineteenth century, and its improve-
ment has as yet only fairly begun. The Old World
annually pours myriads of people upon our Western
shores, and to these we add hundreds of thousands
from our native population, who find new homes each
year. The increase and development of the West is,
therefore, not to be wondered at, for it has the best
facilities of any land in the world. In one year 390,000
foreign emigrants landed in the United States, and
these did not include 30,000 Chinese and 2000 Cana-
dians. When the emigration from foreign sources,
which has been interrupted by domestic war, shall have
been restored to its natural flow, the influx will proba-
bly reach the following figures : Landing at New York,
350,000; at San Francisco, 100,000; at Philadelphia,
50,000 ; at Portland, Oregon, 10,000 ; at New Orleans,
10,000; at Galveston, Texas, 10,000; total, 530,000.
Of these fully 300,000 will come West, and the re-
mainder scatter through the South and East. Add to
the Western emigration 200,000 from native sources,
and we shall have half a million people annually seek-
ing homes in the West. It will not be very long until
the annual accessions to our population will equal the

PREFACE. 17

whole number of inhabitants living in the United
States at the time they achieved tlieir independence
from Great Britain. Tlie course of Prussia toward the
German States, in consolidating them into an empire,
and creating an emperor by dethroning kings who
were the legitimate rulers of their people, and in ap-
pointing over these people distastefid governors, has
caused thousands of wealthy Germans to seek our
shores, and will cause many thousands more to come.
When a people lose their country they do not often
care for their homes, and the Germans feel that they
are no longer Germans, but Prussians, who would
prefer rather to be Americans. The Chinese, after
being walled in for two thousand years, have at last
found a place to emigrate to, and, unless prevented,
millions of them will eventually come to the United
States. The sympathy ever manifested by our ])eople
for Ireland's starving millions will reinvigorate emi-
gration from that unhappy country to our shores. The
result of all this will be to settle up the West and
double our population, large as it is. Young men Avho
have polled their first vote will live to see the day when
the United States will contain 100,000,000 of people.
What must be apparent to every one, and what ought
to be impressed on the minds of men, both old and
young, is the fact that there will soon be no unsettled
West. Several lines of emigration have already pene-
trated across the continent, and settlements are rapidly
spreading from the right and left of them until they
intersect each other, and when the West is settled, what
then ? Then, indeed, will the young men have cause
h 2*

18 PREFACE.

to say, " If we had only been born thirty years sooner
we might have become rich." There will then be no
unoccupied lands ; no homestead laws ; no West to seek.
The country, one vast sea of cities, towns, villas, and
farms, will stretch out from ocean to ocean, and in
America, as in England, the highest claim to wealth
and respectability will be the proprietorship of the soil.
Do you ask who will live^ to see the country settled ?
I answer, thousands of men and women who are now
in middle life ; and even old men may yet live to see
the day when those rich prairie lands of ours, now to
be had by living upon them, will bring $50 per acre.
The veteran grandfather who will come West can live
long enough to see towns and cities spring up, and farms
dot the land all over where now oply the wild Indian
and the buffalo are found. Why stick to the rocky
and unproductive hill-sides of the East, when the best,
rich, level prairie lands and beautiful homes can be had
for $10 per acre? Or, if the emigrant is too poor to
buy, he can take up one, two, three, or four hundred
acres, and if he will but live on them for five years,
they are his and his children's after him forever. A
great deal of sport a few years ago was made of Horace
Greeley for so often repeating his advice, " Go West,
young man ; go West and take a farm, and grow up
with the country." But after living in the West twelve
years, I can safely say that never did any man give
better advice to the youth of a nation. No industrious
man can make a mistake in moving West, and if I had
a son to advise, I should by all means say to him, " Go
West as soon as you can ; get a good piece of land, and

PREFACE. 19

hold on to it." Of the subjects concerning which I
shall write in the following volume, I can only say
they do not by any means embrace the best interests
of the West, large and lucrative as they are in them-
selves. Farming may be set down first, mining second,
stock -growing third, and manufacturing fourth among
the great advantages of the West. Of these subjects
only one — stock-growing — will be written upon by me,
and it is my hope some abler pen will write up the other
great resources and interests of the mighty and unknown
Far West.

JAMES S. BEISBIN,

U. S. Army.

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST.

21

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST.

CHAPTER I.

THE LAND TO THE WEST OF US.

The Great Grazing-Lands of the Plains — Increase of Population
and Decrease of Cattle — Cattle-Kings of Nebraska and
Wyoming — The Herds and Where they Graze.

The increasing interest felt among all classes of
people East regarding stock-growing in the West and
the profits to be derived from this occupation induces
me to offer the public information gathered at various
times during a residence of twelve years on the Plains
among the herds.

Let me premise by saying that in the whole world
there are but five great natural grazing-grounds, located
in Central Asia, South Africa, South America, Austra-
lia, and on the plains of America. The first is larger
in extent than all Europe ; the second is as great ; the
third half as much ; the fourth as large as South
America ; and the fifth, the boundless plains of the
United States, contain 1,650,000 square miles with
over a billion of acres.

These pastoral lands of ours have never been under-

24 THE BEEF BONANZA.

stood or appreciated. The day will come when the
government will derive more taxes from the grazing
country than the best agricultural regions. These arid
plains, so long considered worthless, are the natural
meat-producing lands of the nation, and in a few years
30,000,000 of people will draw their beef from them.
All the figures I have seen published have rather
understated than overestimated their capacity.

In 1869 the whole of the live-stock in the United
States was estimated to be worth $1,500,000,000. In
1840 the average number of cattle in America to every
100 persons was less than 100 head, and in 1850
only about 75 head to 100 people. In 1860 the
States and Territories had the following ratio to 100
people : Alabama, 81 head ; Arkansas, 126 ; Cali-
fornia, 387 ; Connecticut, 48 ; DelaM^are, 51 ; Florida,
274 ; Georgia, 95 ; Illinois, 87 ; Indiana, 87 ; Iowa,
79 ; Kansas, 81 ; Kentucky, 72 ; Louisiana, 73 ;
Maine, 59 ; Maryland, 37 ; Massachusetts, 22 ; Michi-
gan, 71 ; Minnesota, 68 ; Mississippi, 91 ; Missouri,
98 ; New Hampshire, 81 ; New Jersey, 34 ; New
York, 50; North Carolina, 69; Ohio, 70; Oregon,
292; Pennsylvania, 48; Ehode Island, 22; South
Carolina, 72 ; Tennessee, 68 ; Texas, 579 ; Vermont,
115; Virginia, 65; Wisconsin, 66 ; District of Colum-
bia, 1 ; Dakota, 30 ; Nebraska, 100 ; New Mexico,
108 ; Utah, 100 ; Washington Territory, 259. The
stock-producing region of Wyoming was then unknown.
If we consult the tables it will be observed that if
cattle-breeding in the United States was stopped for
five years all the cattle would be eaten up. Since 1860

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 25

four States and Territories have increased their stock,
five have stood still, and thirty have decreased in com-
parison with the population. The rapid increase of our
population will soon require that more cattle be raised,
or we shall have to pay higher prices for beef. The
number of people is increasing much faster than the
number of cattle. The receipts of cattle in Chicago in
1867 were 334,188, as against 324,599 in 1868, show-
ing a decrease in one year of 9659 head brought to
market. Since then the cattle product of Wyoming has
done something to relieve the Chicago market, but the
number has not kept pace with the increase of popula-
tion in that city. In 1863 cattle brought in Chicago
$4.80 per hundred ; in 1864, $7.52 ; in 1865, $8.46 ;
in 1866, $7.72 ; in 1867, $8.02; and in 1868, 88.10.
In 1867 the value of meat consumed in the United
States was $1,396,643,699, and in 1868, $1,337,111,-
822, showing that notwithstanding the increased value
of stock there was a decrease in the total value of
$59,531,877. Since then we have no accurate reports,
but the ratio of annual increase of stock in the country
is about If per cent. So we must raise more cattle, or
in a few years pay higher prices for beef. This view
of the case is most encouraging to the stock-growers,
and shows conclusively the importance of the cattle
trade. For ten years at least yet the stock-growers need
have no fear of overstocking the beef market.

As before stated, the great pasture-lands of the
country aggregate over one million square miles, and
are located principally along the Rio Grande, !N^euces,
San Antonio, Guadalupe, Colorado, Brazos, Tl-iuity,

26 THE BEEF BONANZA.

Main Red, Washita, Canadian, Cimaron, Arkansas,
Smoky Hill, Saline, Salmon Fork, Republican, North
and South Plattes, Loup Fork, Niobrara, White Earth,
Big Cheyenne, Little Missouri, Powder River, Tongue,
Rosebud, Big Horn, Wind Rivers, Yellowstone, Milk
River, Musselshell, Marias, Jefferson, and Missouri.
The length of these streams is over twenty thousand
miles. The small streams on the eastern slope of the
Rocky Mountains are the Blue Water, Cold Water,
Hill Creek, Raw Hide, Muddy Willow, Shawnee, Slate,
Sweet Water, Ash, Pumpkin, Laramie, Carter, Cotton-
wood, Horseshoe, Elkhorn, Deer Creek, Medicine
Bow, Rock Creek, Douglas, Lodge Pole, Big Laramie,
Little Laramie, and north-south forks of Platte, Horse
Creek, Beaver, Pawnee, Crow, Lone Tree, Big Beaver,
Bijou, Kiowa, and Bear Creeks, and Cache-la-Poudre.
The Plattes are the best grazing- grounds east of Mon-
tana, and the Cache-la-Poudre and Big Thompson rank
next. The grazing-lands on these two streams alone
are put as high as 12,000,000 acres. The Cache-la-
Poudre is famous for its fine vegetables as well as its
grazing. I have myself seen cabbage-heads raised there
that weighed fifty pounds each, turnips twelve pounds,
and potatoes three pounds. The climate in the grazing-
country I have described is fine, the temperature in
summer averaging from 45 to 75 and 90 degrees, and
in winter 30 to 32 degrees. The mean temperature for
the year is 50 to 55 degrees. Out of the 365 days in
the year 275 are clear. The snow-line in the east, on
the White Mountains, is fixed at an elevation of 7000
feet ; on the Alleghanies at 7200 ; and on the Rocky

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 27

Mountains at 12,000. Vegetation ceases on the "White
Mountains at 5000, on the Alleghanies at 5500, while
in the Black Hills of the West, at Sherman, at 8200
feet high vegetation is rank. Strawberries grow on the
tops of the mountains, and evergreen-trees flourish at an
elevation of 11,000 feet. There is little difference be-
tween the climate of the Plains and the Atlantic Coast.
The rainfall on the Plains has greatly increased of late
years, and the average is eighteen inches per annum,
divided as follows : spring, 8^^ ; summer, ^^^q ;
autumn, 3^^ inches. The snowfall is also about eigh-
teen inches. Later in this volume I shall present a
theory for the prevailing high winds on the Plains, and
also give letters from Sir Roderick Murchison and sev-
eral army officers relative to the cause of the mildness
of the climate in such a high latitude, but I have said
enough about the climate for the present, and sufficient,
I think, to convince any one that the Great American
Desert is not such a bad place to live, and indeed no
desert at all.

CHAPTER 11.

GEEAT LANDS AND GREAT OWNEES.

Ranches along the Platte Eiver — Herds in Wyoming and Ne-
braska— Their Increase and Profits — Cattle-Kings — The Great
Stock-Drivers, who they are and how they Operate.

I VISITED the herds of the Plattes and made careful
inquiry as to the number of cattle, names of owners,
and profits to be derived from cattle-breeding.

On the Laramie Plains I saw the finest cattle, and
one herd in particular pleased me, a drov^e of 1500 cows,
with 2300 calves of various ages. First we came upon
a few stragglers, or wardei's, guarding the herd, who
seemed to be sentinels over the calves. Next we found
families of two, four, and six, in groups, then bunches
of a dozen, and lastly the great body of the herd.
The cows were Texas, bred to large Durham bulls,
and the calves bore strongly the impress of the male.
Nearly all had thick necks, sturdy bodies, and seemed
very healthy. I saw one enormous bull, and near him
a cow with three calves, one a two-year-old, one a year-
ling, and one about two weeks old. It was a grand
sight, this herd of 1500 cows, 50 bulls, and 2.300
calves. They were much scattered, covering the prairie
for miles, and seemed an endless mass of beef for one
man to possess ; yet I was told that the gentleman who
28

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 29

owned this herd had three larger ones. I saw a little
calf just taking his first steps on the prairie, and stopped
to observe him. The cow ran away at my approach,
but immediately came back and stood resolutely and
defiantly by her young ; indeed, so wicked did she look,
that the driver whipj^ed up his horses and got away as
soon as possible. These Texas cows are dangerous if
approached too closely, and, from the fire in the beast's
eyes, I am sure she was going to charge.

It is a study to observe the habits of the prairie
cattle. They run in families like buffalo, the cows
keeping their calves with them sometimes until they
are three or four years old. It frequently happens that
the mother has under her protection sons and daughters
larger than herself. The cow watches over her off-
spring, and when they disobey punishes them with her
horns, to which they tamely submit, like well-trained
children. In the middle of the day the cattle leave
the high grounds and go to the river bottoms for water,
and about nightfall return to the high grounds. In
travelling back and forth to the water they march in
single file, using the same paths as the buffalo, and, like
them, wear deep ruts in the earth. The cattle fre-
quently go four and five miles to water, but, having
slaked their thirst, nearly always return to the same
ground from which they started out. The following
are the names of some of the principal cattle-owners in
Wyoming Territory and Western Nebraska. In Lincoln
County, Western Nebraska, near North Platte, a station
on the Union Pacific Railroad, the following owners
keep the number of cattle set opposite their names :

23*

JO

THE BEEF BONANZA.

Eeith & Barton .
Coe, Carter & Pratt
Bent & Evans .
Kussell & Watt ,
"Webster & Eandall
D. W. Baker .
Major Walker .
George W. Plummer
S.P.Lang.
Arnold & Richie
Ed. Welch .
George Burke
Charles McDonald
Blake & Lyford .
Jack McCullough
J. E. Evans

6500

4000

2000

1800

1000

500

400

1000

500

900

650

500

200

300

175

70

In the vicinity of Ogallala, Nebraska, another station
on the Union Pacific Raih'oad, the following herds

graze :

Lonergan Brothers
James Boyd
Paxton & Sharp
Bosler & Irving
Bosler & Lawrence
J. H. Bosler .
Searle Brothers
L. M. Stone
Bradley, Ten Broeck
Sheidley Brothers
George Green .
Wild Pete
G. W. Barnhart
Walrath Brothers
John Lute
Millet & Maybray
Pratt & Ferris

&C

400

2,500

6,000

4,000

2,500

10,000

550

80

1,000

1,800

200

175

50

600

250

4,000

2,500

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 31

On the Republican E,iver, about seventy miles south
of Ogallala, there are a number of small herds and one
or two large ones. The following are the names of
some of the owners :

Bolles & Doyle 300

J. H. Jones 400

]3eauvals 275

Mr. Eoss 1300

Near Julesburg, Union Pacific Railroad, the owners
are:

Edward Meagee 175

Captain Coffman .1900

Keline & Son 2500

C. McCarty 125

James "Wear 70

Harkinson & GriflSn 500

Broughton & Tassal 3000

Grady Brothers (cows) 60

Wheeler & Merchant 1200

Tusler Brothers 1800

Charles A. Moore 2000

D. B. Lynch 450

E. C. Howard 560

Tom Kane 1000

Harry Newman 550

Callahan & Musherd 200

John Coad & Brother 3000

Adams, Eeddington & Co 2000

Foley & Center 150

Frank Wright 110

J. D. May 120

Hungate & Co 70

Mr. Borgynist (cows) 60

32 THE BEEF BONANZA.

The great headquarters of the cattle-men of Wyoming
Territory is Cheyenne. The herds are scattered over
a wide extent of land. Here are the names of the
principal owners :

Stout & Stewart, Horse Creek 100

A. M. Kogers, Crow Creek 120

A. H. Keel, Pole Creek .360

W. Rowlands, Muddy Creek 80

W. W. Sawyer, Clingwater Creek 270

D. S. Shaw, Horse Creek 350

R. G. Strause, Kichard Creek 160

J. Phillips, Clingwater Creek 150

J. Leoniwan, Sibil Creek 250

F. M. Phillips, Clingwater Creek 1400

Lomis & Trimble, Horse Creek 900

H. N. Orr & Co., Horse Creek 700

David Lannen, Pole Creek 350

Maynard & Co., Horse Creek 1500

B. A. Sheidly, Horseshoe Creek 3000

F. Schwartz, Pole Creek 150

Swan Brothers, Sibil Creek 1800

Snyder & Wolfgen, Sibil Creek 1500

George A. Searight, Horse Creek 1200

Sturgis & Goodell, Fir Creek 1500

D. Trevitt, Cheyenne Creek 140

C. H. Terry, Lone Tree Creek 130

D. C. Tracy, Pine Bluflf Creek 1400

W. H. Wirkman, Horse Creek 180

J. M. Wooliver, Bear Creek 300

R. Whalen, Clingwater Creek 280

Jack Abney, Crow Creek ....... 60

Alfred Bishop, Crow Creek 100

J. Arthur, Bitter Cottonwood Creek .... 500

M. A. Arnold, Crow Creek 1400

John Boyd, Richard Creek 210

C. Culver, Horse Creek 1000

B. B. Bishop, Crow Creek 130

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST.

33

W. K. Blove, Bear Creek .
Creighton & Co., Horse Creek

C. E. Clay, Clingwater Creek
M. V. Boughton, Bear Creek
Colonel Bullock, Bear Creek
Harvey Clayton, Horse Creek
Kent & Gueterman, Sibil Creek

D. H. Kussell, Sibil Creek.
K. Layton, Horse Creek

D. J. Lykins, Horse Creek
McFarland & Co., Clingwater Creek
Linderman & Co., Crow Creek
F. J. McMahon, Horse Creek
J. M. Carey & Brother, Crow Creek
n. B. Kelly, Clingwater Creek
L. Davis, Horse Creek
M. F. Jones, Sibil Creek .

- ■William Dolan, Muddy Creek
H. Jackson, Horse Creek .
J. A. Dial, Crow Creek
A. "W. Haygood, Crow Creek
Mrs. F. C. Dixon, Pole Creek

E. Harkness, Pole Creek .
Durbin Brothers, Horse Creek
Hunter & Abbott, Clingwater Creek
Dawdell & King, Pole Creek
O. P. Goodwin, Bear Creek
Daniel Fallen, Muddy Creek
L. George, Eichard Creek .
M. Tagin, Horse Creek
J. Freil & Brother, Horse Creek

J. W. Iliff (deceased). Crow Creek
AVebb & Coffey, Horse Creek .
E. W. Whitcomb, Crow Creek .
Mrs. E. E. Whitney, Horse Creek
Thomas Hall, Laramie Kiver
Ecoffey & Cuney, Laramie River

400

6000

150

1800

1000

200

1000

200

110

400

450

300

90

6000

1800

180

900

110

100

60

150

70

120

1800

320

350

100

60

250

150

100

7000

1100

1000

60

200

1800

There are many other small herds of 50, 100, and

34 THE BEEF BONANZA.

200 head, but these will suffice to show the great cattle
business that has grown up on the Plains within the
past few years. The oldest of these herds has not
been breeding fifteen years. J. W. Iliff, now dead,
Joseph M. Carey, J. H. Bosler, and John Creighton
have been recognized as the great cattle-kings of the
Plains. These men count their herds by the thousands,
and will soon count them by tens of thousands.

CHAPTER III.

ESTIMATED FOETUNES.

Profits of Cattle-Kaising in Nebraska — Manner of Managing
Herds — Some Notable Kanches and the Profits.

In the last chapter I informed you who the great
cattle-owners of the Northwest were, and in the present
one I shall try to show the increase of their herds and
the profits they are supposed to derive out of their busi-
ness. Mr. R. C. Keith, of North Platte, began raising
cattle in the fall of 1867, with 5 American cows. The
next year he bought 200 American cows, and in 1869
put in 1000 two- to six-year-old Texas cows. In 1870
he was joined by a partner, and they put in that year
on their ranch 1000 more Texas cattle. In 1872 they
bought 720 Texas steers, cows, two-year-olds, and year-
lings ; and also put in later another lot of 250. In
1873 they bought 35 American and 200 Texas cattle.
The total cost of cattle from 1867 to 1873, inclusive,
was under $50,000. This did not include expenses of
ranch, herding, etc., which, however, were small, as they
had no land or timber to buy. They were fortunate in
having old railroad-ties for the hauling, and their ranch
did not cost when finished over $1000, which otherwise
would have cost them fully $2000. They had several
employes. Their men cost $50 per month and board.

85

36

THE BEEF BONANZA.

They used their men for other purposes as well as herd-
iug. They employed one man with the first 1000 head,
and got an extra man with the second 1000 head. They
were obliged to have two men, as one would not stay at
the ranch alone. Mr. Keith could not give any very
close figures, as his partner kept the books, but the ac-
count of the ranch stood nearly as follows :

Cost of cattle and ranches from 1867 to 1875, inclusive $55,000
Sold on hoof, 1000 head, mostly cows, which brought,

net 33,000

Butchered, 1000 head, which brought .... 30,000

Total §63,000

Deduct actual cost of cattle 51,000

Balance §12,000

Cattle Kemaining on Hand.

1400 improved calves, worth $12 each
1200 yearlings, worth §18 each
800 two-year-olds, @ $25 each
300 three-year-olds, @ $30 each
200 bulls, @ $50 each .
1300 cows, @ $25 each .

Total value of stock on hand

$16,800
21,600
20,000
9,000
10,000
32,500

$109,900

These figures I can indorse as substantially correct,
except the value put upon old cows, which I think is a
little excessive. Mr. Keith keeps now only one herds-
man. This man, when questioned aside from Mr.
Keith, said it would be perfectly fair to put the value
of the whole herd — old, young, good, bad, and indiifer-
ent — on the ranch at $18 per head, or $93,000 for the
lot ; and he thought they would bring that figure if sold

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 37

in open market. Making every allowance for exagger-
ations and mistakes, evidently Mr. Keith's cattle opera-
tions have been enormously profitable to him.

The next establishment examined was a combined
dairy- and stock-farm, near the Union Pacific Railroad,
in Wyoming Territory. The returns showed as fol-
lows :

1871.

April, 1871, bought 50 dairy cows, @ §50 each . . $2500

" " " 2 bulls 500

Expended on ranch and improvements .... 1500

Total capital invested §4500

■^

Expenses of labor $1500

Eeturn of butter and milk sold 51500

47 calves sold 500

Total §2000

Deduct labor 1500

Profit, 11 per cent $500

1872.

Original capital brought down $4500

Bought 30 cows, @ §50 each 1500

Bought 320 acres of land 800

Expended on improvements 1000

Total capital $7800

Expenses of labor $1000

Keturns of butter and milk sold ..... $2500

Increased value of 47 yearlings 500

62 calves 500

Total §3500

Deduct labor 1000

Profit, 33J per cent §2500

4

38

THE BEEF BONANZA.

In 1872, 35 mares, at $45 each, 34 mixed cattle, and
some furniture were added to the ranch.* For the pur-
pose of forming a partnership it was then valued at
$15,000, and stood as follows :

October, 1872, dairy ranch as above . . . " $15,000.00

" " bought a herd of mixed cattle, at

average prices, comprising 242 yearlings, 336 two-
year-olds, 294 three-year-olds, 537 beeves, 379 cows,

and 16 horses, at 27,381.94

April, 1873, bought two ranches .... 950.00

Improvements made in the year .... 2,410.31

Total capital §45,742.25

Labor and expenses §7,200.00

Less portion of labor expended on improvements . 1,900.00

Returns of beef and beef cattle .

Eeturns of butter

Keturns of milk

Eeturns of sundries, hides, etc.

Total receipts .
Deduct expenses

Profits

$5,300.00

§10,834 65

2,424.82

217.43

423.39

§13,900.29
5,300.00

§8,600.29

The total stock remaining on hand was valued at
§47,054.86, from which should be deducted
$45,742.25, and we have left to profit account

Add as before stated

Total profit, 21 per cent

§1,312.61
8,600.29

§9,912.90

The estimate of profit in this case is, if anything,
rather too low, but shows most satisfactory results.
Thomas Lonergan lives at Ogallala, on the line of

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 39

the Union Pacific Railroad, and about 342 miles west
from Omaha. He is a cattle-driver, and thoroughly
understands his business. His practical experience in
cattle, especially of the Texas breeds, is as follows :

1000 head three-year-old bullocks, @. §8.50 each . . §8,500

1000 " two-year-old " ® §6 " . . 6,000

1000 " yearlings, @, $3.25 each 3,250

1000 " cows, @, $7.50 each 7,500

Expenses 25 horses bought in Texas and used for herd-
ing, @, $40 each 1,000

First cost of 100 horses bought in Texas and resold . 4,000
Wages of two foremen, at $150 per month each, four

months 1,200

"Wages of 26 drivers, with food, $170 per month each,

four months ......... 4,420

Eight months' herding on the range, with extra expenses

for branding, etc., at the rate of $1 per head per j-ear . 3,334
50 bulls, fair to very fine grades, costing on an average

$50 each . . . 2,500

Interest («> 10 per cent., for one year, $41,704 . . 4,170

Total expenses on herd of 4050 head . . $45,874

Eeturn^, 100 horses sold @, $30 each, a loss of 25 per

cent $3,000

Amount of investment at end of one year . . . 42,874

Herding six months, from April 1 to October 1 . . 2,500

Interest, half-year @ 10 per cent 2,143

Total $50,517

October 1, six months after investment, net returns for

sale of 2000 beeves, at an average of $20 each . . 40,000

N'et capital account ..... $10,517
Stock inventory in October, six months after investment,
and after sales were completed : 1000 old cows, 500
three-year-olds past, 200 two-year-olds, 1350 calves, 50
bulls, 300 two-year-old heifers ; total cattle, 3400
head ; horses, saddles, wagons, etc., sufScient for use,

40

THE BEEF BONANZA.

October 1, 1872, six months after investment ; capital

account brought down $10,517

October 1, 1873, expenses for one year .... 5,000
" " one year's interest, at 10 per cent. . 1,251

Total

$16,768

October 1, 1873, sales account, 500 bullocks, four-year-
olds, at $25 each, $12,500 ; October 1, 1873, 100 old
cows, $22.50 each, $2250 $14,750

Balance in capital account, October, 1875, inventory
three and a half years from date of purchase of herd of
5000 head :
1800 old cows, valued at $15 each ....
Graded stock, 400 two-year-olds, valued at $12.50 each

275 two-year-old heifers .

675 " " bullocks .

75 bulls, @, §50 each

1500 yearlings, @ $8 each

1850 calves (lot)

Total
Add as profits above outstanding capital account

Balance to profit, exclusive of 10 per cent, interest

$27,000
5,000
3,300
8,300
8,750
12,000
9,000

$68,350

982

$69,332

The only fault that can be found with this statement
is the price put upon old cows. Mr. Lonergan might
sell them at $22.50 each once or twice, when the de-
mand was great, but I think $17 would be quite suffi-
cient as an average per head upon this kind of stock.
Mr. Lonergan's estimate, however, may be relied upon
as substantially correct, and from it we learn that on an
investment of $60,000 in the course of three and a half
years the capitalist withdraws all but $4000 of his
original capital, receiving in the mean time 10 per cent,
interest, and at the end of the above time finds his stock,

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 4\

exclusive of horses, wagons, saddles, fixtures, etc., worth
$68,359. This is doing an admirable business, and is
very encouraging to those who think of investing their
money in cattle ; but to succeed like Mr. Lonergan one
must have patience, shrewdness, and self-reliance, with
any amount of energy and capacity, and above all good
luck. An Indian raid, a storm, sickness, cattle-disease,
or a dozen of unforeseen accidents may arise, whereby
all the profits may be cut off, and the capital destroyed.
If all goes well there are large profits in driving cattle
as well as raising them ; but it is rarely all goes well
for a year, and while a few make a great deal of money,
many make very little, and some lose. To succeed well
one must understand the markets, know when to buy
and when to sell. Driving is distinct from raising, and
it is rarely we find a great driver also an extensive stock-
raiser. It may be interesting to know who are the
principal drivers as well as stock-raisers in the North-
west. The yearly drive is about as follows:

J. Hilsen 7000

J. Chisholm 6000

F. Turksley 1500

Mr. McKidrick 1000

S. Jones 2000

J. B. Martuns 1500

C.C.Cooper 2000

A. W. and U. Black 1500

J. Hart 1000

Yf . Wilson 800

J. B. Henderson ICOO

AV. Forsyth 1500

C. C. Campbell 3000

H. Martin JOOO

l\. AVyte 1500

4*

42 THE BEEF BONANZA.

S. Goldston 1500

J. Anderson 1500

Anderson & Little 1500

J. Patterson 8000

Judge Gary • . 3000

C. F. Eeynolds 5500

C. Goodwight 5000

M. Gavin 1200

There are many smaller drivel's, whose names are
not given, but the above are tlie j)rincipal movers of
stock. Most of the cattle are driven from Texas,
but every year the drives will become smaller, as the
herds there are gradually diminishing, and the people
of Texas are turning their attention more and more
from stock to ao-riculture. The whole number of cattle
brought North in a year is about 100,000 head. Of
these perhaps 20,000 go to Montana, 8000 to Utah,
8000 to Nevada, 9000 to Wyoming, 10,000 to Califor-
nia, 11,000 to Idaho, and 30,000 to Kansas and Colo-
rado. The amount of capital required to transfer this
number of cattle is about $1,500,000.

At Abilene, Kansas, a few years ago, 200,000 head
of cattle were handled in a single season. In one
month — September — 60,000 head were transferred, and
in another month — October — 75,000 head were shipped.
The cattle-trade required 100 cars per day, and a single
bank in Kansas City handled during the season
$3,000,000 of cattle-money. Both the Abilene, Kan-
sas, and Schuyler, Nebraska, cattle-trade has greatly
fallen off, as Chicago and St. Louis buyers now go
direct to the herds and purchase, instead of as formerly
sending agents to the cattle-centres. A few years ago

CATTLE-GROWINQ OUT WEST. 43

27,000 head changed hands in one season at Schuyler,
and a bank in Omaha handled in three months $500,-
000 cattle-money. General R. A. Cameron,who operates
in Colorado, says : A herd of 5000 cattle will require
about eight herders, at an expense of §900 per annum
for two, and §600 each per annum for six, including
their food; total, §5400. Allowing §2100 for inci-
dental expenses, including teams, horses, saddles, and
shanties for the men, the grand total expense would be
§7500, or 81.50 per head. Again, allowing one year
for breeding, and four years for the growth of the calf,
a full-grown four-year-old steer, worth §20 to §30, would
cost the breeder §7.50. A Texas yearling can be bought
for from §7 to §10 ; a two-year-old for from §12 to §15,
and a cow for from §15 to §25. The difference is partly
in quality, but more in the time and place of purchase.
Xew stock, just driven in, is always the lowest priced.
A two-year-old heifer brought from Iowa or Missouri
will bring §35, and the same grade of cows from §45
to §55. Excellent milkers will bring even more ; a
two-year-old Durham bull, three-fourths thoroughbred,
ranges from §60 to §75, and a full-grown thoroughbred
will bring from §200 to §500. In cattle-raising in
Colorado, General Cameron puts the profits at 50 to 55
per cent, per annum on the capital invested, over and
above all expenses and losses of every kind. Mr. J.
L. Brush, a reliable gentleman of Weld County, Colo-
rado, says : " I commenced eight years ago with a capi-
tal of §400, and I now own, as the result of the increase
and my own labor, 900 head of fine cattle, besides hav-
ing made considerable investments in lands from money

44 THE BEEF BONANZA.

taken from the herd. I think the average profit on
capital invested in cattle will not fall short of 40 per
cent, per annum over and above all expenses." Mr. R.
Stolls, who lives ten miles east of Colorado Springs,
says: "I began with cattle in 1861, and have owned
them ever since. They do well in summer and winter
in Colorado without feeding. I have just sold cattle
to the amount of nearly $6000." The purchase of this
herd cost $1100 three years since, and $500 two years
since.

CHAPTER ly.

THE MONEY TO BE MADE.

An Investment of $25,000 for Six Years and the Probable Profits
—The Same for Five Years— The Cattle-Supply.

I HAVE often been asked what a given sura of money
invested in cattle would produce to the owner in a term
of say six years. Of course we might answer, that
would depend very much upon the skill of the man-
ager, and so it would ; but taking it for granted that
good business management was displayed, then a herd
ought to yield an annual increase of at least 25 per
cent, per annum.

It is a remarkable fact that a large portion of the
money invested in cattle is borrowed capital, and upon
this a high rate of interest is paid. A gentleman who
understands the cattle business two years ago made the
following proposition to the writer, with a view of
buying a herd on joint account :

We start with a capital of $25,000 cash, and assume
that of all three-year-olds, one-half by the next spring
are cows, and the balance four-year-old steers or
" beeves," also that 80 per cent, of the cows have calves
that mature. We buy high-grade Durham bulls, and
put them with Texas cattle that have been wintered on
the Arkansas River (driven from Texas the year before)
and delivered on our range in July.

45

46 THE BEEF BONANZA.

Estimate or Profits on an Investment of $25,000 in
Cattle.

In July, 1879.

100 yearlings @ |7 $700

200 two-year-olds @ $11 2,200

600 cows @ $16 9,600

600 three-year-olds @ $16 8,000

100 four-year-olds @ $23 2,300

250 calves (thrown in)

1750 $22,800

The above is about the grade an average herd would
tally out, aud it is cheaper to buy out a herd than to
pick. The calves are thrown in, and those born on the
drive up are usually killed, thus reducing the number
below the ordinary 80 per cent, of increase.

Expenses.
Two herders @ $35 per month and board, say $20 per

month, $660 $1320.00

One foreman @ $50 and board, $20 ... . 840.00

Nine horses @ $75 675.00

Grain for horses at 8 lbs. per day @ 1^ cts. for the year 328.50

One wagon, $125 ; two mules and harness, $400 . . 525.00

Eanch 200.00

Mower, horse-rake, and plough 200.00

Incidental expenses 1000.00

$5088.00
We sell in November and December :

100 beeves, average 1100 lbs., @ 3 cts. per lb. . . $3300
100 cows (old), average 900 lbs., @ 3 cts. per lb. . . 2700
Add surplus of capital 2200

§8200

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST.

47

This leaves us $3111.50 new capital reinvestment,
and we buy 200 two-year-olds @ $15 per liead, — $3000,
— which leaves §111.50 for "odds and ends," or inci-
dental expenses. The purchase of two-year-olds cost
more on account of " picking them."

Second Year, 1880.
We have on hand :

Yearlings (last year's calves)
Two-year-olds (last year's yearlings)
Three-j'ear-olds (last year's two-year-olds)
Cows (half last year's three-year-olds)
Beeves (half last year's three-year-olds) .
Calves (half-breeds), 80 per cent, increase

Expenses.

Same as first year (two herders)

One extra man

Same foreman

Grain .....

Incidental expenses

We sell in fall : *i

250 beeves, average 1100 lbs., @ 3 cts. per lb.
60 cows, average 900 lbs., @, 3 cts. per lb.

250
100

400
750
250
600

2350

$1320.00

660.00

840.00

328.50

2000.00

$5148.50

$8250
1350

§9000

Leaving $4451.50 new capital for reinvestment, and
we buy 250 three-year-olds @ $18 per head, — $4500,
— and reduce our " odds and ends" fund $49.50 and
will drop it. It would be a better investment to buy
yearlings or two-year-olds, but the herd would wander
too much with so many young cattle.

48 THE BEEF BONANZA.

Third Year, 1881.
We have on hand :

Yearlings (last year's calves)
Two-year-olds (last year's yearlings)
Three-year-olds (last year's two-year-olds)

Cows

Beeves (last year's purchase three-year-olds)
Calves (80 per cent, of increase)

600
250
100
900
154
720

*2724

The calves are all one-half to three-fourths Amer-
ican, and M'e have assumed that of the last year's pur-
chase of 250 three-year-olds 100 are steers and 150
heifers. The 600 yearlings are " half-breeds."

Expenses.

Same as second year, say $5000

We sell 160 beeves @ §33 per head . . . $4950

100 cows ® $27 per head 2700

$7650

Balance $2650

Leaving us $2650 new capital for reinvestment.

"We buy 140 three-year-olds @ $18 $2520

Odds and ends account 130

Fmrth Year, 1882.
We have on hand :

* Underestimate, viz. : cattle on hand July, 1881, 2350 head;
sold 300; balance on hand, 2050 head; bought 250; increase,
720 := 970 X 2050 = 3020 head, instead of 2724.

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST.

49

Yearlings (half-breeds)
Two-year-olds (half-breeds)
Three-year-olds (half-breeds)
Cows (900 = 100 X 70 X 50)
-Beeves ....
Calves (80 per cent, increase)

Expenses.

Same as third year

"We sell 120 beeves, average 1100 lbs., @ 3 cts.

per lb $3960

100 cows, average 900 lbs., @ 3 cts. per lb. . . 2760

720
600
250
920
120
736

3346
§5000

$6720

Leaving us $1660 new capital for reinvestment. We
buy 80 cows @ $20 per head,— $1600,— adding $60
tx) odds and ends fund. (There should be one bull to
every thirty cows.)

Fifth Year, 1883.

Yearlings 736

Two-year-olds 720

Three-year-olds 600

Cows (920 X 100 X 80) 880

Beeves 250

Calves (80 per cent, increase) 704

*3890
Expenses.

Same as fourth year 55000

One extra man . . . , _ . . . 660

Extra incidental expenses 340

$6,000

* Underestimate again, viz. : cattle on hand July, 1883, 3346
head ; sold 220 ; leaves 3126 ; bought 80 cows ; increase, 80 per
cent., — 784 X 3126 = 3910, instead of 3890.— Author.
erf 5

50 THE BEEF BONANZA.

We sell 250 beeves, average 1100 lbs., @ 3 cts.

per lb $8250

150 cows, average 900 lbs., @ 3 cts. per lb. . 4050

$12,300

Balance ' . $6,300

Leaving us $6200 new capital for reinvestment.

We buy 200 three-year-old heifers @ $18 per head . . $3600
150 three-year-old steers @ $18 per head .... 2700

$6300
Sixth Year, 1884.

We have on hand :

Tearlings 704

Two-year-olds 736

Three-year-olds 720

Cows (880 = 150 X 200 X 300) 1230

Beeves 450

Calves (80 per cent, increase) 1084

4924

Assume now that a settlement is desired and the
account closed, an inventory taken, and a closing-out
sale effected. The yearlings are five-eighths American,
the calves are seven-eighths American, and the two-year-
olds are one-half American. We have but 100 of the
original cows on hand, and they are the best in the lot,
as the cows that have been sold each year were the old
ones or poorest to breed from. The beeves are mostly
one-half breeds, will weigh more and bring better prices
than common Texan cattle.

Expenses.
Same as fifth year ....

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 51

Our inventory for closing-out sale would be as fol-
lows:

Nine horses @ $50 $450

Wagons, mules, harness, etc. 375

Kanch and good-will of range 1,000

704 yearlings @ $10 7,040

736 two-year-olds @ $16 11,776

720 three-year-olds @ $24 17,280

1230 cows @ $26 31,980

450 beeves @ $33 14,858

1084 calves @ |7 7,588

$92,237

Original capital $25,000

Five years' compound interest @ 7 per cent. . . 10,061

$35,061

Balance $57,278

Deduct six years' expenses 6,000

Balance* $51,278

The interest on original capital is compounded each
year and reckoned at 7 per cent. The average annual
loss by death or straying, etc., is less than 3 per cent.
The per cent, of cows that bear calves that mature is 84
per cent. Grain has been estimated for saddle-horses
for entire year, while they will not require it over one-
fourth of the time. All estimates of amounts paid out
are liberal and greater than they would actually be.
The cost of bulls is omitted in the estimate, as the grade

^ Though not altered by me, it will be seen my friend was
wrong in his calculations in cows and beeves, and also in his
general result of net profits.

52 THE BEEF BONANZA.

(Durham) would not cost over $50 each, and they could
be had for that price any time. They are generally
purchased in carload lots from farmers in Illinois or
Iowa, and shipped West when yearlings. We have
taken great pains to show the above estimate to cattle-
breeders, and several of them said it was rather under
than over what they would expect to realize from a like
investment. It should be observed that in the fore-
going estimate the increase is just beginning to show,
and in ten years the profits would be much larger, and
each year exceed the original capital. It should also
be remembered the larger the original investment or
original capital put into the business the greater ratio of
net profits would be. \lf $100,000 were invested in
cattle placed on suitable ranges it would easily double
itself in five years, besides paying an annual dividend
of 10 per cent. Again, if $200,000 were invested in
Texas cattle it would double itself in four years, and
pay a semi-annual dividend of 8 per cent) I disagreed
with my friend both in his calculations and method of
handling cattle, and in reply to his proposition for an
investment of $25,000 on our joint account, sent him
the following :

Estimate of Profits of a Cash Capital of $25,000 Invested
IN Cattle for five Years.

August, 1879, First Year.

Buy 500 yearling steers, @ $7 $3,500

500 two-year-olds, @ 12 6,000

500 til ree-y ear-olds, @ 20 10,000

Expenses: horses, camp outfit, ranch, and incidentals . 5,500

$25,000

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 53

August, 1880, Second Year.

On hand, two-year-olds 500

three-year-olds 500

beeves . . . . . . . • 500

1500

Sell 500 beeves, average 1000 lbs., @ 3 cts. per pound . $15,000
Expenses §2500

10 per cent, interest on capital . • . 2500

5,000

?10,000
Buy 1000 yearlings, @ $7 7,000

13000 surplus capital funds |3,000

August, 1881, Third Year.

On hand, two-year-olds 1000

three-year-olds ....... 500

beeves ........ 500

2000

S 11 500 beeves, @ 130 $15,000

Expenses $2500

Interest 2500

5,000

$10,000
Buy 800 two-year-olds, @ $12 .... 9,600

$400 to surplus capital fund $400

August, 1882, Fourth Year.

On hand, three-year-olds 1800

beeves 500

2300
5*

54

THE BEEF BONANZA.

Sell 500 beeves, ® §30 per head
Expenses and interest .

. 115,000
5,000

§10,000
Buy 500 three-year-olds, @ §20 . . . . • . 10,000

August, 1883, Fifth Year,

On hand, beeves 2300

Sell 2300 beeves, @ §30 §G9,000

Expenses $5000

Interest 2500

7,500

Deduct original capital

§01,500
25,000

Net profit in five years §36,500

This would leave a capital to begin new with greater
than the original, besides the ranch, horses, etc., still on
hand ; the $3000 surplus capital fund could have been
invested in cows to hold the range. The above estimate
is based upon the supposition that $25,000 capital had
been borrowed for four years at 10 per cent, interest.

Buying yearling steers and selling beeves keeps the
capital more in hand, and a class of cattle that can be
forced on the market with better results to the seller ;
and if yearlings or two-year-olds can be bought in lots
to suit the purchaser, this kind of trade will show enor-
mous profits. A herd of

2000 yearlings, @ §7.50

2000 two-year-olds, @ 12.00

2000 three-year-olds, @ 18.00

6000 will cost, say .
Expense of herding .
Interest, at 10 per cent.

End of first year

§75,000
6,000
7,500

§13,500

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 55

Sell 2000 beeves, @ §30 $60,000

Deduct interest and herding 13,500

Balance '. . $46,500

Buy 2000 yearlings, @ $7 14,000

$32,500

This gives at the beginning of the second year, first,
the same number and grade of cattle ; second, 10 per
cent, interest on original capital ; and third, $32,500
net profits. This will more than double the capital in
three years, besides paying 10 per cent, interest, all
losses, and expenses. In a few years it will be a difficult
matter to find a vacant range in Wyoming, Nebraska,
or Montana suitable or caj)able of sustaining 5000 head
of cattle. The water-courses are fast being taken up or
squatted upon by small herders or branches of large
herds.

If $250,000 were invested in ten ranches and ranges,
placing 2000 head on each range, by selling the beeves
as fast as they mature, and all the cows as soon as they
were too old to breed well, and investing the receipts in
young cattle, at the end of five years there would be at
least 45,000 head on the ten ranges, worth at least $18
per head, or $810,000. Assuming the capital was bor-
rowed at 10 per cent, interest, in five years the interest
would amount to $125,000, which must be deducted;
$250,000 principal, and interest for five years, com-
pounded at 25 per cent, per annum, would only be
$762,938, or less than the value of the cattle, exclusive
of the ranches and fixtures. I have often thought if
some enterprising persons would form a joint-stock com-

66 THE BEEF BONANZA.

pany for the purpose of breeding, buying, and selling
horses, cattle, and sheep it would prove enormously
profitable. I have no doubt but a company properly
managed would declare an annual dividend of at least
25 per cent. Such a company organized, with a presi-
dent, secretary, treasurer, and board of directors, and
conducted on strictly business principles, would realize
a far larger profit on the money invested than if put
into mining, lumber, iron, manufacturing, or land com-
panies. Nothing, I believe, would beat associated capi-
tal in the cattle trade, unless it would be banking, and
stock-raising would probably fully compete with even
banking as a means of profit on capital invested in large
sums.

Such a company should buy Texas cattle, locate them
on ranges, placing 5000 head on each ranch, then breed
them up for the market, increasing quantity and quality
as fast as possible, selling all beeves whenever mature,
and cows as fast as they become too old to breed from
or were not suitable for breeding purposes. As fast as
beeves and cows Avere sold the first three years the
money realized should be used, or at least a good part
of it, to fill up the herds with good young stock.

The ranches and ranges should be located with a view
of ultimately buying the land or securing control of it
for a long term of years. The company should operate
and secure, to as great an extent as possible, the
monopoly of government contracts and furnishing the
Eastern markets with beef. It should aim to grow to
be a controlling power in all that afiected beef, and
eventually, not only packed beef and pork, but tan

CATTLE-GROWINQ OUT WEST. 57

hides and manufacture wool into cloth. It is not gen-
erally known that one-third of all the woollens used in
the United States is sold west of the IMLssissippi River;
but such is the fact, and the principal cause of this
great consumption is because the climate of Colorado,
Wyoming, Nebraska, Montana, and indeed all the
Plains and Rocky Mountain country is so cool woollens
are worn nearly the year round. The climate is admir-
ably adapted for it, and there is no reason in the world
why the largest pork and beef packeries, as well as tan-
neries, should not be established in the West. The beef
business cannot be overdone. The census of the United
States will probably show a population in 1880 of not
less than 47,000,000 of people, and the cattle-raising
does not keep pace with the rapid increase of popula-
tion. In the Eastern and Middle States for the last
ten years there has been a rapid decrease of cattle, and
in a few years the West will be called on to supply
almost the whole Eastern demand. Land worth over
$10 per acre is too valuable to be devoted to stock-
raising, and farmers can do better in cereals. It is for
this reason our Eastern farmers are giving up the cattle-
breeding and devoting their lands to raising corn, wheat,
rye, oats, and vegetables. They cannot compete with
Plains beef, for while their grazing-lands cost them §50,
$75, and $100 per acre, and hay has to be cut for win-
ter feeding, the grazing-lands in the West have no
market value, and the cattle run at large all winter, the
natural grasses curing on the ground and keej^ing the
stock fat even in January, February, and March.
Much of Montana, Dakota, Nebraska, Colorado, and

58 THE BEEF BONANZA.

nearly all of Wyoming can never become an agricul-
tural country, and the government will soon be called
upon to put the grazing-lands into market, so that our
stock-raisers may establish permanent ranches and buy
their cattle-ranges. It will very soon be cheaper to
fence than to herd stock. The time, I believe, is not
far distant when the West will supply the people of the
East with beef for their tables, wool for their clothing,
horses for their carriages, 'busses, and street-railways,
and gold and silver for their purses. Horse-raising and
sheep-growing have proved to be successful enterprises
in Wyoming and Montana, and the profits are enor-
mous. Oregon mares can be bought at $30 per head,
blooded stallions at $500, and these bred to Oregon
mares yield a profit of 25 per cent, on the capital in-
vested. Sheep-farming is still more profitable, and an
investment of $5000 can be made to pay 35 per cent,
the first year, 47 per cent, the second year, and 60 per
cent, the third year. Of these two interests I shall
speak in detail further on.

CHAPTEE V.

MILLIONS IN BEEF.

An Interesting Letter from One Who Knows — A Generous Offer
of a Fortune — Just what can be done with Money and Brains
—Figures that Tell.

Continuing the subject of what can be made out
of a given sum of money invested in cattle-growing
out West, we cannot better estimate the increase of a
herd than by submitting a letter written by a gentle-
man of means to his brother in the East, whom he
wished to put into the cattle business on their joint ac-
count. The letter, which I am permitted to copy, reads
as follows :

Dear Brother, — I have bought a cattle-ranch,
and as you have long wished to engage in business out
West, I do not know of a better thing you can do than
raise cattle. As you have no knowledge or experience
in breeding, I will tell you what I think, with proper
care, we can make out of it. The ranch is twenty-two
miles from a railroad, and contains 720 acres of land,
600 acres of which is hay or grass land, and 120 acres
good timber. The meadow will cut annually 2| tons
of hay to the acre, and there is a living stream on the
land. The timber is heavy, and will furnish logs for

69

60 THE BEEF BONANZA.

stables, corrals, and fuel for many years to come.
The hills in the vicinity afford the best grazing, and
we can have a range ten miles in extent. There is a
little town nine miles off, and a school-house four miles
distant. The valley in which the ranch is located is
well settled, and there is no danger from Indians.
The cattle would be grazed in the hills, and driven to
and from the ranch every day. The three great requi-
sites for a good ranch are wood, water, and grass, and
these we have in abundance. If you can sell out where
you are and bring $5000 West with you, I am sure you
will never have a better opportunity to engage in a
lucrative business. I will make you a proposition, as
follows : you can put in $2500, and I will duplicate it
and add $1000 for bulls. For $5000 Ave can get 400
head of Texas cows to start with, and I will add a suf-
ficient number of Durham bulls to breed them. I will
erect all the necessary buildings, purchase machinery,
wagons, horses, etc. I will own the ranch and fixtures,
and you be at the expense of taking care of the herd
and give me half the increase. With your two boys
to help as herders, it would only be necessary at the
beginning to hire one man. The hay you could get
put up at a cost of $1 per ton, or by hiring an extra
man in haying time it would cost you 50 cents per ton.
I would put in say 200 head of Texas cows, and you
200 head. I might add, on my own account, 100 or
200 head, but if I did it would be at no expense to
you, and make no difference in the division of profits,
you having half the increase and gain of everything.
It is likely if we started with 400 head in 1877, 1 would

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 61

in the spring of 1878 add 100 Texas two-year-old
steers, and in the following spring 100 Iowa milch
cows. I know what a good, thrifty, industrious soul
your wife is, and you may tell her for me if she comes
West I will buy her 100 fine cows for a dairy, and she
can market all her butter and milk at the railroad,
twenty-two miles distant, and get rich on her own
account. It is the custom in the West not to put up
hay or build shelter for stock in winter, but I do not
believe in this. Cattle can generally be grazed out all
winter, but there are some winters very severe, and not
unfrequently dreadful storms, during which cattle die.
Herds slip through two or three years all right, but in
the end lose heavily. The loss from one storm would
be more than it would cost to cnt hay for ten years.
Besides, my idea of a ranch is " home for man and
beast," and I would rather be at some extra expense
than to have the cattle suffer. The heavy timbered
bottom will give all the shelter necessary, and the
meadows will yield 1500 tons of hay per year, which
will be all that we need to insure us against storms and
hard winters. Noav let us see what we can do with a
herd of 400 Texas cows, M'^orth $5000, to begin with.
At the end of one year the cows would have 400 calves,
each worth §7. I count full yield, for in cross-breeding
there is not one cow in a hundred barren, neither is the
loss over one per cent, of calves dropped where hay
and shelter is provided, and proper care taken. Our
first year's profit is 400 calves, §7 each, $2800, divided,
^1400 each.

6

62

THE BEEF BONANZA.

Second Year.

400 calves (old cows) @ §7 ?2800

Increase value on last year's calves, they being half Dur-
ham, @, §5 each . 2000

Divided, we each have $2400.

Third Year.

400 calves (old cows) @ $7 each

Increase value on first year's calves @ $5 each

" " second year's calves (a) $5 each .

Divided by two gives us $3400 each.

Fourth Year.

400 calves (old cows) @ %1 each

Increase value on first year's calves @ $5 each .
" " second year's calves @ $5 each

" " third year's calves @ $5 each .

First year's calves, half of which are heifers,* now come
in with calves, and add 200 to the herd, worth .

Divided by two gives us each $5100.

Fifth Year.

400 calves (old cows) (o) $7 each .

First year's heifer calves 200 @ $7

Second year's heifer calves 200 @ $7 .

Increase on first year's calves @ $5 each

" second jear's calves @, $5 each

" third year's calves @ $5 each

" fourth year's calves @, §5 each

" last year's heifer calves 200 @, §5 each

$4800

$2800
2000
2000

$6800

$2,800
2,000
2,000
2,000

1,400
$10,200

$2,800
1,400
1,400
2,000
2,000
2,000
2,000
1,000

$14,600

* The heifer would probably breed the third year, but it should
be prevented as far as possible.

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. §3

This year we also make our first sale, and have 200 steers

to sell, worth $30 each 6,000

Increase and cash, grand total ?20,G00

Divided by two, cash each §3000; in stock, $7300,

making 10,300

We now have on our ranch the following stock :

First year's cows 400

" calves 400

800
Second Year.

Old cows 400

First year's calves 400

Second " 400

1200

Third Year.

Old cows 400

First year's calves 400

Second " 400

Third " 400

1600
Fourth Year.

Old cows 400

First year's calves 400

Second " 400

Third " 400

Fourth " 400

Heifer calves 200

2200

Fifth Year.

Old cows 400

First year's calves 400

Second " 400

Third " ' 400

Fourth " 400

Fifth " 400

64 THE BEEF BONANZA.

First year's heifer calves (yearlings) 200

" " just dropped .... 200

Second " " if .... 200

3000

Less 200 steers sold, leaves 2800 to winter. If we

sex the cattle, which is the only way to get at their

value, we shall have :

First Year.

400 cows, 200 heifer calves. Total females . . . 600
Bull calves 200

800
Second Year.

400 cows, 200 yearling heifers, 200 heifer calves. Making

a total of females 800

200 bull yearlings, 200 bull calves 400

Third Year.

1200

400 cows, 200 two-year-old heifers, 200 yearling heifers,

200 heifer calves. Total females .... 1000

200 two-year-old steers, 200 yearlings, 200 bull calves.

Total males 600

1600
Fourth Year.

400 cows, 200 three-year-old heifers, 200 two-year-olds,
200 yearlings, 200 young calves, half of heifer
calves, 100. Total females 1300

200 three-year-old steers, 200 two-year-olds, 200 yearlings,

200 bull calves, half heifer calves, 100. Total males 900

Fifth Year.
400 cows, 200 four-year-olds, 200 three-year-old heifers,
200 two-year-old heifers, 200 yearling heifers, 200
calves ; also, 100 heifer calves (yearlings) from four-

2200

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 65

year-olds, 100 from three-year-olds, and 100 from
four-year-olds just come in for the second time.

Total females 1700

200 four-year-old steers, 200 three-year-olds, 200 two-year-
olds, 200 yearlings, 200 hull calves ; also, from four-
year-old heifers, 100 hull yearlings and 100 bull
calves ; also, from three-year-old heifers just come
in with their calves, 100 males. Total males . . 1300

3000

Deduct 200 steers sold, leaves 2800 head to be kept
on hand. It will be observed that our business is just
established and beginning to pay. It takes five or six
years to establish any good business on a firm basis,
and our ranch is now thoroughly "set up," as frontiers-
men would say. After the fifth year the profits will
be enormous. Let us run it the sixth year, and the
account would stand something like this :

Sixth Year.

400 old cows, 400 old cows' calves, — this being their
sixth dropping, and the last ; 200 five-year-old
cows, 200 four-year-old cows, 200 calves from five-
year-old cows, 200 calves from four-year-old cows,
200 calves from three-year-old cows. We would
brand 1000 calves the sixth year worth $7 each, or
$7000. The increase in value on our stock would
stand as follows :
The sixth year, 400 old cows' calves, worth . . . $2,800
600 five-year-old, four-year-old, and three-year-old

cows' calves, worth 4,200

Increase in value on 200 four-year-old cows . . . 1,000

" " " three-year-old cows . . 1,000

" " " four-year-old steers . . 1,000

" " " three-year-old steers . . 1,000

e 6*

66 THE BEEF BONANZA.

Increase in value on 600 two-year-olds .... 3,000
" " 800 yearlings .... 4,000

$19,000
Sell 200 beeves, @ $30 each • 6,000

$25,000
Add 200 calves, @ $7 each 1,400

Divided by two gives us each $3000 in cash and
$12,500 in stock.

As our herd would now be getting too large for our
ranch wo, would have to cut it down, and for that pur-
pose we would sell :

400 Texas cows, full blood, % $15 per head . . . $6,000
200 half-blood Durhams, five-year-olds (cows), @ $22

per head 4,400

200 half-blood Durhams, four-year-olds (cows), @ $15

per head 3,000

200 half-blood Durhams, steers, @ $25 per head . . 5,000

$18,400

Divided by two gives us $9200 each more in cash,
to which we must add cash realized from sale of four-
year-old steers, $6000 = $24,400 or $12,200 each in
cash the sixth year. These figures may astonish you,
but I assure you they are rather under than over the
usual estimate, and many herders on the Plains have
done better. Of course, to show the real profits, it will
be necessary to make up the expense list. It will stand
something like the following :

Kanch $5,000

2 yoke cattle, $75 per yoke 150

Studebaker wagon 100

Mowing-machine 125

$5,375

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST.

Add cost my share cattle the first year
Expenses

Tour share of cattle first year
4 herd-horses, §125 each .
2 dogs, §30 each

Add my expenses

First year, grand total .
First year, increase of cattle .
My share .....
Deduct 10 per cent, for loss of cattle
Wear and tear of machinery, etc. .

My actual profit first year
Your share .....
Deduct 10 per cent, for loss of cattle
Hire of Indian herder, §10 per month
To putting up 800 tons of hay

Your actual profits first year

Second Year

Your account — Increase of herd
Expense of herder ....
1000 tons of hay ....
Loss of cattle, 10 per cent.

Your actual profits

My account — Increase of cattle
Expense, wear of machinery, etc.
Loss of cattle, 10 per cent.

$140
200

§140
120
400

$120
500
240

240

67

2,500

$7,875

$2,500

500

60

$3,060
7,875

$10,935

§2800

1400

340

$1100
1400

660

§740

§2400

860
$1540

$2400

440

My actual profits $1960

68

THE BEEF BONANZA.

Third Year.

Tour account — Increase of cattle

Expense, 2 herders $240

Loss of cattle, 10 per cent 340

1500 tons of hay 750

Your actual profits

My account — Increase of cattle
"Wear of machinery, etc.
Loss of cattle, 10 per cent.

My actual profits

Your actual profits

My account — Increase of cattle
Expenses, wear of machinery, etc.
Loss on cattle, 10 per cent.

My actual profits

Fifth Year,

Your account — Increase of cattle
Sales of beef ....

Expenses, 4 herders
3000 tons of hay .
Loss on cattle, 10 per cent. .

$200
340

Fourth Year.

Your account — Increase of cattle

Expenses, 3 herders . . . . . $360

2000 tons of hay 1000

Loss on cattle, 10 per cent 510

$200
610

$3400

1330
$2070
$3400

540

$5100

1870
$3230
$5100

710

$4390

$7300
3000

$10,300

$480

1500

1030

3,010

Your actual profits $7,290

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 69

My account — Increase of cattle . . . §7300
Sales of beef 3000

§10,300

Expenses, wear of machinery . . . §200

Loss on cattle, 10 per cent 1030

1,230

My actual profit §9,070

As I originally put in §7875, in five years my annual
income is greater than ray original investment ; but you
have done still better, for having originally invested
only $3060 your income from it annually is §7290, or
more than double your investment. If we undertake
to keep down the herd and not let it increase, the profits
will double again. What business on earth is there that
can equal this ? In my estimate I have said nothing
about taxes, but as they are trifling, and I would pay
them, they need not enter into our account. At the end
of six years, if all went well in our business, I would
propose a change. We could safely count on realizing
from sales §10,000 a year, and certainly §8000. The
first year after the sixth we would erect better buildings,
and the second year (eighth after beginning) we would
buy land and add to our ranch. The third year (ninth)
Ave would buy blooded-stock cows, and the fourth
(tenth) blooded horses and mares. The fifth year we
would close out all our common stock, and keep nothing
but blooded animals. This year, also, I Avould sell out
to you the ranch, stock, fixtures, and everything, you
to pay me §10,000 a year until all was paid up. You
have often said you wished me to put you into a good
business and show you how to make some money, and
now, sir, I think I have pointed you out the way to a

70 THE BEEF BONANZA.

fortune, and the good wife too. In eleven years you
can, by care, be at the head of a blooded-stock farm
"worth $100,000, and very soon afterwards its sole owner.

The above letter is remarkable, inasmuch as it is
written by a gentleman to his brother, who is already
in business, and advises him to come West and engage in
cattle-growing. The writer of the letter has made a
great deal of money, and takes this method of helping
his brother to a fortune. It is likely the business-man
gave the whole cattle-trade a careful investigation be-
fore advising a brother with a family to leave his com-
fortable farm in the East and engage in ranching cattle
out West. There are some singular features about the
letter, and I asked the author after reading it how he
could possibly expect to get more for old Texas cows
than he originally paid for them. His reply was, " I
would buy young cows, say two-year-olds, and they
would grow. I would fatten them and sell them for
beef. I am doing it every year." I asked him, " Why
would you not allow the first lot of female calves to
breed at three years old?" He replied, " I think the
stock would be better if the heifers were not let get
with calf until after they were three years old ; at all
events, I wished my brother to try it and see." " How
would you prevent them from breeding ?" " Bulls
should always be kept in a separate pasture, and not
allowed to run with the herd. The cows should be put
in to them at night. A good bull will serve five or six
cows in a single night. The Durham bull puts a strong
impress on his calves, and the first cross with a Texas

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 71

COW will produce a calf nearly two-thinls Durham."
" In the commencement of your letter you say you
would in 1879 add 100 two-year-old Texas steers to the
herd. AYhy doyou dothat?" " So as to realize sooner
from the ranch. In two years they would be full-
groAvn beeves, and sell, at §30 each, for 86000. If I
could put in 200 three-year-olds it would be still better,
for then we could realize on them the very next year.
On my brother's account, he being poor, I wish the
ranch to begin jjaying as soon as possible." " Why,
then, do you make him buy herd -horses at §125 each,
when ponies can be had at §40 per head ?" " Because
he should use mares and raise colts. I would give him
a stallion, and with five good Kentucky mares, which
he could bring out with him, he could soon have a fine
lot of colts. On a stock ranch everything sliould be
made to increase and multiply. Why, even the two
dogs, one should be a bitch and raise shepherd pups,
and those raised on the ranch would be far more valu-
able for herding than imported dogs." " You say you
would buy 100 Iowa cows and have the women start a
dairy ?" " Yes. The way to get rich is for every one to
work. My ranch is twenty-two miles from the Union
Pacific Railroad, over which every year butter is shipped
to the Pacific coast. Why, do you know, as many as
five car-loads of butter were shipped from Omaha to
California in one day. This butter comes from Iowa,
and I don't see why the people living west of Iowa
should not supply the California market. But there is
a better thing to do with butter than to send it to the
Pacific coast. There is Fort HartsuiF, Fort Eussell,

72 I'HE BEEF BONANZA.

Bridger, Laramie, Fetterman, and Sidney Barracks, and
the soldiers want good butter. The oflficers and com-
missaries send all the way East to Ohio, Pennsylvania,
and New York, in order to get the best butter. Now,
the lady I propose to give the Iowa cows to is a butter-
maker, one of the best, indeed, in the country, and I
shall advise her to pack and ship to the forts, where she
will always find a ready market for all she can make."
" I notice you propose to use Indians as herders ; are
they good for that purpose ?" " The best in the world.
The Pawnee Indian is a natural I.erder, and if I had a
million head of cattle 1 would place them all under
Pawnee herders; half-breeds if I could get them." "In
your sixth year's estimate you speak of adding 200
calves. Where do you get them from ?" " You forget
that we have been in business six years, and our second
generation, or three-year-olds, are coming in with
calves, — that is to say, a cow that has a female calf.
Now, in three years the calf will have a calf. In
cattle-raising the herd doubles up and dovetails so
fast it is with difficulty we can compute increase, but
I guess you will find my figures about correct." This
gentleman was so very clear and intelligent in all his
answers, he satisfied me entirely that he knew what he
was about, and not only understood the cattle busi-
ness, but mining, sheep-farming, horse-growing, and
many other businesses common to the West.

CHAPTEE YL

GEEAT LANDS IN THE SOUTITV^EST.

Texas Cattle-Kings— Who They Are and What They Own-
Mammoth Kanches — Letters from Cattle-Owners on the
Plains — Cattle-Grasses.

I HAVE often been asked to "write something about
the great cattle-herds of Texas. As yet we have but
few herds in the West, the business being too new.
An owner with 10,000 or 12,000 head in "Wyoming or
Montana would be considered a large grower, but such
a person in New Mexico or Texas a few years ago,
when I was there, would have been called but a small
herder. I do not think the herds South are as large
or numerous now as they were five years since, and the
business is gradually drawing off North to the Plains,
which are the natural homes of the future cattle-kings
of America. Texas, in 1867, had 2,000,000 of oxen
and other cattle, exclusive of cows. In 1870 it was
estimated the number had increased to 3,000,000, ex-
clusive of cows, and of these there Avere 80,000 in the
State returned by the county assessors. The enor-
mous total of 3,800,000 cattle in one State may well
excite our astonishment. Of these, one-fourth were
beeves, one-fourth cows, and the other two-fourtlis
yearlings and two-year-olds. The increase each year
was 750,000 calves, and of the older cattle there was
D 7 73

74 THE BEEF BONANZA.

on hand at one time 1,900,000 young cattle, 950,000
cows, and 950,000 beeves. These cattle were scattered
along the Nueces, Guadalupe, San Antonio, Colorado,
Leon, Brazos, Trinity, Sabine, and Red Rivers.
Colonel Richard King, on the Santa Catrutos River,
was one of the largest owners. His ranch, known as
the Santa Catrutos ranch, contained nineteen Spanish
leagues of land, or about 84,132 acres. The Santa
Catrutos River and its tributaries water this immense
ranch, and on it were grazing 65,000 head of cattle,
10,000 horses, 7000 sheep, and 8000 goats. 1000
saddle-horses and 300 Mexicans were kept constantly
employed in herding, sorting, and driving the stock.
The number of calves branded annually on this ranch
were 12,000 head, and the number of beeves sold about
10,000. Near Golaid, on the San Antonio River, is
located Mr. O'Connor's ranch. Some years ago he
had 40,000 head of cattle, and branded annually 11,700
calves. The sales of beeves amounted to from $75,000
to $80,000 per year. Mr. O'Connor commenced cattle-
raising with 1500 head, for which he paid $8000, in
1852. Mr. Kennedy's ranch on the Rio Grande and
Nueces contained 142,840 acres. A fertile little penin-
sula jutted into the Gulf, and was surrounded on three
sides by water. The other side was closed with plank,
the whole line of fence being 30 miles long. Every
three miles there was a little ranch by the fence, and
a house for the Mexican herders. On the ranch there
were 30,000 head of cattle, besides an immense number
of other stock. There were many other large ranches
on the Rio Grande, Nueces, Guadalupe, San Antonio,

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 75

Colorado, Leon, Brazos, Trinity, Sabine, and Red
Rivers. Mr. John Hitson had 50,000 head of cattle
on a ranch in Pinto County, on the Brazos. He drove
10,000 head Xorth annually, and employed 300 saddle-
horses and 50 herders to take care of his cattle.
Twenty years ago he was working by the day on a
Texas form. John Chisholm had 30,000 head; Mr.
Parks, 20,000; James Brown, 15,000; Martin Chil-
ders, 10,000; Robert Sloan, 12,000; Mr. Coleman,
12,000; Charles Rivers, 10,000; and many others
from 8000 to 20,000 head. These were some of the
cattle-jirinces of Texas. Of the 1000 men who owned
3,000,000 head of cattle, it is said not one hundred
commenced with large means. Texas is fast becoming
an agricultural State, and in a few years more most of
the great herds there will be transferred to the Plains
of the West, the natural grazing-grounds of the nation.
Among the great drivers North are John Hitson,
who brings up from Texas to the Plattes every year
7000 to 8000 head; John Chisholm, 6000; James
Patterson, 8000 ; George F. Reynolds, 5000 ; Charles
Goodnight, 5000; John Anderson, 3000; W. P.
Black, 2000 ; C. C. Campbell, 3000 ; Robert White,
2000 ; Samuel Goldstone, 2000 ; Henry Martin, 2000 ;
and many others from 1000 to 4000 head. The whole
number of cattle driven North from Texas annually
cannot be less than 100,000 to 150,000. The superior
advantages of the Northern climate over the South for
cattle has become so generally known as to need no
comment. I will not, therefore, give my own opinion,
but those of men more competent to judge.

76 THE BEEF BONANZA.

Dr. Latham says : " All the country west of Omaha,
on the line of the Union Pacific Railroad, as far as Fort
Kearney is in the belt where twenty-five inches of rain
falls yearly, West of Fort Kearney, extending to the
Sierra Madre, on this railroad line, including the Black
Hills and Laramie Plains, is the belt where twenty
inches fall annually, with the exception of a small
portion of country in Texas, called the Staked Plain.
These two belts include all the trans-Missouri country
west, from tlie Missouri and Mississippi to the snowy
range. This rainfall includes the snow reduced to
water measure, twelve inches of snow making one inch
of water. This water falls mostly in the spring in
gentle rains, during the month of May, which is the
rainy season of the country. In the month of May
the rain gives our grasses their growth, and by June
l.st to 15th they are fully matured. Our rains then
come in sliort showers, and the fall for the summer is
small. Our grasses begin to cure, and by September
1st they have become perfectly cured uncut hay. This
one fact alone is the key to the great superiority of this
country for grazing. Our grasses cure instead of de-
composing, as there is neither heat nor moisture, both
of which are necessary for the chemical process of de-
composition.

" As you leave the Missouri River you enter the belt
of country where two feet of snow falls. This belt
extends, like the first belt of rain, to Fort Kearney.
West of that point to the mountain's foot is the belt
of eighteen inches. The snowfalls at a single storm
arc very light, three inches being exceptionally large,

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 77

and this amount being dry and light never lies on a
level ; in twenty-four hours from the time of fall the
ground is bare."

Dr. Charles Alden, formerly post surgeon at Fort
D. A. Russell, writes : " During the months of March,
April, Se2)tember, November, and December, 18G8,
the amount of snowfall was 4.37 inches, the greatest
being in March, 1.6 inches. The records of the year
1869 are more complete. There fell 13.56 inches of
snow during the months of January, February, March,
April, October, November, and December. The great-
est amount was in March, 3.97 inches; the least in
December, .13 of an inch. The snow in this vicinity
rapidly disappears after falling, and it is very rare that
there is a sufficient quantity or that it remains long enough
to give sleighing. During the winter season proper,
though the thermometer sometimes sinks to ten or fif-
teen degrees below zero, the weather is usually cl^ar and
open and the roads good. There are not only the
* bunch' and ' gramma' grasses, but a thousand other
species. Each valley has its complement of species."

Dr. Corey writes : " During the summer of 1865 I
travelled northwest of Omaha, following up the Loup
Fork of the Platte, leaving which we crossed Niobrara,
north and south forks of the Big Cheyenne River,
thence following along the base of the eastern Black
Hills, thence still northwest across the Little Missouri,
and then down the Powder River to the Yellowstone.
Our route returning was along the base of the Big
Horn Mountains and the Black Hills, and down the
Platte. The grazing the whole distance of this jour-

78 THE BEEF BONANZA.

ney, which was not less than sixteen liundred miles,
was good. There is considerable land which does not
grow grass, such as some places in the Mauvais Terre.
Yet there is grass in all the country we passed over for
countless herds of cattle, sheej), and horses. Buffalo,
elk, antelope, and deer, in immense numbers, graze
here both summer and winter. Old mountaineers,
hunters, and trappers all told me that the winter
grazing was fine, and uninterrupted by snow. I have
been familiar witli the winter grazing in that country for
six winters, and I am sure that stock will winter on the
native grass without shelter as well as they do in Illi-
nois with shelter and with hay and grain."

J. W. Iliff (deceased), the great cattle-owner of Wy-
oming, wrote: " I have been engaged in the stock busi-
ness in Colorado and Wyoming for the past fourteen
years. During all that time I have grazed stock in
nearly all the valleys of these Territories, both summer
and winter. The cost of both summering and winter-
ing is simply the cost of herding, as no feed nor shelter
is required. I consider the summer-cured grass of
these plains and valleys as superior to any hay. My
cattle have not only kept in good order on this grass
through all the light winters, but many of them, thin
in the fall, have become fine beef by spring. During
this time I have owned over 20,000 head of cattle.
The percentage of loss in wintering here is much less
than in the States, where cattle are stabled and fed on
corn and hay. The cost of raising cattle here can be
shown from the fact that I would be glad to contract
to furnish any quantity of beef, from heavy, fat cattle,

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 79

in Chicago at seven cents, net weight. My experience
in sheep has not been so extensive as in cattle. I tliink,
however, that the short, sweet grass and the dry climate
here is especially adapted to raising sheep. I am con-
fident, from my experience, that this trans-Missouri
country can defy all competition in the production of
wool, mutton, beef, and horses."

Alexander Major says : " I have been grazing cattle
on the Plains and in the mountains for twenty years.
I have during that time never had less than 500 head
work-cattle, and for two winters, those of 1857 and
1858, I wintered 1500 head of heavy work-oxen on the
Plains each winter. ]\Iy experience extends from El
Paso, on tlie Rio Grande, to one hundred miles north
of Fort Benton, jSlontana. Our stock is worked hard
during the summer, and comes to the winter herding-
ground thin. Then it is grazed w'ithout shelter, hay
and grain being unknown. By spring the cattle are
all in good working order, and many of them fat enough
for beef. I have often sold as high as 33| per cent, of
a drove of work-oxen for beef that were thin the fall
before, that had fattened on the winter grass. During
these twenty years the firm with which I was connected
Avintered many cattle in Missouri and Arkansas on hay
and corn, and I am sure the percentage of loss of those
wintered in this country in all the valleys of the trans-
Missouri country is less than it was in the States with
food and shelter. From my twenty years' experience,
I say without hesitation that all the country west of
the Missouri River is one vast pasture, affording un-
equalled summer and winter pasturage, where sheep,

80 THE BEEF BONANZA.

cattle, and horses can be raised with only the cost of
herding."

James A. Moore, now deceased, said: "■ I am familiar
with grazing for eleven years. I have grazed stock each
and every summer and winter during that time. I have
had experience with liorses, sheep, and cattle. I have
found no difficulty in wintering stock without shelter
other than is afforded by the bluifs and in the canons.
My loss in winter has been less than during my experi-
ence in stock-raising in Ohio. I have now 8000 sheep
whicli have been wintered well on native grasses. Since
bringing them to this cool and elevated country they
have increased in the quantity as well as quality of the
wool. I know of no disease which prevails among
sheep in this country. Out of 8000 head I have lost
only two this winter by wolves. I think this country
peculiarly tlie home of sheep. I can raise wool here
for less than one-half what it can be raised in Ohio or
other Eastern States."

CHAPTEE VII.

MOEE ABOUT CATTLE-LANDS.

Interesting Letters — The Testimony of Generals Reynolds,
Myers, and Bradley, Edward Creighton, Alexander Street,
and Governors McCook and Campbell — The Future of the
Plains.

This chapter is a continuation of the subject-matter
treated in my last. I will proceed by giving an extract
from General Eeynolds's " Explorations of the Yellow-
stone," pages 74 and 75 :

"■ Through the whole of the season's march the sub-
sistence of our animals had been obtained by grazing
after we had reached camp in the afternoon, and for an
hour or two between the dawn of day and our time of
starting. The consequence was that when we reached
our winter quarters there were but few animals in the
train that were in a condition to have continued the
march without a generous diet. Poorer or more broken-
down creatures it would l)e difficult to find. They were
at once driven up the valley of Deer Creek, and herded
dm'ing the day and brought to camp and kept in a
corral through the night. In the spring all were in as
fine condition for commencing another season's work as
could be desired. A greater change in their appear-
ance could not have been produced, even if they had
/ 81

82 THE BEEF BONANZA.

been grain-fed and stable-housed all winter. Only one
was lost, the furious storm of December coming on be-
fore it had gained sufficient strength to endure it. This
fact that 70 exhausted animals turned out to ^vinter on
the Plains on the 1st of November came out in the
spring in the best condition, and with the loss of but
one of the number, is the most forcible commentary I
can make upon the quality of the grass and the char-
acter of the winter."

General William Myers, United States Army, writes :
" I have had some experience with stock on the Plains
and the mountains for the past four winters. Quarter-
masters' animals, horses, and mules have grazed more
or less at the following posts each of the winters of 1866,
1867, 18G8, 1869, and since, viz.: Forts Kearney,
McPherson, and Sidney Barracks, Nebraska; Forts
Sedgmck and Morgan, Colorado; Forts Laramie, Fet-
terman, Reno, Phil Kearney, Saunders, D. A. Russell,
Fred Steele, and Bridger, AVyoming Territory ; Camp
Douglass, in Utah ; and Fort C. F. Smith, in Montana.
These forts embrace a country five hundred miles north
and south, and eight hundred miles east and west. I
am of the opinion that in consequence of the peculiar
nutritious grasses, and the lightness of the snowfalls in
all this extent of country, herds of sheep, cattle, and
horses can be grazed the year round with perfect safety
from danger in winter, and with great profit."

General L. P. Bradley, an excellent judge, writes:
" I know the country on the east slope of the moun-
tains from the Big Horn down to the Republican and
Smoky Hill, which I prospected or scouted pretty

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 83

thoroughly. From the Smoky Hill, in about latitude
39° north to latitude 44° the country is very much like
that immediately around the Union Pacific Kailroad,
with which you and the travelling pul^lic are familiar.
The character of all this country is rolling prairie, very
well watered, and abounding in good grasses to such an
extent that the assertion may be safely made that the
supply of grazing is unlimited. All the streams in this
range furnish some timber, and many of the tributaries
of the Republican, Powder, Tongue, Big Horn, and
other rivers are covered with forests of hard- and soft-
wood. All of the bottom-lands on the streams flowing
from the mountains are what would be called in the
East good, reliable farming-lands, fit to produce any
of the regular crops, except perhaps corn. The only
danger to the corn-crop would be, I suppose, the short-
ness of the season and the frequency of frosts conse-
quent on the extreme altitude of this section. North
of latitude 44° the countiy changes materially for the
better. It is better watered, having an abundance of
pure, clear mountain streams. The soil is richer, and
the grasses are heavier and stronger, and the climate
very much milder than that for several degrees south.
I think the valleys of Tongue River, Little Horn, Big
Horn, and the Yellowstone 'vvill produce corn, and good
corn, too. About the other crops, barley, wheat, pota-
toes, etc., there is no question. This, I take it, shows
about the maximum of soil and climate, for there is no
question about the value of a country that embraces
hundreds of millions of acres that will produce good
crops of cereals and grasses."

84 THE BEEF BONANZA.

The valley of the Big Horn, five to twenty miles in
width by about one hundred miles in length, I regard
as one of the choice spots of the earth. Here the
climate, soil, scenery, and natural productions combine
to make a country I have not seen excelled anywhere
from Georgia to Montana, and equalled only by the
favored countries along the Ohio, the Cumberland, or
the Tennessee. The prevailing winds are westerly,
bringing the mild airs of the Pacific to these inland
slopes, and tempering the winters of latitude 45° and
46° to about the temperature of the mountain country
of Kentucky and Tennessee. The value of this country
for grazing may be estimated from the fact that good
fine grasses grow evenly all over the country ; that the
air is so fine that the grasses cure on the ground with-
out losing any of their nutrimeut, and that the climate
is so mild and genial that stock can range and feed all
the winter, and keep in excellent condition without
artificial shelter or fodder. The fact of grasses curing
on the ground is a well-known peculiarity of all the
high country on the east slope of the mountains, and
in this is found the great value of this immense range
for grazing purposes. The difference between grasses
which have to be cut and cured and those which are
preserved on the ground is enough to convince the
stock-raiser and herder of the value of these immense
ranges known as the Plains. I believe that all the
flocks and herds in the world could find ample pastur-
age on these unoccuj^ied plains and the mountain
slopes beyond, and the time is not far distant when
the largest flocks and herds will be found right here,

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 85

where the grass grows and ripens untouched from one
year's end to the other. I believe there is no place in
this section of the country, from latitude 47° down,
where cattle and sheep will not winter safely with no
feed but what they will pick up, and with only the
rudest shelter. In the mountains or in the valleys of
the mountain streams they would find ample shelter
from storms in the frequent caflons and ravines. The
mountain ranges are peculiarly adapted to sheep-rais-
ing ; the range is unlimited, the grasses are fine, and
the air is pure and dry, — conditions which insure
healthier stock and better wool than the climate and
soil of the low country. I have said that the climate
about Big Horn was very mild. As an indication of
this I will state that the average temperature in the
valley, latitude 45° 30', was, in December, 1867, 32°
above; in January, 1868, 30° above; in February, 40°
above; and in March, 55° above. In August, 1867,
the mercury was as high as 107° above. Coal, iron,
and fine building-stone are plentiful in the mountains
of the Big Horn ranges. Fine clay and limestone are
found in abundance, and the mountains furnish good
pine timber in fair quantity. Nature has provided
most liberally for the wants of civilization in this
favored region, and when it is opened up to settlement
it will attract a large population, and will prove to be
a great producing country."

Edward Creighton, the great millionaire cattle-owner
of l^ebraska, wrote, not long before his death, as fol-
lows : " My first grazing in the country was in the
winter of 1859; since then for many winters I have

86 THE BEEF BONANZA.

grazed more or less stock, including horses, sheep, and
cattle, in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana.
The first seven winters I grazed work-oxen mostly.
Large work-cattle winter on the grasses in the valleys
and on the plains exceedingly well, and are in good
condition for summer work by the first of May. The
last four winters I have been raising stock, and have
had large herds of cows and calves. The present
winter I have wintered about 8000 head. They have
done exceedingly well. We have lost very few through
the whole winter, and those lost were very thin when
winter commenced. We have no shelter but the bluffs
and hills, no feed but the wild grasses of the country.
We have had 3000 sheep the past winter, and they are
in the best of order. Many are being sold daily for
mutton. Like the cattle, they require no feed nor
shelter. The high rolling character of the country and
the dry climate, and the short, sweet grasses of the
numerous hillsides, are extremely favorable to sheep-
raising and wool-grooving. I have been interested in
stock-raising in the States for a number of years, where
we had tame-grass pastures, and tame grass, hay, and
fenced fields and good shelter for the stock, and good
American and blooded cattle, and an experienced stock-
raiser to attend to them, and after a full trial I have
found out that, with the disadvantage of the vastly
inferior Texas cattle, and no hay nor grain nor shelter,
— nothing but the wuld grass, — there is three times the
profit in grazing on the Plains, and I have, as a conse-
quence, determined to transfer my interest in stock-
raising in the States to the Plains. There is no pros-

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 87

pective limit to the pasturage west of the Missouri
River. All the wool, mutton, beef, and horses that the
commerce and population of our great country will
require a hundred years hence, when the population is
as dense as that of Europe, can be produced in this
country, and at half the present prices."

Alexander Street, of Wells-Fargo Express Company,
says : " From an experience of over twelve years in
wintering stock on the Plains I am satisfied there is no
country better adapted to the purpose than Wyoming
and Colorado Territories. I have wintered herds of
my own and others in AV^yoming repeatedly, and the
percentage of loss is less than wintering in the States
on corn and hay. Here we feed nothing, but herd our
stock on dry grass. During the last winter I had charge
of 2000 head of cattle belonging to Wells, Fargo & Co.
These cattle were worked very hard during the sum-
mer and fall in transporting government supplies to
the Powder Piver country, and many of them were not
turned out until the 1st of January, and were so poor
that they could scarcely travel to the herd-ground, some
forty miles. They had nothing all winter but grass,
not a mouthful of hay nor grain, and yet we lost but
about 30 head out of the 2000. Many of them were
fat enough for beef in March and April, and by the
1st of May nearly all were in good working condition.
From long experience I am fully satisfied that the
gramma or bunch grass, which abounds in this country,
is far superior to any of the tame grasses of the States ;
drying up in the fall without any rain upon it, it re-
tains all the nutritious properties through the winter."

88 THE BEEF BONANZA.

Speaking of the advantages of cattle- and sheep-grow-
ing in Colorado, General McCook writes : " The grasses
throughout the whole Territory are so abundant and so
nutritious that stock-raising is destined to be one of the
most essential elements of our permanent prosperity.
The natural increase of sheep in the Territory is 100
and of cattle 80 j)er cent, per annum. And as there is
almost no limit to the pastoral capabilities of the country,
so there should be no limit to tlie increase of stock.
The natural grasses of our hills or valleys are equal in
nutritious qualities to the Hungarian or other culti-
vated grasses of the East, and their abundance is such
that the herds of a dozen States could here find jjastur-
age ; and the winters are so mild that shelter or hay is
unnecessaiy."

Governor Campbell, of Wyoming, in a message to
the Legislature of that Territory, said : " In the chosen
home of the buffalo and the other graminivorous ani-
mals, which have for unnumbered years roamed over
our Plains and subsisted upon their succulent and nutri-
tious grasses, it would seem superfluous to say anything
in relation to our advantages as a stock-growing country,
or the wisdom or propriety of passing such laws as will
give protection to herds and flocks, and thus encourage
our people to engage in pastoral pursuits. In a climate
so mild that horses, cattle, and sheep and goats can live
in the open air through all the winter months, and fat-
ten on the dry and ajiparently withered grasses of the
soil, there would appear to be scarcely a limit to the
number that could be raised. There is an old Spanish
proverb that ' wherever the foot of the sheep touches

CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. §9

the land turns into gold,' and the dry, gravelly soil of
our Plaias is peculiarly adapted for raising sheep, for
while it produces the richest of grasses for their con-
sumption, it is of a character that preserves their feet
from the diseases most fatal to the flocks. As it is well
known that the finer wools are grown at great altitudes,
we should be able to supply the world with almost un-
limited quantities of the best wool. While it may be
justly deemed a reproach to the country at large that
the United States has been for years past an importer
of wool to the average amount of 50,000,000 pounds
per annum, it is a source of satisfaction to us to know
that there is a ready market at our doors, among our
own countrymen, for so large an amount of all that we
can grow. It is not sheep alone of the wool-bearing
animals that can be made so profitable on our Plains.
Our mountain ranges are in many respects reduplica-
tions of the country in which the most valuable and
delicate varieties of the Cashmere and Ang-ora goats are
raised, and those flocks which browse on the slirubs
growing at high altitudes in the rare high atmosphere
of the mountains invariably produce the largest and
finest fleece. The importation of these goats into our
Territory should be encouraged. Unnumbered cattle
must be raised and fattened on our soil, and with the
cheap railroad freights which we have a right to expect,
the herdsman of our Plains, while advancing his own
fortune, will prove a benefactor to the laboring classes
of the East, by bringing the price of the best beef within
the limit of their means."

Many other letters and documents from persons

8*

90 THE BEEF BONANZA.

capable of judging about '' Cattle-Growing out West"
are before me, but these will suffice. Highly as Ne-
braska, Wyoming, and Colorado have been spoken of
for herd-lands, still, if I was engaged in the business, I .
W'Ould not go to either place, for I think I know a bet-
ter cattle-country. Montana has undoubtedly the best
grazing-grounds in America, and parts of Dakota stand
next. The Yellowstone, Big Horn, Tongue River, and
Powder River regions contain the maximum of advan-
tages to the cattle-grower. Except on the Upper Yel-
lowstone few herds are yet located in Eastern Mt)ntana,
but in the future the O'Connors, Kings, Kennedys,
Hitsons, and Chisholms of the West wall be found on
the Yellowstone, Big Horn, and Powder River countries
of Montana.

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST.

91

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST.

CHAPTER yill.

GEEAT OPPOETUNITIES.

The Eaising of Sheep — "Where it is Done — The Wool Crop of
the World — Sheep- Walks of the Plains — A Fortune in a Clip.

Sheep love a high and dry climate, and the higher
and drier the soil the better it is for them. The
countries which they mostly inhabit are Great Britain,
Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Portugal, Russia, Aus-
tralia, South America, South Africa, the United States,
North America, Asia, and North Africa. Of these
countries Great Britain has a yearly production of
260,000,000 pounds of wool; Germany, 200,000,000;
France, 123,000,000; Spain, Italy, and Portugal,
119,000,000; European Russia, 125,000,000; Aus-
tralia, South America, and South Africa, 250,000,000 ;
United States, 100,000,000; North American Prov-
inces, 10,000,000; Asia, 470,000,000; North Africa,
49,000,000.

It will be observed that the European production is
827,000,000 pounds, and the annual yield of the whole

93

94 THE BEEF BONANZA.

world 1,706,000,000. The enormous value of this
wool is shown by the fact that in one year Australia
exported £30,000,000 sterling worth of wool, or about
$150,000,000 in gold, and for ten years past her trade
has been steadily increasing. Those unfamiliar with
Australia can never estimate the importance of such a
country and the effect produced upon it by an enormous
wool trade. It is the asylum for broken-down Eng-
lishmen, and in a few years they grow rich in sheep,
and generally return to the Continent to live at their
ease. Wool gives the principal prosperity to Australia,
and she now has cities larger than New Orleans with a
trade greater than Boston, Baltimore, Pittsburg, Cleve-
land, Buffalo, or Detroit. Melbourne ten or fifteen
years ago had a population of 170,000 souls, and
Sydney was as important.

In the production of the world's wool the United
States makes rather a mean figure with its 100,000,000
pounds, and it is most encouraging to wool-growers to
know we are oftentimes still heavy importers. In
1870 we imported wool and woollens to the value of
$42,229,385; and the year before, while we exported
$82,238,773 worth of breadstuffs, we sent out only
$315,881 worth of wool, — not enough to pay the duty
on our imported playing-cards. All our breadstuffs
cost three-fifths of their value to lay them down at the
sea-coast, and it may seem strange that our producers
do not raise more wool and less grain. This, however,
has its explanation in the fact that on small farms in
the East, where population is dense, farmers are com-
pelled to raise clover for animal food, and sheep are

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 95

utterly destructive to that kind of grass. They eat the
heart out of clover and the plant dies, so that the
most thrifty farmers who manure their land by plough-
ing down clover in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York
have almost entirely ceased to raise sheep, believing the
profit to be derived from them will not pay for the
injury done their lands.

The importance of wool as a source of natural wealth
is shown by its effect on the increase of population and
wealth where sheep are most raised. Roubaix, France,
rose from a population of 5000 souls and a manufac-
tory of 3000 pieces to 55,000 people and 400,000
pieces. Rheims began, in 1801, the manufacture of
merino, and in 1863 had 55,000 workmen running
170,000 spindles and 19,000 hand-looms, annually
producing 80,000,000 francs worth of cloth. Beda-
rieux, from a small village, has grown to be a great
city, and sends out annually 250,000 pieces of cap
cloth. Elbeuf, also, once a small hamlet, now has
24,000 workmen employed. Verviers, Belgium, from
5000 people has grown to 40,000 by the manufacture
of cloth. In one season she sent out 70,000,000 francs
worth. West Riding of Yorkshire, England, from
59,000 souls has increased to 1,375,000 ; Halifax, from
63,000 to 130,000; Huddersfield, from 14,000 to
38,000; Leeds, from 53,000 to 152,000; Bradford,
from 14,000 to 100,000. It is in Bradford that the
great English woi^ted-works are located.

" Not guarded Colchis gave admiring Greece
So rich a treasure in its golden fleece."

96 THE BEEF BONANZA.

Sheep will grow almost anywhere, as is evidenced
by the fact that the following countries have raised and
ex2>orted wool to the United States alone : England,
Scotland, Dominion of Canada, West Indies, British
Africa, British East Indies, Australia, Cuba, France,
Brazil, China, Argentine Republic, Dutch West Indies,
Guiana, Mexico, Italy, Venezuela, Belgium, United
States of Colombia, Uruguay, Russia on the Black Sea,
Chili, Denmark, Danish West Indies, Austria, and
Turkey. These countries embrace almost every climate
on the globe, and the sheep is indeed a rare animal to
adapt itself so readily to all circumstances. The finest
merino wool is grown in Spain, France, Algeria, Cape
Colony, on the La Plata, and in Australia.

As observed at the commencement of this chapter,
the best climate for sheep is high, dry lands, where
little rain falls; and generally the higher the lands the
rarer the air, and the drier the climate the better will
sheep thrive.

In Asia sheep are grazed 1 5,000 feet above the level
of the sea ; but, while this is true, we must not forget
that they also range in Holland below the level of the
sea. I am told, however, none of the diseases, such as
dry-rot, balling, scab, and foot-rot, so common in low
countries, prevail in the high latitudes.

The principal advantage of sheep land is in the fact
it will raise sheep when it will not produce cereals or
roots. The colonists in Africa, when they found they
could not farm, turned their attention to wool-growing,
and soon became thriving communities. The high and
dry plains of South America, where little rain falls for

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 97

ten months in the year, export 100,000,000 pounds of
wool annually. It is there the celebrated " mestiza"
is grown, from which the finest cloth is made, and so
great is the demand for it that not over one-twentieth
of what is needed is produced. The whole of the
interior of Australia is a high table-land, where little
rain falls, and from thence comes the fine fibre me-
rino wool, from which French broadcloths and French
merinos are manufactured. New Zealand, much the
same as Australia, gives us the delaine w^ools. The
lower the lands and coarser the herbage, the coarser
are the wools, and the higher the soil and finer the
grass, the finer are the fleeces. " The Great American
Desert" is the natural home of the sheep. West of the
Missouri there are 1,000,000,000 acres of land on which
sheep can probably be grazed better and to more advan-
tage than any other country in the world. Commencing
at Grand Island, on the Union Pacific Railroad, one
hundred and fifty miles west of Omaha, the grazing-belt,
eight hundred miles wide, extends west over one thou-
sand miles. On this enormous tract of land all the sheep
in the world might be placed, and still there would be
room for more. To attempt any particular description
of so large a country would be impossible, and only a
few of the largest ranges can be noticed. The North,
South, and Middle Loup Rivers are over two hundred
miles long, and flowing together, just north of Grand
Island, empty a short distance below, at the city of
Columbus, into the Platte River. I have been all
over this region, and never saw a finer one on earth.
Imagine a broad valley, green as the sea, a wide river,

E ff 9

98 THE BEEF BONANZA.

fringed with trees, flowing down its centre, and here
and there an island covered with dense forest; little
green valleys that conduct silvery streams toward their
ocean home ; distant hills, with bonnets blue, a glorious
canopy of bright and balmy skies overspreading the
whole. What scene could be more sublime ? And
such was the North Loup as I saw it a few years ago.
At one point for fifteen miles I could look up the
valley, and the prospect was unbroken, except by fields
of golden grain and green waving corn. High bluffs
and deep ravines filled with timber flanked the wide
valley, while every two or three miles streams came
leaping from the hills, meandered fantastically across
the valley, and plunged into the broad river. No
sweeter or more picturesque landscape ever was pre-
sented to tlie vision of a painter than the North Loup,
the loveliest valley of the Plains. There were no
cataracts, geysers, or glaciers, but thousands of patches
of green earth, terraced by the hand of nature more
beautiful than art could possibly have made them ; quiet
vales, through which rivulets flowed on forever in
shade and sunlight ; groves by the side of crystal pools ;
and hazy, golden days nine months out of every twelve
in the year.

It was of this very country Bayard Taylor wrote :
" I am more than ever struck with the great difference
between the Great West region and the country east of
the Mississippi. There is none of the wearisome mo-
notony of the level plains, as in Illinois, or the swampy
tracts, as in Indiana or Ohio. The wide, billowy
green, dotted all over with golden islands of harvests;

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 99

the hollows of dark, glittering maize ; the park-like
clumps of timber along the course of streams, — these
are the materials which make up every landscape, and
of which, in their sweet, harmonious, pastoral beauty,
the eye never grows weary."

It is on the little streams which put into the great
valleys the fine sheep-ranches are found. For miles
and miles the hills stretch away, covered with a short,
soft grass, and on this the sheep keep fat the whole
year round. The soil is arid and sandy, and the air
warm and dry. All day long the sheep graze on the
sweet grass, and at night come down into the valley to
drink and sleep. Xear Fort Hartsuff, on the head of
the North Loup, there is a little valley surrounded by
multitudes of low, round hills that look like mounds,
and down the valley, over a pebbly bottom, flows a
brook of clear, cold water. Near at hand are deep
ravines, timber, and cuts in the earth where the hills
almost meet overhead. This is a natural sheep-range.
The round mounds, of which there are thousands in all
directions, are covered with buffalo and gramma grass.
The pebbles in the brook clean the sheep's feet, and in
winter, when the storms beat, the ravines, timber, and
caves give them natural shelter. The snow no sooner
falls than the winds blow it off the mounds, and no
matter how deep it may be in the valley, by going up
two hundred feet the animals can get all the grass they
want. There is no need of shelter, for natm-e has pro-
vided corrals for tens of thousands of animals, and it is
unnecessary to cut hay, for the grass cured on the ground
and always at hand is better than any hay in stacks.

100 THE BEEF BONANZA.

The description of one valley wall answer for hun-
dreds of others, as they are very much alike. Lodge
Pole Creek, 396 miles west of Omaha, has an elevation
of 3861 feet above the level of the sea, and is one of
tlie best ranges in the West for both cattle and sheep.
It is 190 miles long, and empties into the South Platte
River. For 180 miles it flows adjacent to the Union
Pacific Railroad, and the valley in this distance con-
tains at least 1,000,000 acres of grazing-land. The
grass is short, sweet, and nutritious, and the range in
every way suited to sheep-farming. On the bottoms
great quantities of hay could be cut, and in the whole
length of Lodge Pole at least 600,000 sheep could be
raised, yielding annually 2,500,000 pounds of wool,
worth §1,000,000. Horse Creek, 5000 feet above the
sea, is located near Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, and
empties into the Platte. It is a fine stream, 100 miles
in length, and has Bear Creek, 40 miles long, for
a tributary. At the head of Bear Creek is Bear Lake,
on the banks of which grow beautiful groves of cotton-
Avood and box elder. Along the bottom of the main
stream is plenty of luxuriant grass for hay, and on the
uplands 6,400,000 acres of grazing, where half a million
sheep might feed the year round. Larrens Fork is
60 miles long, with hay-lands, uplands, timber, and
buffalo grass. Fox Creek is 30 miles long, rises out
of solid rock, runs south, and is a fine stock-range.
Box Elder is 25 miles long, empties into the Platte,
and has plenty of sheep-grass. Deer Creek is 40 miles
long and has good pasturage. On both Box Elder and
Deer Creek is found aspen, box-elder, and cottonwood

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. IQl

timber. Chug water and its tributaries — Richard
Creek, Wolf Creek, Spring Creek, and Willow Creek
— are each over 200 miles long, and afford good graz-
ing. Sabille Creek has also good bottoms, and is 40
miles long. The Big Laramie is over 200 miles in
length, and has bottoms 5 miles wide. It contains at
least 6,400,000 acres of rich grass-lands, on which as
many sheep could be grazed, and they would annually
produce 24,000,000 pounds of wool, worth §9,600,000.
In this one valley of the West could be grazed all the
sheep now in the great State of Ohio. As many as
500,000 sheep could be raised each year, and these for
mutton alone would be worth §2,500,000. The land
on the Laramie Plains is high and dry, and the air
pure. There is plenty of timber, and, taken all together,
this is a perfect sheep paradise.

All these pasturages are of easy access to the Union
Pacific Raih'oad, and many of them near cities and
large towns. The whole country west from Grand
Island to Green River, a distance of over five hundred
miles, is one vast pasture-field. The Sweetwater Val-
ley, many hundreds of miles long, and from four to ten
miles wide, affords rich grass, and would graze 1,000,-
000 sheep and cattle. I have been all over the Wind
River country, and it is an enormous belt of agricul-
tural and pastoral lands. The valley will grow wheat,
rye, oats, Indian corn, and furnish sites for beautiful
homes, while on the hills which roll away for hundreds
of miles millions of sheep and cattle can graze without
other food or shelter than that furnished by nature.
Beyond the Wind River is the Big Horn range, of which

9*

102 THE BEEF BONANZA.

General Bradley says : " For stock-raising no country
could be finer, and the conditions are such as to insure
the minimum of expense and labor and maximum of
profits. The fine air and M'ater insure health to the herds
and the pasture food all the year round. The country
including and bordering on the Big Horn Mountain is
particularly fitted for sheep -raising. Sheep like the
liigh land and dry air of such a region, and these,
with the fine, rich grasses of the mountain slopes, would
produce fleeces not excelled in any part of the world.
Sheep-husbandry is as yet in its infancy with us, but
the time will come when the Big Horn country will be
as famous for its flocks and wool as any part of the old
world, perhaps as famous for its looms and mills too."*
The climate of these mountains is admirably suited to
the culture of goats. The Angora, the finest goat in
the world, would grow and thrive here. His fleece
would be, too, a valuable addition to our wool market.
A Russian traveller, writing of this little animal, says :
" His Jiome is on the great mountain slopes, on dry soil,
and among feldspathic rocks. His fleece is white as
snow, and of dazzling purity, softness, and lustre. The
shearing is no sooner concluded than he takes to the
mountains, and there, above dew-falling points, he feeds
and flourishes on the aromatic plants and dry grasses.

* This country was for a long time closed to settlement by Eed
Cloud's hostile bands, but the Sioux war has opened it up to
civilization. Fort Custer is located in the very heart of the Big
Horn Valley, and Fort Keogh is only about one hundred miles
by land farther down the Yellowstone. The country will ere
long be as safe as Nebraska or Colorado.

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 103

There is no humidity in this climate ; persons who lie
out all night in the open air will find in the morning
that their garments liave not the slightest dampness
about them. The goats eat nothing except shoots of
vegetation and herbs, and it is this which contributes
to make their fleeces so brilliant."

This climate is singularly like our own country along
the Big Horn, Wind River, and throughout the Black
Hills. Undoubtedly Angora goats would grow and
thrive along the whole mountain range of the " Great
Rockies."

Some faint idea of the extent and capacity of our
immense Western pastoral region may be obtained when
we consider that there is grazing-ground enough in
Wyoming alone for all the sheep in the United States,
Australia, and the Argentine Republic, Avhich now pro-
duce an aggregate of 300,000,000 pounds of wool, worth
$100,000,000, annually. The United States, with an
area of 2,940,000 square miles, produces 100,000,000
pounds of wool, while the British Islands, with an area
of only 118,000 square miles, produces 260,000,000
pounds. In other words, with twenty-five times their
land, and five hundred times their pasturage, we pro-
duce less than one-half as much wool. Buenos Ayres
has 75,000,000 head of sheep, and these might be
driven into the great West and grazed without occupy-
ing one-eighth of our sheep-lands. Between the Mis-
souri River and the Pacific coast there are not less than
1,650,000 square miles of agricultural lands, and more
than one billion of acres of grazing lands, capable of
grazing conveniently 600,000,000 sheep. It staggers

104 THE BEEF BONANZA.

human belief to compute the extent and capacity of our
great West, and only those who have ridden over it on
horseback, as I have done for twelve years past, can
form any idea of its immensity. The valley of the
North Platte, from where it joins the South Platte to
its mountain source in the north part of Colorado, is
800 miles, making in the whole length 1450 miles of
Platte Valley. The two Platte Valleys, with their
tributaries, will average 40 miles in width, making
58,000 square miles, equal to 37,000,000 acres. Think
of two valleys and their tributaries out West being
larger than New York or Pennsylvania! Yet the
small portion of New York State devoted to pasturage
furnishes grass for 7,000,000 graminivorous animals —
horses, sheep, and cattle — valued at $575,000,000. " It
is only by comparisons," says Dr. Latham, " the people
of tlie East can form any idea of the capabilities and
wealth of the West."

Besides the great Platte Valleys just mentioned are
the Loups, Beaver, Shell, Calamus, and Dismal Valleys,
which average in the aggregate over 30 miles in width,
and have more than 10,000,000 acres of pasture-
land along their banks. The temperature in this re-
gion for the whole year is 50° Fahrenheit. The mean
temperature for spring is 47°, for summer 75°, for
autumn 50°, and for winter 25°. The annual rainfall
is 25 J inches, divided as follows : spring, 8 ; summer,
12 ; autumn, 4 ; winter (snow, 18 inches), 1 j inches
rain.

Dr. Latham, speaking of the country north of Grand
Island, on the Union Pacific Railroad, says: "The

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 105

Loup Forks and tributaries have 10,000,000 to 12,000,-
000 acres of as good, and reliable winter grazing as is
to be found in Buenos Ayres, South Africa, or Aus-
tralia, Wool can be raised as cheaply in this country
as anywhere in the world. In other countries they pay
land and water transportation of thousands of miles,
sell their wool from 12 to 25 cents per pound, and
grow rich at that price. On the Loup alone there is
room for 7,000,000, and the best grass I have ever
seen for graminivorous animals. Ohio has 6,500,000
sheep, which, considered alone for their wool, after pay- ■*
ing the interest of capital invested in their pasture- and
meadow-lands, and the cost of feeding through the six
months of winter, do not pay one per cent, on the capital
invested in themselves."

These 6,500,000 sheep of Ohio, if they could be
transferred to the Platte country, besides making room
at home for a paying investment, would pay 25 per
cent, profit per annum out West, where the only cost
of keeping would be herding.

CHAPTER IX.

GEEAT PASTURE-LANDS.

Where Sheep can be best Kaised — Who the Sheep-Owners of the
Plains are — How the Ranches are managed — Letters from
Sheep-Raisers.

To describe correctly the pasture-lands of tlie West
would require not one but a dozen chapters, and even
the most important regions can only have a brief men-
tion. The streams flowing into the North Platte on
its north bank alone are the Blue Water, Coldwater,
Slate, Sweetwater, and Sheet.

On the south side are the Ash, Pumpkin, Larrens,
Dry, Horse, Cherry, Chugwater, Sybille, Big Laramie,
Little Laramie, Deer, Medicine, Rock, and Douglas.
These streams with their feeders drain 40,000,000 acres
of pasture-lands ; most of them have timber along their
banks, and afford beautiful sites for ranches and resi-
dences.

In the North Platte basin, east of the Black Hills,
are 8,000,000 acres of pasturage, with the finest and
most lasting living streams, and good shelter in bluffs
and canons. These 8,000,000 acres of pasturage, if
taxed to their capacity, would feed all the year round
8,000,000 head of sheep, yielding 24,000,000 pounds
of wool annually, worth $7,000,000 to $8,000,000.
106

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 107

The Eepublican Valley is 250 miles long, and with its
tributaries embraces an area of 25,000 square miles, or
16,000,000 acres of land.

The whole country is divided into plain, bluff, and
valley, and there is not a rod of the 16,000,000 acres
that is not the finest grazing, and which is not covered
with a luxuriant growth of blue, buffalo, and gramma
grasses. The whole country is exceptionally well
watered by the Republican River, and the great stream
has among its tributaries on the north bank Hoickearea,
White Man, Black Wood, Eight Mile, Little River,
Red, Stinking Water, Medicine, Turkey, and Elm ; on
the south bank are Prairie Dog, Sappa Beaver, White,
Box Elder, Ash, Cottonwood, and North and South
Forks. No particular description of these streams can
be given, but they are mostly well timbered, full of
beautiful spots and natural homes for hundreds of
raisers and tens of thousands of herds. Here the buf-
falo were thickest, and only ten years ago it was esti-
mated that there were 1,000,000 head grazing on the
Republican and its tributaries. They have all gone,
and not 50,000 head of cattle or sheep have yet re-
placed them. What a field for the future stock-kings
of the West !

The Cache la Poudre, Big Thompson, St. Vrain,
Bijou, Kiawa, Bear, Beaver, Lone Tree, Howard, Crow,
Pawnee, Cheyenne, Little Missouri, Cannon Ball, Hart,
Belle, Fouche, and many other valleys are famous for
their rich grasses, and afford admirable ranges for both
cattle and sheep, but to describe these and a hundred
other rivers in the great West would require a volume.

108 THE BEEF BONANZA.

I have seen cabbages raised on the Cache la Poudre
that weighed fifty pounds each ; turnips, twelve pounds ;
potatoes, four pounds ; and beets two feet and a half
long. I have also seen cattle in January on the St.
Vrain and Big Thompson so fat they could hardly be
eaten. At one of our frontier posts is an official record,
made in March, complaining of the beef as " too fat for
issue to the men," and directing the butcher to select
and kill leaner animals. This is the West as a grazing-
country ; and if any one doubts let him come and see
for himself. He will not only learn the astonishing
fact that the natural grasses over-fatten stock, but he
can see fields of 10 acres from which 500 bushels of
wheat were cut and threshed, and if he will work he
can dig 500 bushels of potatoes from a single acre of
land.

The increase of the wool-trade has been most marvel-
lous. The wool industry of South America, South
Africa, and Australia does not date back more than a
quarter of a century, and now they export 250,000,000
pounds.

In England, thirty years ago, there were imported
74,000 bales of wool from Germany, 10,000 bales from
Spain and Portugal, 8000 bales from the British
colonies, and 5000 bales from other places, making a
total of 97,000 bales. In 1864 there were imported
from Australia 302,000 bales ; Cape of Good Hope,
68,000 ; South America, 99,000 ; and from all other
sources, 219,336; in all, 688,336 bales. Australia now
supplies more than three times the whole amount of
foreign wool consumed in England thirty years ago,

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 109

and the production of South America exceeds the whole
consumption then.

Our own country is not without some remarkable
increases, as is shown bj Iowa, which had in 1859
258,288 sheep, and in 1879 she had 2,332,241. If the
sheep-trade on the Plains increases as rapidly as the
cattle-trade has (and there is no apparent reason why it
should not), there will soon be in the pasturages along
the Union Pacific Railroad alone 1,000,000 head. The
cost of bringing sheep to Nebraska, Colorado, Wyom-
ing, and Montana from New Mexico is about §2 per
head. Shepherds can be hired at from §30 to S40 per
month, and one man can attend about 3000 head. Wool
has been carried by railroad from San Francisco to Bos-
ton for §1.10 per 100 pounds. Double-decked sheep-
cars, carrying 200 sheep, can be had from the base of
the mountains to Chicago markets for §150, thereby
putting fat wethers in market at 75 cents per head ;
dressed mutton carcasses are delivered from the Rocky
Mountains in New York at §1.75 per hundred, car-
load rates.

The principal sheep-owners in the West, with the
number of sheep in their herds, are as follows : Moore
Brothers, Sydney, Nebraska, 15,000 ; A. M. Munson,
Greeley, Colorado, 5000; Mr. Bailey, South Platte,
3000 ; Hutton, Alsop & Creighton, Laramie, Wyom-
ing, 13,000 ; Carters & Co., Plains, 3000 ; J. W. H.
IHfF, Colorado, 10,000 ; Amigo Brothers, Colorado,
50,000 ; Hollester & Co., Utah, 20,000 ; Willard Clark
& Co., Laramie Plains, 3000 ; Rumsey & Co., Laramie
Plains, 2000 ; E. M. Post, Cheyenne, 5000 ; Ballen-

13

110 THE BEEF BONANZA.

tine Brothers, Nebraska, 5000 ; Maxwell Estate, Colo-
rado, 20,000 ; Benito Bacco, Colorado, 40,000 ; J. S.
Maynard, Colorado, 5000 ; A. M. Merriman, Colorado,
3000; Patterson Brothers, Colorado, 20,000; Keith
& Co., Nebraska, 2000 ; Dr. A. W. Bell, Colorado,
1000 ; George Burk, Nebraska, 1000 ; Froman Bro-
thers, Nebraska, 1000 ; Alfred Way, Nebraska, 1200;
Alfaugh & Grover, Nebraska, 1500 ; Andy Struthers,
Nebraska, 1000; H. Coolidge, Nebraska, 300; A.
Stuart, Nebraska, 400 ; Coe, Carter & Bratt, Nebraska,
900; Theodore Bye, Nebraska, 200; C. Mylander,
Nebraska, 200 ; King & Lane, Laramie, Wyoming,
2000.

There are many large sheep-herds in New Mexico
and Texas, but as these could hardly be called Western
herds they are omitted from this chapter. The Amigo
Brothers alone own in the Southwest over 300,000
sheep.

Referring particularly to some of the herds above
enumerated, I may mention that of Willard Clark &
Co. It is located eighteen miles from Laramie City,
W^yoming Territory, on the Laramie Plains, and about
six miles from the base of the mountains. The soil is
coarse, gravelly, and formed of debris washed from the
mountain-side. The whole Laramie Plain resembles
the bottom of an old lake, and the basin, seventy miles
long, was no doubt once covered with water.

Near the mountains the streams are small, clear, and
cold, being fed by melted snows, but in the valley,
where they are larger, they frequently overflow and de-
posit a rich, alluvial soil along their banks. In the

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. \\l

Plain the grass is rank and rich, and on the slopes the
soil is sandy and herbage sparse. It is on these barren
uplands the sheej) love to dwell, and where they seem
to thrive best, while the flat-lands are reserved for cat-
tle-ranges. The atmosphere is very clear, and objects
ten miles ofF do not appear to be over two miles distant.
It would be impossible for any one to take a pulmonary
disease in such a climate, and it would be a very bad
case of consumption, indeed, which could not be cured
by a year's sheep-herding on the Plains. Every one
sleeps out in the open air at night, and although the
thermometer often drops down below zero there is not
the slightest danger of taking cold or contracting rheu-
matism.

Mr. Edward Curly, of the London Field, speaking
of the climate of these Plains, says: " Snow will grad-
ually disappear while the temperature is constantly be-
low freezing-point. Place a saucer of anhydrous
sulphuric acid under a glass bell, with a little snow
around it, on a very cold day, and you can produce the
same effect on a very small scale in England, and from
the same cause. The boiled acid will make the air
within the glass so very dry that it will drink up the
snow, or cause it to evaporate without going through the
intermediate process of melting. Moisten a piece of
cambric and hang it out in the wind on the Plains on a
very cold day, and it will freeze quite stiff immediately,
and in a short time be quite dry and limp. The ice
within the fibrous threads has evaporated without melt-
ing, precisely as the snows of Wyoming or Colorado
waste away."

112 THE BEEF BONANZA.

Mr. Clark has a substantial house, stables for horses,
and sheds for 4000 sheep. He keeps hay for his sheep,
and in so high a latitude such a precaution is certainly
necessary. A mile and a half above the sea, he lives
as warm and comfortable in winter as the people of New
York, and never knows what it is to suffer with heat in
summer. The following is a statement of a portion of
Mr. Clark's operations in sheep :

First Year.

Cost of ranch and implements $4,350

300 tons of hay two seasons 650

May, 1879, bought 140 merino sheep, of which 18 were
full-grown rams, and 3 ram lambs. Average net

cost for the lot 2,100

August, 1879, bought 2000 native ewes, at $3 each . 6,000

Total $12,100

Returns : Shearing of 1880, 9200 pounds wool ; net

29 cents per pound $2,6G8

Value of 25 pure-blood merino ram lambs, at $25 each . 1,125
Value 1515 common-blood lambs, at an average of $3

each 4,545

Total $8,338

The data is too imperfect to fix a ratio of profits, but
Mr. Clark said in another year he would have his
herd and establishment clear, and if in three years one
can clear a herd and ranch worth $12,000, he would, I
think, be doing very well.

Mr. II. B. Rumsey has a flock on the Laramie Plains,
and the following is a return of his first three years of
sheep-growing out West:

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 113

First Year.

Bouglit G50 ewes, at a cost of $3 each .... $1950

" 1 ranch, with sheds 1200

40 tons of hay, at |6 per ton 240

Team, wagon, etc • 200

Two horses for herding 100

Total 13690

Expenses : Labor for one year $600

Board foreman one year 100

Horse-feed 100

Shearing sheep 50

Incidentals 100

Total $950

Eeturns : Sold 3600 pounds wool, at 29 cents per

pound $1044

On hand, 420 lambs, for which had an offer o^ $4.50, but

say $3 each 1260

Total $2304

Deduct expenses 950

Net profit, equal to about 85 per cent $1354

Mr. Rumsey, in liis estimate for next year, stated :

1500 sheep, extra sheds, horses, wagons, fencing, hay,
improvements, labor on ranches, etc., total

about $8000

Eeturns of wool from 1500 sheep, five pounds to the

fleece, 7500 pounds, at 25 cents per pound . . 1875

Increase, 70 per cent., 1050 lambs, at $3 each . . . 3150

Total $5025

Expenses : Labor for one year . . . $800

Contingent fund 500

1300

Net profit (exclusive of improved value of sheep, 46J per

cent, on investme it) $3725

H 10*

114 THE BEEF BONANZA.

The greatest possible difference of opinion exists
among sheep-owners as to the jsroper manner of breed-
ing. Some breed in, and others out ; some say sheep
should be bred up to the highest point, while others
contend a cross is best. Without pretending to express
an opinion, I would, if handling a herd, breed up Cots-
wolds for mutton, and cross merinos with Cotswolds
for wool. A great many owners say the French merino
is greatly to be preferred to the Spanish merino for
breeding in this country. The Cotswold cross with the
merino gives a large-bodied sheep, and a good quality
of wool. The cross between the Mexican sheep and
merino does not materially increase the size of the
sheep, but the wool is good, A lot of Mexican ewes
can be had at Denver, Cheyenne, or Pueblo for $2 per
head, but they are valuable only for starting a herd.
These ewes are very prolific, but they are small, their
wool coarse, and of little value. A well-known authority
on breeding says : " While I fully concur in the desir-
ableness of the cross between the merinos and Cotswolds
for hardihood, large fleeces, and good mutton, I will
say that the Leicesters are to my view very similar to
the Cotswolds, and what is claimed for the latter in the
cross referred to may be equally claimed for the for-
mer." The large bodies, good health, fine mutton,
rather than wool, is the principal recommendation of
the cross between merinos and Cotswolds. To breed
up a herd rapidly for profit take the largest Mexican
ewes and best Cotswold rams.

Mr. Merriman, who has his herd about six miles
from Colorado Springs, says : '"' At present I have

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 115

about 3000 head of sheep, a cross between the Mexican
ewes and the mermos, about two-thirds of the herd being
ewes. The cost of these is $2 each, and of the merino
bucks $30 each. I keep two bucks to every hundred
ewes. My average clip is three pounds per head a year,
and I estimate the vakie of the clip at 35 to 40 cents
per pound. It required one man only to herd the
flock, and I pay him §45 per month, including board.
The bucks I keep in an enclosed pasture, commencing
May 1st and to be continued to December 1st of each
year. I divide my herd, putting the breeding ewes in
a separate flock from the wethers and lambs, requiring
two herders, one for each flock; but I think it pays to
incur the additional expense, and I shall keep it up in
the future. My average increase is about 75 per cent,
for the ewes, or 50 per cent, for the whole flock per
annum. In five years' experience I have never fed
any hay or grain to my flock, and depend entirely on
the native grasses, with a few exceptions, as in cases of
sickness, or some fine-blooded bucks or ewes. I think
we can claim in Colorado to be entirely exempt from
disease incident to sheep in the States, such as foot-rot
and scab. I have never had the least trouble with
them here." Mr. Merriman is a careful breeder, has
succeeded well, and his experience is very instructive
and interesting.

On the Laramie Plains considerable trouble was had
with scab, but a complete antidote and cure was found
in tobacco dip. A few pounds of tobacco boiled and
the juice mixed with water will dip many sheep, and a
souse each spring after shearing M'ill keep them clear

116 THE BEEF BONANZA.

of scab. When large herds have to be dipped, a tank
ten feet square and two and a half feet deep, filled with
tobacco-dip, is put at the mouth of the corral, and the
sheep driven through it. A jump in and a jump out
is all they need for the year in order to ensure complete
health. If, however, I \vere going into sheep-growing
out West, I would not go so far north as the Laramie
Plains, but keep farther south, where the climate is
warmer.

Dr. A. W. Bell, who lives at Colorado Springs, has
about 1500 sheep, which he keeps nine miles north of
that place. His average yield of wool was four and a
lialf pounds per head, and brought in Denver 35 cents
and 40 cents per pound. OffJOOO sheep he cut $2500
worth of wool, being about twice the cost of herding and
keeping. The increase of the flock was 50 per cent.,
which, added to his sale of wool, gave him over expenses
an income of 60 to 65 per cent, on his investment.
Sheep are said to be most remarkably prolific in Colo-
rado, and more twins and triplets are born in that State
than anywhere else in the West.

Mexican sheep are veiy cheap in Colorado, and have
been bought as low as 75 cents per head, but the recent
demand for stock-sheep in the northern part of the
State, and the increased facilities for shipping wool, have
sent the price up, and I doubt now if they can be bought
for a much less rate than $1.50 and $2 per head. Mexi-
can sheep crossed with merino are worth $2 and $2.50,
and good graded sheep bred up bring $5 and $6 each.
Blooded bucks are worth from $30 to $200 apiece.

General Cameron, writing of the stock-grasses of

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 117

Colorado, says : " Botanists, I believe, make out over
fifty varieties of grasses in Colorado alone. Some of
these so closely resemble each other as to be regarded
by the unscientific as one and the same. Not every
person growing stock in Colorado can with certainty
tell the difference between gramma grass, buffalo
grass, buchloe dactyloides, or sheep fescue {fesfuca
ovinia). They are generally confounded under one
name, as gramma or buffalo grass, and while to the
scientific they vary, they are described by the practical
herdsman as one. They are the great grasses of the
Plains, and constitute the bulk of the winter pasture.
AVhen not artificially irrigated they grow on the up-
lands from one and a half to two and a half inches
high, less rather than more, having a dark-green leaf,
inclining to curl, the buffalo more than the true gramma.
When ripened by the June sun they assume a brown
color rather than a straw or yellow, and give a sombre
aspect to the great Plains. When the new groM'th
commences in the spring it is not by new shoots but
an elongation of the old ones, carrying the brown hay
of the former years on the end of its green leaf. The
gramma grasses do not grow tall or produce seed un-
less irrigated, when they seed at about twelve to six-
teen inches in height, making most excellent hay.
There is only one other herd-grass deserving especial
mention, it is the bunch-grass {festuca dwiuscula). There
are many grasses growing in bunches, but this is the
one known by that name, and a great favorite to the
herdsman as well as to the cattle, both from its nutri-
tious quality and from the fact of its standing taller

118 THE BEEF BONANZA.

and stronger than the other grasses, and thus reaching
above the snow after a severe storm. It grows upon
the hills and in many places on the mountains, and on
the divide, but it is very difficult to find far out upon
the open plains ; it grows with a stem at least a foot
high, and after the summer cure has a light-yellow leaf,
tinged with red. The bottom-land or hay-grasses are
altogether different from those of the upland plains,
and consist chiefly of a large leaf marsh grass, differing
from that of Illinois and Indiana by having a smooth
instead of a serrated edge ; also a sweet stem, colored
blue, and with a red top. These prairie-grasses, always
looking dry and brown, strike the eye of the farmer
from the New England States very unfavorably. But
short, velvety, and brown as they are they are no doubt
the richest in the world, as they not only carry cattle
and sheep through the winter fit for beef (the markets
of Colorado never saw stall-fed beef), but actually ad-
vance the grade of all stock fed uj)on them."

General Cameron is no doubt correct in all he says
about Colorado grasses, but I have seen gramma six
inches high in the Powder River country, and loaded
with seed on perfectly dry plains. The buffalo grass
there is also five and six inches high, and so soft and
dry it might be used for stuffing cushions.

CHAPTER X.

A SHEEP RANCH.

"What kind of a Eanch to Select — Profits of Sheep-Growing —
Mr. Post's Herd — Letters from Hon. Wm. D. Kelley, Senator
Conkling, and Hon. J. B. Grinnell.

The three conditions of a good sheep-ranch are
wood, water, and grass. A high, rolling land for
grazing, a flat for hay, to be u.sed in case of emergency,
and deep wooded ravines for shelter from storms. Tlie
streams, if possible, should be living all the year round,
with pebbly bottoms, to cleanse the sheep's hoofs and
prevent foot-rot. Herding is the chief expense in
sheep-raising. A good herder can get $30, $40, and
§50 per month, with food, lodging, and ponies.
These are the highest rates paid, and greatly increased
by the newness of the country. There are few females
out West, and the men have to do their own house-
keeping and cooking, which takes up much of their
time. The minimum of expense is only reached when
a man with a family raises sheep, — the wife and girls
keep house, and the boys and their father do the
herding. The climate is favorable for open and pas-
toral life, and for eight months in the year there is no
reason why the family, with their tents, could not fol-
low the herd and live perfectly comfortable. The time

119

120 ^^^ BEEF BONANZA.

■will come when we will have both shepherds and
shepherdesses on the Plains, and when the patriarch, as
of old, with his sons, daughters, and sons' wives and
daughters, will follow the herds, crook in hand. Any-
large family can become rich by following the herds, —
the mother caring for the home, and the children, as
soon as they are able to ride, being set to mind the
flocks. With 8500 or $1000 in hand a suitable herd
can be started and ranch provided. Of coui'se he would
have to build his own house for the winter, with stables
and corrals for animals, but this any one can do. In
sheep-shearing time, unless an expert at the business,
he M'ould have to hire a shearer at eight cents per
fleece; but now, since the bands of shearers from New
Mexico and Colorado come North, a fleece can be cut
for five cents, and, in some instances, three cents. The
shearers are a strange set, and every year are becoming
more numerous. They cut a fleece with marvellous
rapidity, and want little else than tiieir food and cloth-
ing, with sometimes a pipe and glass of beverage after
su])per. They stroll in bands, hunting sheep to shear,
and there appears to be a strange fascination about such
a nomadic life. Sheep-shearing is now a regular busi-
ness in the Southwest, and there are now men who do
little else for a living. The young sheep-grower would
have to lay out of his money about eight months from
the time of buying his herd ; then the wool-clip would
provide him with sufficient funds for all his wants
until anotlier clip came in. He need not, unless he
desires it, sell any of his sheep, but live off the proceeds
of his wool, and allow the herd to increase.

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 121

Mr. Curley says: "Suppose an Englishman were to
come over to America and go to sheep-raising? He
should bring £500 in hand, -which, if judiciously
handled, would enable him to start with 500 native
ewes, perhaps more, with ponies, house, mowing-ma-
chine, wagon, rake, and a few household necessaries.
He should retain £50 in hand for contingent expenses.
His wool the first year would bring him from £80 to
£90, — enough to provide contingent expenses for the
next year, — and his increase of lambs would certainly
be 350, worth £200. The next year the wool would
probably bring him from £60 to £75 over and above
his expenses. The increase, about 425 lambs, would
be worth £225, making £300 profit. This year he
would sell 175 wethers, and add at least 200 ewes, w'ith
a few thoroughbreds and a proper proportion of bucks
to his flock. He would then have about 875 ewes, 225
ewe-lambs, and 225 wether-lambs; or, including the
bucks, upwards of 1350 sheep. The wool would bring
him £150 to £200 over his expenses, and the increase of
600 to 650 lambs would be worth about £375, making
his profit £525 to £575 for the year. His establishment
would now be worth at least £1300, and if his sheep
were superior in quality, and his improvements the
result of much well-directed labor, they might very
probably bring £2000. From this time he would have
to hire assistance, unless his boys were old enough to
herd ; but his gains would be exceedingly rapid, and
he might reasonably expect to retire with a fortune in
a few years." If one were to commence with 200 or
400 ewes the expense would be about the same and the
F 11

122 THE BEEF BONANZA.

increase slower, so it is important that the grower should
have as many ewes as possible with which to begin
business.

Mr. E. M. Post, of Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory,
is quite an extensive sheep-grower. His herd is made
up of Mexican sheep which he is crossing with merinos;
the mutton is excellent, but the wool poor and coarse.
The ewes breed with wonderful rapidity, and in lamb-
ing time four men are employed to look after the little
ones until they get strong enough to take care of them-
selves. Mr. Post thinks it is economy to hire plenty
of help during the dropping season. Eight men are
required in shearing time, and the average yield is
about three pounds to the fleece, Avorth 25 cents per
pound. The cross-breeds shear the first year three
pounds each, but of a much better quality of wool, and
second year four to five pounds. Mr. Post's account
for his herd for a year stood as follows :

3200 3Iexican sheep, bought at $2 per head . . . $6400

Corrals and hay 1500

Merino hucks, $50 each; one to every 100 ewes, 2000 ewes 1000

Total $8900

Expenses, labor, and incidentals $1000

Losses, 2 per cent. ........ 128

Total $1128

Eeturns : Wool, 9000 pounds, at 25 cents per pound . $2250
Increase from 2000 ewes, 1800 lambs, at $2.25 each . 4050

Total $6300

Deduct expenses 1128

Net profit, or 60 per cent, on investment . . . $5172

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 123

The comparative cost of keeping sheep in the Uuited
States and on the Plains is stated as follows :

3000 sheep in States, at $2.65 per head . . . §7950

3000 sheep on the Plains ; one herder at $50 per

month, inchiding board $600

150 tons of hay, to be used in case of severe winters

and storms, at §4 per ton .... 600

Total 1200

Difference in favor of the Plains .... $6750

Under ordinary circumstances the hay could be kept
over, and one catting might do for two or three years.

Having now given my own version of sheep-growing
out West, and expressed fully my opinion as to the
capabilities and value of our national sheep-walks, I
will give the opinions of eminent men and experienced
herders who have experimented and studied sheep-
culture as connected with the resources of the trans-
Missouri country.

Judge Kingman, of Wyoming, who, for the past
eight years, has owned sheep-herds, writes as follows :
" It will be remembered that the natural habitat of the
sheep, as well as of the goat and the antelope, is an
elevated, mountainous region. They are provided with
an external covering and a constitutional system fitting
them to endure its rigors and subsist on its peculiar
herbage. They may be removed to other regions, it is
true, and by careful husbandry made to flourish in hot
climates on artificial or cultivated food, and even in
rainy and muddy localities. But the multiplied dis-
eases to which they are subjected are convincing proofs

124 THE BEEF BONANZA.

that they are exposed to influences unnatural and un-
congenial to their constitution. They require a dry,
gravelly soil; a clear, bracing, cool atmosphere; a
variety of short, nutritious grasses ; and they love to
browse on highly aromatic plants and shrubs, like the
willow, the birch, the hemlock, and the artemisia. In
such circumstances they are always healthy, vigorous,
and active, and produce the maximum of even-fibred
wool and the best of high-flavored meat. That we have
millions of acres answering in all respects to the exact
requirements for the best development of sheep in the
production of both wool and mea'., is demonstrated by
the countless numbers of antelope that annually swarm
over the country, and seem to have no limit to their
increase but their natural enemies, the wolves and the
hunter-'.

"They are always in good condition, healthy, fat, and
active, and this is particularly noticeable in the winter
and spring, when it might be supjwsed they would be
reduced by cold and want of food. It is well under-
stood by wool-growers that the great difficulty in pro-
ducing a staple of uniform evenness and uniform curve
is the variable condition of the sheep at different sea-
sons of the year. The anim.al organization cannot pro-
duce the same quality of growth in extreme cold
weather on dry hay that it will produce in warm
weather on fresh grass. The result is that the best
quality of wool cannot be grown where the sheep are
exposed to extremes of climate, and particularly where
they cannot be kept in uniform good health and con-
dition. If this is true in the growth of wool, it needs

SHEEP-FARMiyG IN THE WEST. 125

no argument to prove that it is also true in tlie pro-
duction of wholesome and nutritious meat. A generous
diet of rich and various fond is required to keep up a
rapid and constant growth, and it is quick growth,
combined with good health, that makes the choicest
meat. I have been familiar with sheep-raising in
New England for many years, and although sheep do
pretty Avell on the rocky hills there, yet they are sub-
ject to a frightfully long list -of diseases, every one of
which, however, is ascribed to local and not inherent
causes. The one great cause, exceeding all others in
the variety and extent of its evils, is the long-continued
rainy weather. The ground gets saturated with water,
the feet become soft and tender with the soaking, and
foot-disease is propagated by inoculation with surprising
rapidity. The fleece gets w'et, and remaining so for
several days, keeps the animal enveloped in a steam-
bath ; this produces pustules, scab, tetter, and other
cutaneous diseases. Every thing and every place is
soaked and dripping with water during those long
storms, and the sheep are compelled to lie on the wet
ground, and contract colic, scours, stretchers, and other
bowel diseases. But here, on our hard, porous, gravelly
soil, in a bright, equable climate, a dry, bracing atmo-
sphere, having abundance of nutritious grasses and a
great variety of desirable food, the flocks will find
every circumstance contributing to their perfect growth
and development. This is such a country and climate
as they naturally inhabit. Their constitutions are
fitted to its peculiarities, and will produce here their
highest possibilities. There is no doubt that any breed

11*

126 THE BEEF BONANZA.

of sheep will do well here, but for various reasons I
would advise the introduction of the best qualities of
mutton-sheep in preference to the fine-wooled animals.
In the first place, they are hardier and more prolific,
and will undoubtedly improve faster; in the second
place, while it is possible to overstock the market with
wool by importation from foreign countries, it is not
possible to overstock the meat market. We have now
47,000,000 of people, and the annual increase is about
3,000,000; our people are all meat eaters; the price
of meat in our large cities is enormously high, and the
annual production by no means keeps pace with the
demand for consumption. But, in addition to all this,
the actual return in wool from a flock of medium-
wooled sheep will nearly equal in value the net product
of a fine-wooled flock. They produce heavier fleeces,
and the price of the wool bears a better ratio to its cost.
Most of our flock-masters are purchasing the sheep-
flocks of New Mexico and the extreme AVestern States,
with the expectation of getting good animals by cross-
ing. Til is may be done, it is true, but I do not think
it likely to result satisfactorily. It requires too much
care and judicious selection, as well as long-continued
effort, to get rid of bad qualities and fix permanently
good ones. We can get sheep, by going farther East,
which have been carefully improved for fifty years, and
in which the characteristics have been developed by
a scientific breeding which we may not hope to equal.
Such a flock will cost more to start with, and will be
worth more, but may not have cost more, all things
considered, after a few years."

SHEEP-FARMINO IN THE WEST. 127

Hon. J. Francisco Chaves, of New Mexico, writes :
" Without having the data before me, and only judging
from what I know of the Territory and of the large sheep-
owners in it, I am satisfied that I do not overestimate
the number in stating them at 1,500,000 head of ewes.
The climate is extremely temperate and salubrious, no
diseases, much less those affecting the skin or hoofs,
being known. Sheep in our Territory are herded and
grazed from one portion of the Territory to another
during the same year, thus adopting what may be
termed the migratory plan. The climate is dry and
the soil is gravelly, producing the most nutritious
grasses and shrubs. Of the former the gramma and
bunch grass, of which there are two or three different
varieties, and the latter, the various kinds of sage, which
make the best and most nutritious of browsing, and a
large amount of underbrush and seed-grass in the moun-
tains. Were it not for the insecurity of life and prop-
erty caused by the wild marauding tribes of Indians,
especially the Navajoes, but a few years would elapse
before New Mexico's hills and plains would be literally
covered with fleecy flocks. It is but a few years back,
and actually within my own personal recollection, when
nearly 1,000,000 of sheep were annually driven to
market to Southern Mexico from our Territory. At
that time sheep were worth but 25 cents per head, and
all those engaged in the business made money. That
prosperity in the history of New Mexico was superin-
duced by twelve years of unintermitted peace with the
Navajoes. A sheep-raiser in New Mexico can safely
calculate on an inci-ease of 80 per centum at least. A

128 THE BEEF BONANZA.

sheep-raiser in New Mexico, notwithstanding the coarse
quality of wool of the present flock, can herd his sheep
and make a profit from the product of his wool, and
have all the increase of his stock in addition thereto. I
have no hesitation in saying that New Mexico can fairly
compete with Australia, South Africa, and South
America in the production of cheap wool. These
statements may appear to you somewhat exaggerated,
but I assure you, on the contrary, that it is within the
limits of reasonable bounds. I was born and raised in
New Mexico, my friends and relations have always
owned sheep, and I myself have to a large extent been
an owner of that kind of property, and, therefore, to a
great extent speak from personal experience."

Senator Chaffee, of Colorado, says : " In one county
(Conejoes) out of the twenty-one counties of Colorado
over 300,000 sheep were grazing at one time last sum-
mer, and I do not think 1,500,000 would be an over-
estimate for the whole Territory. The character of the
climate and soil being dry (the latter being also gravelly
and porous) the grasses are very nutritious, with a great
variety of food in the great variety of aromatic plants
of that country, renders them scarcely liable to disease.
It is undoubtedly the most natural and finely-adapted
sheep-growing country in the world, and I think this
is the universal testimony of those best acquainted with
stock-raising who have visited Colorado in the last few
years. In the southern portion of Colorado the only
cost is herding, and, subsisting upon the natural grasses
of the country in winter as well as summer, no prepara-
tions of hay or other food are necessary. The net profit

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 129

is reckoned, after deducting every expense, at not less
than 40 per cent., and by others at 75 per cent., per
annum upon the investment, and this is at the present
low prices, and for our inferior grades of wool.
Woollen-manufactories are springing up in that country,
which will increase the price of wool by creating a bet-
ter market, and at no distant day will that country be
the most extensive woollen-manufacturing country of
this continent. The eastern slope of the Rocky ]\Ioun-
tains, including Wyoming, Colorado, and New Mexico,
is doubtless the best sheep-growing region on this con-
tinent, and likely of the world, and is capable of graz-
ing more sheep and cheaper than all the rest of the
United States together."

Hon. W. H. Hooper, of Utah, writes : " The climate,
grasses, and topography of that country render it one
of the best sheep-producing localities in the whole range
of States and Territories, and I claim that in this re-
spect what I say for Utah will almost wholly apply to
the entire Rocky Mountain country. The sheep are
healthy and prolific, and afford the finest mutton I have
ever eaten, and their fleeces are in quantity and quality
all that could be desired. The people of my Territory
have from necessity given to the subject of sheep-grow-
ing as full and careful a test, if not more so, than any
other settling the higher regions of the far West.
Their destitute condition on arriving at Salt Lake com-
pelled them to give early and thorough attention to
home productions, as their fine flocks of sheep and their
numerous woollen- and cotton-factories which followed
their settlement of that country' will attest. I think

130 THE BEEF BONANZA.

there are now running in Utah five woollen-factories,
which are far behind in working up the wool produced.
Other factories are now being built, one of them
designed for three thousand spindles, which will manu-
facture different and finer cloths than any now made
in our Territory. I am entirely satisfied that we shall
be able not only to clothe our present population with
these home products, making these investments at the
same time profitable and self-sustaining, but be able to
provide for the large influx that yearly is adding to our
numbers. And we are pleased to know that with these
additions are many skilled workmen in the woollens, as
well as other branches of mechanism. One very advan-
tageous feature of the Rocky Mountain range in sheep-
growing is the adaptability of our many valleys for the
raising of roots, which afford them good food and en-
ables their owners — those in the higher and more
northern and more snowy portions — to feed them well,
and thus render more certain a large number of lambs
and a larger yield of wool. So much for our sheep.
Let me tell you, also, that Utah has cotton-factories,
and grows the upland cotton to run them ; and though
it may not in the cent per cent view be a big-paying
interest, still it helps to render the peo})ie to a great
degree independent. Madder and indigo are produced
in Southern Utah enough for domestic use. Let me
also say that our vineyards, so productive, will soon
enable us to furnish wine for export. The other fruits
you know are thrifty and prolific, and no finer flavored
fruit is grown anywhere. Silk-growing, too, is soon to
be one of our great interests, experiments in that direc-

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 131

tion having proved very successful. Indeed, I may
safely say that next to wool-growing silk-growing will
soon take the place for utility and profit. The mul-
berry-tree grows luxuriantly under the care of the hus-
bandman, and as a shade-tree it is incomparable for
beauty. We are doing much to prepare the way to
add this industry, of so much interest to the whole
world, to the numerous and growing interests to which
Utah can to-day point with so much pride."

Hon. S. F. Nuckolls, of Wyoming, a member of
Congress (now deceased), wrote : " I would say briefly
tiiat the soil, grasses, and climate render it eminently
superior, especially for sheep. The soil absorbs the
falling rain rapidly, while its lighter particles refuse to
attach permanently to the fleece, affording a clip as
clean without washing as in other countries with wash-
ing. The grasses are highly nutritious, cure on the
ground, remain as permanent food during the entire
winter, and have better fattening properties than the
prairie-grasses in the more eastern and northern States.
The position is elevated, the air pure, and the ground
seldom muddy or soft. In addition to all tliis there
are no burrs of any kind, which are such pests in other
regions. Sheep are, therefore, healthy and free from
foot-rot and other distempers common to low, moist
lands and rank, coarse food. They have been kept for
the past twelve years about the military posts ^^-ithout
trouble, and last winter some 30,000 went through
without shelter or food other than the grass on Ihe
ground. The flocks of James A. Moore & Brother,
near Cheyenne, composed of common merino and small

132 THE BEEF BONANZA.

Mexican sheep, averaged five pounds to the fleece.
Cattle in large quantities are kept in the same way, and
the cattle worked poor in freighting turned out in fall
are fat and ready for the yoke or the butcher when
spring comes. The quantity of lands adapted to this
business along the eastern slope, in the valleys and
mountains, is simply immense, amounting to millions
of acres. The facilities for sale and shipment are all
that can be asked or needed. I have no hesitation in
saying that these lands are destined to supply the wool
and mutton for a large part of the country, and preserve
this industry now being driven out of the Eastern and
Northern States by the cost of winter feed and the
greater value of lands for other purposes. I may also
add that the snow never falls to any great depth on the
grazing-lands, and is taken up by the atmosphere, often
leaving scarcely a trace of dampness on the ground."

Governor Thayer, of Wyoming, writes : " In some
respects I look upon grazing as the most important of
the varied resources of that region. It is the most im-
portant, as the great want of our population is a plenti-
ful supply of cheap animal food. It is also important
as the only means of furnishing cheap wool from which
to manufacture low-priced clothing for our laboring
classes and for exportation. The interior of all conti-
nents, with their high, dry, and comparatively arid table-
lands, has furnished winter grazing, by which means
low-priced wool has been grown. It is so with Asia,
Africa, and South America and Australia. It will
be pre-eminently so with all that country west of the
Missouri River. The experience of the freighters on

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. I33

the Plains and in the mountains for a quarter of a
century leaves no doubt of the certainty of winter graz-
ing for horses, sheep, and cattle in that greater half of
our country. I am sure that wool can be grown there
equal in fibre to the best wools of Australia, Saxony,
Silesia, or INIoravia, or at as low prices as any wool can
be grown on the cheapest pastures of the world, and
still leave a wide margin to the flock-masters for profit.
A7e ought to grow all the wool there not only for our
own wants but for the use of the non-wool-growing
world. When we grow the necessary fibres I have no
doubt we shall then be able to produce cheap and fine
fabrics at prices that will enable us to compete in the
markets of the world with those of any country. The
overshadowing importance of this subject should attract
the attention of every economist in the country,"

Hon. W. D. Kelley, of Pennsylvania, w ho has spent
much time on the Plains, says of them : " Two indus-
tries, each of primary importance to the country, should
be introduced at an early day, because both will find
there the conditions under wdiicli they may be brought
almost immediately to absolute perfection. I mean the
growth of W'Ool, both from the Angora and Cashmere
goats and the sheep, and the production of the best
beet-root sugar. For the latter. Grant, in his admir-
able little book, says the primary essentials are cheap
land and fuel and pure water. All these you have
wherever the melting snow of the mountains can be
carried for irrigation, and in the neighborhood of your
mountain streams. Your natural grasses and aromatic
herbage are identical with those of the great sheep-fields

12

134 THE BEEF BONANZA.

of Asia and Australia ; and should you establish the
production of the beet and the manufacture of sugar on
a large scale, you will find, as it has been found every-
where else, that three tons of the refuse beet, from
which the saccharine matter has been expressed, will
be equivalent to two tons of the best hay in sustaining
and fattening sheep and cattle. It therefore seems to
me that you will render a very important service, not
only to your own section but to the country at large,
if by making known these peculiar resources you pro-
mote the establishment of two such vital industries.
Either of them will doubtless succeed if undertaken
by proper hands ; but both should be established, as
each will contribute to the success of the other."

Senator Coukling, of New York, writes : " On all
occasions of traversing the Plains — and I have crossed
them several times — my attention has been attracted to
the adaptation of the country to flocks. Indeed, the
most broken, abrupt, and waste places seemed to me
available for sheep-grazing. The dryness and softness
of the ground is one of the elements in the case to be
noticed ; but I am writing too hastily to do more than
bear testimony to the conclusion to which I came."

Hon. William Lawrence, of Ohio, an extensive
sheep-raLser, writes of the Plains : " I have been and
am somewhat interested in raising sheep and producing
wool in Ohio, and I have given some attention to the
subject. I expressed my opinion of the future of
sheep-husbandry in this country in a speech which I
made, April 8, 1878, in Congress, and which I yet
believe to be correct. I then exjsressed the opinion

S'HEEP-FARMINO IN THE WEST. I35

that the interior of this country would in a few years
produce nearly all the wool that would be required in
the United States for our home supply, and in fact I
do not entertain any doubt but that in twenty years
enough wool can be raised to supply not only the home
demand but enough for all the export trade this country
can command. I have passed over the railroad from
Omaha to San Francisco. I stopped at Laramie, in
Wyoming Territory. There I saw a herd of 4000
cattle and some 3000 sheep grazing in Laramie Valley
in healthy condition and good order. Laramie Valley
is about one hundred miles long and thirty miles wide,
as I there learned, covered mainly with a short but very
nutritious grass well adapted to grazing cattle and sheep.
The climate, as I learned, was generally cool, with a
healthful, bracing atmosphere, with nothing to produce
disease either in man or stock. I mention this valley
because I examined it more carefully than any other,
but from what I saw and learned I am satisfied a large
part of the great central interior of this continent is of
the same description of land. I cannot doubt that this
in a few years will become the principal stock-raising
portion of our country. Sheep can be raised at no
expense except herding, and, in some places, the cost
of cutting enough grass along the streams for hay to
feed a short time in the winter, while in much of this
vast region, as I learn, sheep can be kept the year
round in good order without hay or grain, simply by
grazing. I cannot doubt but in a few years wool will
be produced so cheap and in such quantities that it
cannot be imported from abroad. When our home

136 THE BEEF BONANZA.

supply of wool shall thus be increased, and rendered
as cheap or cheaper than wool can be imported, I can-
not see why this will not become the greatest manu-
facturing country in the world, and a vast supply of
cheap agricultural products. Woollen-manufactories
must spring up in great abundance, and the United
States will become exporters instead of importers of
woollen goods. One result of this will be that a new
and vastly increased market will be created for the
agriculiural products of the grain-growing States. The
soil and climate are not adapted to grain-growing, unless
by irrigation, west of the central portion of Kansas and
Nebraska ; hence the production of wool in the trans-
Missouri country will create a demand for agricultural
products there, and manufactories will multiply to still
increase the demand. Already the prospect of sheep-
growing in this interior region is having its effects.
In two years the sheep of Ohio have diminished 2,579,-
410 in numbers, in part, doubtless, owing to the con-
siderations I have named. It is, in my judgment, only
a question of time, and that a few years at most, when
sheep-growing for wool will be transferred to this great
central region. These are the opinions I entertain, and
if they can be of any service in assisting you to attract
the attention of our Eastern people to this undeveloped
resource of that greater half of our country, I shall
proudly feel that I have contributed a very little to aid
in developing a vast region of country, and in opening
it up as a source of untold wealth. With the vast
product of wool that is soon to come from this great
interior region, I believe, too, there will soon spring up

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. I37

in various portions of the United States the grandest
and most extensive manufacturhig enterprises the world
has ever seen. All questions of free trade will be
settled in a few years by tliese interior sources of
wealth."

In an able, exhaustive article on " Sheep on the
Prairies," the Hon. J. B. Grinnell, of Iowa, in speak-
ing of the necessity of a varied agriculture, says :
" The States of Missouri, Iowa, Kansas, Illinois, Min-
nesota, Wisconsin, and Michigan have expended more
than $200,000,000 in the construction of railroads.
They have brought life to a thousand cities and villages
on the 'iron ways,' and wealth to such farmers as have
found a near market and an easy transportation of
their grain to the older States. But the demand for
grain is met, the warehouses are full, and in the North-
west wheat is a drug, and the future is not full of
promise to the grain-raiser. Our lands are fast being
exhausted, and for a wheat market we must depend
upon a scarcity in the Old World, and even then the
profits must be determined by the carriers and toll-
gatherers of sea and land, who fix their rates of trans-
portation as high as possible and yet not amount to a
prohibition of the products raised for market. Wool
is no exotic. Earnestness and skill are the first requi-
sites, and a production of wool equal to all the wants
of the dwellers on the continent will be at hand, bring-
ing into us millions of acres of the finest native sheep-
walks, now producing grass that is just suited to the
flock. Disturbed labor and an inadequate production
point to a virgin empire in extent, and invite the world

12*

138 THE BEEF BONANZA.

to a way of wealth, which secured, diversifies our
productions, gives scope to national enterprise, sub-
sistence and hope to those who would find a homestead
on the free lands of the West. At any point two hun-
dred miles from Chicago this ratio of freight is well
established : That to transport your products to the
seaboard, on wheat you pay 80 per cent, of its value ;
on pork, 30 per cent. ; on beef, 20 per cent. ; on wool,
4 per cent. This is no conjecture, but my own experi-
ence, that I give 80 per cent, of the value of wheat,
which impoverishes my farm, to find a market for it,
and 4 per cent, to find the best wool-market, the pro-
duction of which enriches my acres beyond calculation.
National develojiment and expansion are involved in
the early clothing of our prairies with bleating flocks.
We have room and occupation for hundreds of thou-
sands who should go forth from our teeming cities to
escape crowded garrets and death-damp of cellars. To
the young man who believes ' the behavior of sheep as
fascinating under any circumstances,' and finds no room
on the old farm in the East, Ave can say : Here is room,
an unclaimed area, larger by thousands of square miles
than the land of Midian, from which the Israelites
brought forth 750,000 sheep as spoils, — a range of
country from Southern Kansas on the south to St. Paul
on the north, as varied in climate and production, and
better adapted to the wants of the shepherd than the
famed walks of Spain, — varying as the southern plains
of Andalusia and the northern snow-clad mountains,
on and between which extremes there Avere depastured
with profit several millions of sheep, the progenitors of

SHEEP-FARMING IN THE WEST. 139

our famed merinos. Our national sheep-walks, as yet
untrod by the golden hoof, embrace an area of country
larger than the pastures of ancient Assyria and the
famed pastures of Europe, and had we a population
one-half as dense as the sheep-districts of France and
Spain, without lessening the other staple products sent
to market, we could clothe our own people, and pro-
duce a sufficiency of wool at 40 cents per pound to pay
interest and principal on our debt of $2,000,000,000
within the time which has been required to earn the
well-deserved name of our American merinos."

I can bear testimony to the entire truth of what Mr.
Grinnell says. In one flock of over 2000 head, on the
Laramie Plains, only two sheep died during the last
winter. Of Moore & Brother's flock, consisting of
over 10,000 head, only eight had died up to February
1st. All were fat, and mutton being killed every day,
although the sheep had not had a mouthful to eat
except the natural grasses.

HORSE-RAISING IN THE WEST.

141

HORSE-RAISING IN THE WEST.

CHAPTER XL

HORSE-EAISING IN THE WEST.

"Who the Horse-Eaisers are — How they Manage their Herds —
Profits of Horse-Eaising under Favorable Conditions — Horse
Xotes.

HoESE-GEOWiXG on tlie Plains has liardly yet been
established as a business ; nevertheless, something has
been done, and the results show that it can be made
immensely profitable. Of the herds I have visited I
may mention those of Creighton & Alsop, Mr. T. A.
Kent, in Wyoming Territory, and Nelson A. Storey, in
Montana. Creighton & Alsop began with 300 brood-
mares. They raised a lot of yearlings, tsvo-year-olds,
and three-year-olds, and told me they had never been
fed or sheltered. The colts were large, fat, and as fine
as could be raised anywhere. The mares were closely
herded, but never given grain or stabled in winter.
]\lr. Storey began a few years ago with about 200
head of California mares, and his herd has rapidly
increased to 1300 head. His ranch is on the Upper
Yellowstone, and he neither stables nor feeds his stock.
He is a careless breeder, and takes little pains to im-

1-43

144 THE BEEF BONANZA.

prove his stock. The herd is looked after by one man,
and the stallions are allowed to run constantly wdth the
mares. Notwithstanding the little care it has had, this
herd has improved rapidly, and its increase in numbers
has been prodigious. Every year Mr. Storey sells off
a large number of young horses at from §50 to $75
per head, and will allow buyers to pick at §100, yet
his herd increases and is now worth a large fortune.

Mr. Kent, of Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, has
twenty stallions, which cost him an aggregate of
$691.60 each, and some of them are very fair for
speed, but were selected especially for their breeding
qualities. Kent is breeding by them, from California
marcs, what he calls American bronchos. They are
small, tough animals, very cheap, and good for riding,
but too light for general use or marketing for draught
purposes. Mr. Kent's stallions weigh 1225 to 1640
pounds, and he expects the cross by them with the
California mares will reach the average size of Ameri-
can horses. Size, docility, and strength are the quali-
ties sought by Mr. Kent. He proposes to change the
stallions every second year for a better class, and by
mixing the blood with trotters, runners, and di'aught
stock, to obtain from his bronchos a stock of animals
suitable for the general market. His mares cost him
§28.50 each, and he considers his yearling colts worth
§25 each, and his two-year-olds §50 each. He reckons
the increase at 75 to 80 per cent, per year from full-
grown mares, and, after tlie fourth year, 25 per cent,
of the herd. At the commencement of the season each
stallion is coralled with about forty mares every night

HORSE-RAISING IN THE WEST. I45

for a week or more. The horse soon establishes his
authority over his harem, and may be trusted to take
care of it himself. He keeps his troop well together,
and does not allow it to be approached or to approach
and mix with another brood. He often finds himself
spoiling for a fight with some other patriarch of the
range, and on such occasions stops his wives at a safe
distance, and goes out alone to meet the enemy. If
defeated he retires in good order, driving his wives
before him; but, if victorious, he looks out sharply,
and, if possible, captures and drives into his harem a
stray mare or two belonging to his rival. As a rule, a
stud will not allow any geldings in his troop. In the
fall the stallions are taken away, after which the mares
have to be regularly herded.

I am indebted to Mr. Edwin Curly for the following
return of Mr. Kent's ranch :

First Year.

Eanch and stables $3,000

800 mares @, §28.50 each 22,800

20 stallions @ §691.60 each 13,830

Herding 2,500

Keeping 20 stallions 1,870

Interest @ 10 per cent, on an average investment of

$40,000 4,000

Total ■ . §48,000

Second Year.

Capital $46,000

Herding 3,130

Keeping stallions 1,870

Interest of 10 per cent. 5,000

Total $56,000

G ^ 13

146 THE BEEF BONANZA.

The increase, 600 or more yearling colts, is now
estimated to be worth $15,000.

Third Year.

Capital account |56,00O

Herding 4,000

Keeping stallions 2,000|

Interest 6,000

Total 168,000

The increase is now estimated, —

600 two-year-old colts 130,000

600 yearlings 15,000

Total 145,000

Or a return in three years of the whole of the original
investment, exclusive of interest. The fourth year the
young stock may be estimated as worth $90,000, and
from this time on one can both sell young geldings to
advantage and rapidly improve the quality of his stock
by breeding the young mares to a better class of stal-
lions. I cannot give the exact figures for loss and
depreciation of old stock, and the increased cost of a
better class of stallions, but whatever these may l)e
there is evidently a profit of from 25 to 33 per cent,
per annum to be made by horse-breeding on the Plains.
Breeding for the general market does not require any
great amount of special knowledge or skill, and there
is one advantage in this business in the fact that, if it
is tolerably understood, a very large amount of capital
may be invested and kept well in hand. One cannot
personally handle with advantage one-half so much
capital in cattle or a fifth as much in sheej) as horses.

HORSE-RAISINO IN THE WEST. 147

Some think it desirable to begin with a high class of
mares, worth $100 per head, and if the horse-grower
has the capital and is in a hurry to realize, undoubtedly
that would be best. However, it would require $150,-
000 or $200,000 to start a first-class horse-ranch of
that kind, and few men have so much capital to put
into any business.

As in the case of a cross between Durham bulls and
Texas cows, the stallion leaves so strong an impress on
his colts that the herd rapidly improves, and it can be
worked up to any requii-ed standard. If I were going
into horse-breeding I would at first take a low grade
of mares. Many stockmen handle herds of 10,000
head of cattle, and there would be no more trouble in
managing that number of horses, representing a capital
of $1,500,000. One thousand mares and 200 studs
would soon raise such a herd. I doubt if it would pay
to engage in horse-breeding on the Plains in a very
small way, unless in connection with some business, as
in Kansas or Nebraska, where the mares are utilized,
and made to pay for the labor, care, expense, and
trouble of keeping them. Cattle-growers can use a
good many mares to advantage in herding, and make
them add to the profits of the herd by bi-eeding them
every year to high-graded studs. I do not know of
any one who has as yet tried mule-breeding on the
Plains, but undoubtedly it could be made profitable,
and the government demand for army mules would
furnish a steady and reliable market. Mules are the
hardiest and most easily herded of all domestic ani-
mals. Of all the countries out West I have seen, the

148 THE BEEF BONANZA.

Yellowstone Valley, I think, would be the best for
horse-breeding. The climate is just right, and no
shelter or feed would be required the year round. Mr.
Storey's herd has done so well I am sure it is in the
right place, and there is room in the Yellowstone
bottoms for 200,000 head of hordes to graze.

The Crow Indians, who inhabit the valley, raise the
finest Indian horses I have ever seen on the Plains.

Having now written of cattle-, sheep-, and horse-
growing, I will close this chapter with a few general
remarks. Almost any one can make money at stock-
growing, but it is one of the most laborious businesses
out West, and no lazy man should ever think of trying
it. A great many stock-growers fail, not because there
is not money in it, but because they do not attend to
their business ; one drinks, another gambles, and a
third allows his herd to wander off and get lost. A
man to make money in stock, like other businesses,
must be sober and industrious, and when the storms
come he must be brave, and keep his cattle together
and herd them even at the risk of his life.

In time of danger the herder must never let go his
grip, or if he does the herd is ruined and the labor of
years lost.

It is a life of exposure and hardship, and those who
follow it industriously deserve to realize large profit
from their investments and labor.

DAIRYING OUT WEST.

13* 149

DAIRYING OUT WEST.

CHAPTER XII.

THE GIFT OF THE CX)WS.

The Growth of the Dairying Business — Butter and Cheese pro-
duced in the United States — Letter from a Dairyman — What
can be made in the Business.

In 1840 there were 4,837,043 milch-cows in the
United States ; in 1850 there were 6,385,094; in 1860,
8,728,863; in 1870, 11,000,000; and now about
12,000,000. In 1850 the production of butter was
313,345,306 pounds; in 1860, 469,681,372 pounds;
in 1870, 560,000,000 pounds; and now about 800,-
000,000 pounds. In 1860 tlie production of cheese
was 103,663,927 pounds ; in 1870, 275,000,000 pounds ;
and now about 400,000,000 pounds. In 1860 the
United States exported 15,515,709 pounds of cheese;
in 1870 they exported 70,000,000 pounds. In 1860
prime cheese sold for 11 cents per pound in New York
and Boston ; in 1870 it sold for 25 cents per pound.
In 1860, butter averaged in Boston 21 cents per pound ;
in 1870, 50 cents per pound. In 1851 the first cheese-
factory was started in the United States ; in 1870 New

151

152 THE BEEF BONANZA.

York alone had 1200 factories, manufacturing 100,-
000,000 pounds per annum.

Dairying, from the earliest period in American his-
tory, has been one of the most certain and remunerative
ways of making money. Hardly a farmer's wife in the
conntry but has resorted to her milk, butter, and eggs
for pin-money. How many nice tilings in a good
countrywoman's house have been bonght with " the
marketing?" Thread, needles, children's shoes and
stockings, aprons, pij)es, and tobacco ; these are the
natural results of a good cow, as much as butter is of
cream. God bless old Daisy ! we owe her much, and
hardly a country boy or maiden but has worn her cloth-
ing as well as eaten iier sweet butter. On a rented
farm, with a few good cows and skilful labor, there is
no surer way to comfort, and even to small fortune, for
the little family of the new beginner. Few people
know or can compute what colossal proportions dairying
has attained in this country in the last twenty years.
Enormous as the figures above given are, it would be
difficult to find more than half a dozen counties in the
whole United States where the supply of pure milk and
good butter is equal to the wants of the people.

Franklin County, Vermont ; Orange and Herkimer,
New York ; Chester and Lancaster, Pennsylvania ; and
Kane County, Illinois, are about the only places well
stocked with good butter, cheese, and milk. Hardly
any other place of 3000 people can be found where the
supply equals the demand. Even in the centre of mil-
lions of acres of rich clover pastures, surrounded by
10,000,000 agric4iltural people, Chicago, in one year,

DAIRYING OUT WEST. 153

bought 4,500,000 pounds of New York cheese. St.
Louis is also a heavy importer from the East, and the
supply of pure milk in that city is not only insufficient
but the quality is very inferior. A few years ago milk
sold in Mobile, Alabama, at 86 cents per gallon. Her-
kimer County sent out 17,000,000 pounds of cheese in
one year, and 300,000 pounds of butter, worth together
$4,500,000. St. Albans, Vermont, shipped 1,000,000
pounds of cheese and 2,750,000 pounds of butter, worth
in market $1,200,000. Wellington, Ohio, shipped
4,000,000 pounds of cheese in one year to New York,
worth $1,000,000. The country around Elgin, Illinois,
produced in a single year 1,300,000 pounds of cheese,
1,600,000 quarts of milk, for the Chicago market, and
200,000 pounds of butter, the joint value of these pro-
ducts being $450,000. One hundred cheese-factories
in New York, to which 500,000 cows were attached,
produced as follows :

Value of milk from each cow
K calf « "

Total per annum .....
Deduct for manufacturing into cheese per each cow

Average net per cow per annum ....

$65.50
10.00

$75.50
9.00

$66.50

It must be remembered, however, that in the States
the cost of keeping a cow over winter is $20, which
must be deducted from her annual yield. In the West
this cost is wiped out, and hence 33 per cent, can be
added to the profits of dairying out West over that of
the Eastern States. But this is not all, for the prices

154 THE BEEF BONANZA.

are better, and 10 per cent, on that account can be
added with safety.

In dairying a great deal depends on the climate, and
it should be neither too hot nor too cold for the greatest
success at the business. Another great desideratum is
the water. Pure living streams, flowing springs, are
almost indispensable to good butter making. In the
West the mild air and thousands of pure gushing
streams furnish multitudes of natural butter- and cheese-
ranches. The melting snows not only keep the waters
cool, but the snow, air, and cool nights make the milk-
houses a paradise for dairy-maids. Ice can be bought as
cheap if not cheaper than in tlie East, and every spring-
house has its water-power to do the churning while the
milk-maid sings her dairy-songs. Our gravelly soil,
under the influence of our continued dry climate, gives
the best cellars imaginable, the sides, without cost of
stone walls, drying and hardening like cement.

Dr. Latham, speaking of the trans-Missouri country
as a dairy-land, said : " Every stream in the trans-Mis-
souri country is adapted to butter and cheese making.
There is an unlimited market along the lines of our
great railways, in our new settlements, in the great mining
districts, M'hich are scattered in tlie Rooky Mountains
for one thousand miles north and south and nine hun-
dred miles east and Avcst, and at all our military posts.
Besides our home demand we have a demand on the
Pacific Coast. New York and Ohio annually furnish
large quantities of both butter and cheese to the Pacfic
Slope. The dairy product of this counti'y would add
the transportation from those States to its value here.

DAIRYING OUT WEST. 155

Mr. E. H. Derby, of Boston, one of the statisticians of
the Treasury Department, 'estimates that next year
China, Japan, and the Sandwich trade will buy of us,
if we have it, 50,000 tons of butter and cheese ;' 50,000
tons amount to 100,000,000 pounds, or if all in cheese,
to the cheese product of New York State, with their
1200 factories and 500,000 milch-cows attached to them.
From the sweet, nutritious character of our grasses, and
from the cool, equable character of our climate, there
is no reason to doubt that first-class milch-cows will
produce as much butter and cheese as is produced by
the same cows in the best pastures of New York, Ver-
mont, and Ohio. The two Platte rivers drain a country
which furnishes more acres of pasture than all New
York State."

Mr. Curly estimates that 1200 cheese-factories in
the great Platte basin, with 500,000 milch-cows, yield-
ing §66.50 each, as they do in New York, would return
to their owners, clear of all cost of manufacture, §33,-
295,000. The city that could be the entrepot of such
trade and traffic need not sit in sackcloth and ashes
sighing for the days when the Union Pacific Railroad
disbursed §2,500,000 annually.

Hutton & Alsop had 4000 cows that were kept alone
to raise calves; hundredsof people saw them grazing in
one herd ; 4000 cows would have yielded them at New
York averages, clear of all labor, §266,360. J. W.
Iliff grazed on Crow Creek 3500 milch-cows, which
would have yielded clear §233,065.

Dr. Latham says : " The milk of 600 cows can be
manufactured in a single factory. In the States they

156

THE BEEF BONANZA.

•would net for the summer $39,954 ; cost of wintering,
at $20 per head, $12,000, leaving as actual net profits
$27,000. In the great Western winter grazing-region
the cost of wintering would not exceed $1 per head, or
$600, leaving as the actual net profits $39,354, a differ-
ence in favor of the Plains of $11,400 on 600 cows."

Mr. Curly gives us the following interesting return
of a combined dairy and stock ranch :

First Year.

Bought 50 dairy cows, @ $50 .

2 thoroughbred bulls

Expended in permanent improvements

$2500

500

1500

$4500

1500

1500

500

$2500

Capital : — Labor account
Expenses : — Labor, about
Eeturns : — Butter and milk, about
47 calves, valued at .

Profit, at 11 per cent.

Second Year.

Original capital brought down $4500

Bought 30 cows, at $50 1500

Bought 320 acres of land 800

Improvements 1000

$7800

Expenses :— Labor $1000

Eeturns : — Butter and milk 2500

Increased value, 40 yearlings become two-year-olds . 500
62 calves 500

Deduct labor

$3500
$1000

Profit, 33J per cent $2500

In the fall of that year, after the addition of 35 brood

DAIRYING OUT WEST. 157

mares, at $44 each, 34 mixed cattle, and furniture and
fixtures, to the total of §2560, the whole was valued at
$15,000 for the purpose of a partnership, giving in
this manner an additional profit of $4640, or 58 per
cent.

Third Year.

Dairy ranch as above $15,000.00

Bought a herd of mixed cattle at about average
prices, comprising 242 yearlings, 336 two-
year-olds, 294 three-year-olds, 537 beeves,
375 cows, and 16 horses ; total . . . 27,381.94

Bought two ranches 950.00

Improvements made in the year .... 2,410.31

Total $45,742.25

Labor and expenses 7,200.00

Less portion of labor expended in permanent im-
provements 1,900.00

Total $5,S00.00

Eeturns :— Beef and beef cattle .... $10,884.00

Butter 2,424.82

Milk 217.43

Sundries 423.39

Total $13,899.63

Deduct expenses 5,300.00

Profit $8,599.63

The stock remaining on hand was valued at lowest
prices for an estimate of profits, those that
had been wintered in the Territory being put
at the prices then paid for fresh Texans. At •

these rates the stock on hand came to
$47,054.86, from which deduct $45,742.25,
and $1312.61 is left to profit account . . 1,812.61

Total profit, 21 per cent. . . . $9,912.24

14

158 THE BEEF BONANZA.

In this case the profit was undoubtedly put too low
by Mr. Curly, but it was impossible to estimate it very
exactly, as the herd had not been long enough in hand
for that jjurpose.

To substantiate what I have asserted as to the adap-
tability of our Western grasses and climate to that
branch of industry, I will close this article by some ex-
tracts from letters written by practical dairymen in the
West.

Mr. Franklin Ivetcham, of Cheyenne, Wyoming
Territory, writes : " I have been engaged in dairying
near Cheyenne, in CroAV Creek Valley, for years. I
started by milking five cows, and carrying the milk on
foot in a pail to my customers. I added more cows to
my number from time to time as the profits allowed.
The second season I was milking 52 cows, all bought
from the business started by the first five cows. I have
found that a good dairy-cow will make as much but-
ter or cheese from our wild grasses as in any country
on tame grasses. Our cool climate is finely adapted to
making both butter and cheese. I am now milking
32 cows, which are not fed either hay or grain, but
graze in the valley of Crow Creek on the old dry grass.
They give from thirty-six to forty gallons of milk per
day. I shall add 125 cows to my present number the
coming season."

Mr. W. D. Pennock writes : " I have been engaged
in dairying near Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, on a
branch of Crow Creek. The first season I milked 15
cows, the next summer 32, the next year 35, and the
following year 45. We sold our milk for the first six

DAIRYING OUT WEST. I59

months at 30 cents per gallon. My cows averaged
during that time §108 worth of milk per cow. For
the next six months we sold om' milk at 40 cents per
gallon, and the average was as much per head as $216
per year. In winter I stable, and feed hay at night
and graze during the day. I have made butter and
cheese on the Western Reserve of Ohio, and I know a
cow will give as much milk or make as much butter or
cheese on wild grasses as she would on the richest clover
and blue-grass pastures of the East."

Mr. M. Sloan writes : " I have been a dairyman in
Pennsylvania, Illinois, and Montana. I commenced
the same business near Cheyenne, Wyoming, many
years ago. The first year I milked 20 cows, the next
summer 38, the following summer 50. I have an
extra lot of milch-cows for the West, and they would
be called, even in the old States, first-class. For the
months of June, July, and August they averaged
eighteen quarts of milk daily. For the other nine
months they yielded over two gallons. In the best
part of the season they would make one j)ound and a
half of butter per head daily, and the whole year they
would average one pound per day. From the same
cow, after acclimation, I can make more butter and
cheese in the West than can be made in the most noted
dairy-region in the East. Cows that are milked win-
ters are fed on good bright hay ; those that are not,
graze for themselves, and are in fine order in the
spring, when the milking season commences."

Mr. Edward Farrall writes : " I have been dairying
at Laramie, on a branch of the Laramie River, for

160 THE BEEF BONANZA.

many years. At first I started with 20 cows. I had
increased that number in a year to 40, and in two years
to 60 head. From my experience I am sure that cows
grazed on our Western grasses do well, and will give
as much milk the year round as they will give any-
where. The milk is as rich as from any feed, and will
make as much butter and cheese. Cows keep up the
quantity of their milk the whole year here as well as
anywhere."

I deem this evidence sufficient. All these gentlemen
are well known as men of reliability in the West, and
their word may be taken with implicit confidence.
They all commenced poor, but now have hundreds of
cattle, ranches, horses, mules, oxen, sheep, and are in-
dependent in every way. Their experience is that of
hundreds of others in the West in the same business,
and I could multiply scores of such letters if space per-
mitted. Here, then, in the West is one of the widest
fields of industry to the emigrant of small means.
There are millions of acres of grazing the year round,
where all the cows in America might be driven, and
there would still be room for more. There are still
thousands of unoccupied mountain streams, affording
cool water for tens of thousands of dairies. The land,
both grazing and timbered, can be had at government
price, and the railways are reaching everywhere to
carry off the dairy products, either East or West, to
market. The difference between the East and the
West is that there all is at a stand-still, while here
something new occurs every day.

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST.

14* 161

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST.

CHAPTER XIII.

MONTANA.

A Great State — The Chances for the Emigrant — Farmers of
Montana and what they Own — A Stock-Grower's Letter and
Experience.

Just Avest of Dakota and north of Wyoming is a
very rich Territory called Montana. The climate is
delightful during the summer months, it not being too
warm, and at night a person finds it necessaiy to sleep
under one or more blankets. Much of the time the
atmosphere is hazy, — not unlike an Indian summer in
tlie Eastern States. During the winter the weather is
extremely cold, and people easily get frost-bitten by
exposure. It is never very windy, but quiet, still, cold
weather, which sometimes is exceedingly pleasant.

Montana is well named, for it is a succession of high
mountains and broad valleys. The grazing cannot be
excelled in any country in the world, and much of the
stock runs out all the winter, though there is by no
means any lack of snow. In the springtime the stock
is fat, and it is fair to say that no better beef can be
found. Horses and cattle and sheep thrive and look

163

164 THE BEEF BONANZA.

fine and sleek. There is plenty of timber on the
mountain-sides and in the canons, and a thick under-
growth of bushes in which there is an abundance of
berries. In such a country game must abound, and
here are found the moose, elk, buffalo, deer, antelope,
cinnamon and black bears, badgers, beavers, martins,
mink, and a variety of other wild animals.

The Crow Indians, one of the largest tribes of Indians
left in the United States, live on the Yellowstone River
in Montana. They still number over three thousand
souls, and can muster and })ut in the saddle six hun-
dred warriors. They are very friendly with the whites,
and make it their boast that they never yet killed a
white man except in self-defence. From their reser-
vation they annually make their way to the buffalo
hunting-grounds on the Muscleshell B-iver, and return
laden with dried meat and robes.

Montana has as yet no railroad, but many fine wagon-
roads. The one leading from Corrinne, on the Central
Pacific Railroad, to Helena is a fine thoroughfare, and
over four hundred miles long. The road from Virginia
City to Helena is also an excellent one. A road was
made in the summer of 1869 from Bozcman across the
country to the mouth of Muscleshell and thence back
to Helena. It was thought that freight would be
brought up to the mouth of the river by boats on the
Missouri River and freighted across the country to such
points as it might be destined for, but this has been
superseded by the railroad, and now, unless the cost
of carriage is too dear, the freighting will be nearly all
done by the Union Pacific to Ogden, and thence by the

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST. 165

Utah Northern and wagons in Montana. It may cost
somewhat more this way, but is more expeditious and
on the whole more satisfactory to merchants and dealers.
The survey of the Northern Pacific Railroad runs
through Montana, and the Utah Northern is now built
from Ogden to Red Rock, and will within a year reach
Helena, the capital of the Territory. Over two hun-
dred miles of this road is already in working order in
Utah and Idaho, and next year it will cross Montana,
possibly to the Missouri River. The enterprise is under
the direction of Jay Gould, of New York, and is certain
to be carried out to completion.

Montana has within her borders several rivers, the
largest of which are the Missouri, Clarke's Fork of the
Columbia, and the Yellowstone. The former is navi-
gable as far as Fort Benton, but only for a few months
in the year, and ordinarily boats can make but two trips
from St. Louis to Fort Benton and back again during
the season. The boats, however, run quite frequently
between Benton and Bismarck, and the shipping interests
of Montana are gradually developing. Clarke's Fork
is on the west side of the Rocky Mountains, and is
formed by the junction of the Bitter Root and Flat
Head Rivers, the Bitter Root being itself formed by the
junction of the Big Blackfoot, Missoula, and the Hellgate
Rivers. The whole interior of ]\Iontana is remarkably
well watered, and there are gold placers on many of the
creeks, the names of which it would be useless to give,
as it would only lead to confusion in obtaining a knowl-
edge of the country. The Missouri is formed by the
junction of the " Three Forks," called respectively the

166 TSE BEEF BONANZA.

Jefferson, the INIadison, and the Gallatin Rivers, so
named by Lewis and Clarke.

These are all noble streams, filled witli trout, lined
with fine growths of timber, and bordered by beautiful
and fertile valleys. In the Madison are found the gray-
ling or " half trout," a peculiar kind of fish which has
specks and scales, being half trout and half whitefish.
The timber and underbrush along the streams are a
favorite resort for Indians, who are now friendly. It
is somewhat singular that no hard wood, such as hickory
and maple, are found w'cst of the Rocky Mountains.

The many ranges of mountains in the Territory gave
it its name, and long before the wdiites came it was
known to the Snake or Schoshonee Indians as " To-
yabe-schock-up," or " The Country of the Mountains."
The only considerable body of water is Flat-Head Lake,
in the northwestern corner of the Territory, and it is the
source of the river of that name.

The best valleys in Montana are the Gallatin, Mis-
soula, and Yellowstone. The Gallatin as an agricul-
tural valley is second only to the Lancaster in Pennsyl-
vania. In Missoula fifty bushels of wheat are readily
raised per acre. The Yellowstone is already famous
for its fine vegetable productions. Plums, peaches,
apples, apricots, and all kinds of vines and berries
thrive in Southern Montana. Wild fruits, such as cur-
rants, gooseberries, raspberries, buffalo berries, sarvice
berries, and plums, are found in many parts of the Ter-
ritory and of excellent quality. The Indians use these
for food, drying large quantities and mixing them with
the marrow of buffalo bones for winter use; the dried

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST. IQ'J

berries are sometimes pounded up with buffalo meat
and fat, making a sort of "jjemmican," which is packed
in skins and culled " towro."

I have been thus particular in describing the natural
and agricultural resources of Montana, because it is
only known to the outside world as a mining region.
The commonly received idea of it is that it is a wild,
rugged, and unproductive territory, valuable only for
its gold and silver. Could it once be made known that
for agricultural purposes it will some day be as valua-
ble as Nebraska, Iowa, or Minnesota, new life would
be given to this rock-bound land, and its valleys would
soon fill up with thrifty farmers.

It is, however, as a stock-growing region Montana
surpasses all other sections of our great West. Its
grasses cure naturally on the ground, and even in win-
ter cattle and sheep, which run out all the year round,
are found fat and fit for the butcher's block.

In 1877 the whole number and value of live stock
in Montana was set down by the assessors as follows :

Number. Value.

Cattle 160,647 ?1, 81 2,920

Horses 26,496 851,674

Mules 1,688 105,648

Sheep 51,558 148,894

Hogs 4,642 20,598

Total 245,031 $2,939,734

Since then the stock in Montana has more than
doubled, Gallatin County alone returning, in 1879,
30,333 head of cattle and 8033 head of horses. Among
the owners of herds in Gallatin are the following: :

168

THE BEEF BONANZA.

Owner.
S. H. Many .
John McDonald
"W. F. McCormack
J. H. Nixon
Joseph Neihart
San ford Kuffner
E. Ryan
H. B. Eay .
H. C. Reding
Milo Seketer
Nelson Story
James Smart
Street Brothers
John Simpson
Leroy Southland
Stanton & Pease
A. J. Smith .
W. F. Sloan
Ben Gallagher
Ben Strickland
H. H. Sappington
Philip Thorpe
J. H. Tinsel.
C. W. Haskins
T. C. Hamilton
William Hunkinson
R. D. Hamilton
Alf. Johnson
"William M. James
Joseph Jackson
Lee & Cone .
L. A. Lune .
J. M. Lindley
Sampson Landes
Peter Lebeau
G. S. Lewis .
Freeman Mize
J. D. McCammon

Numlier.

103

300

112

75

50

175

364

100

55

150

1300

225

65

50

135

425

72

300

100

143

164

600

86

120

55

63

60

160

200

58

500

231

122

128

65

72

188

140

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST.

169

Owner.
Daniel Maxey
A. B. Moore
"W. A. Minor

D. A. Moore & Brother
James M. Moore
George Allan
Charles Anceney
J. W. Alexander
W. M. Anderson
Brooks Brothers
L. M. Black .
Frank Baine
T. C. Burns .
S. A. Bostwick
William Black
James Burrell
H. Bemer
J. C. Batie .
John Baptiste
Martin & Myers
K. B. Curtis .
W. W. Curtis
James Cummings
Andy Cowan
J. M. Conrow
H. F. Galen .

E. M. Dumphy
G. L. Duke .

E. Daily

F. Edmunds
M. J. Eukes .
C. Etherington
S. M. Fitzgerald
Wm. Fly .
David Fratt .
J. A. Farrall
John "W. Grannis
J. H. Gallup

Number.

140

70

67

138

86

312

252

175

175

100

70

69

57

42

62

40

85

120

45

1300

60

57

50

75

103

95

445

52

128

70

54

52

99

200

240

70

157

130

15

170

THE BEEF BONANZA.

Owner.
H. N. Gage .
G. L. Condon
L. B. Gaiter.
James Green
M. V. Harris
Francis Harper
Henry Heebe
Hutchinson Brothers
John Harvey
J. O. Hopping
Tritt & Kountz .
James Uhler
"Wm. M. Wright .
H. J. Wright
Trank Wells
J. K. Wilson
A. D. Weaver
G. W. Wakefield .
John White .
James White

Number.

98

152

298

125

100

115

70

60

60

61

90

66

220

347

200

125

64

60

90

180

It will be observed that most of these owners are
new beginners, and have as yet but small herds. The
immense profits to be derived from stock-growing in
Montana are just beginning to be understood, and every
ranchman who can get together a few head of cattle,
sheep, or horses is going at it. Among the owners
of horse-ranches in Gallatin County I find the names
of the following gentlemen:

Owner. Number

Nelson Story . 1200

Henry Heebe 140

George Gardes 400

C. Ethrington ......... 42

D. M. Murphy 45

G. H, Campbell 45

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST.

171

Owner. Number.

W. M. Cowan 132

V. A. Cockrell • ... 70

Martin & Myers 91

These are also new beginners, except Mr. Story.
Horses do so well in Montana that the growing of
them is rapidly becoming one of the settled businesses
of the Territory.

There is a famous range for cattle on Sun River,
in the northern part of Montana, and over 100,000
head are grazed there. Among the owners of herds
are the following :

Owner.
Jake Smith & Brother
Samuel Ford .
Frank Goss
Clarke & Elen
Con Korrs
Flory & Cox ,
"Wm. Mulchaey
Mrs. N. Ford .
Kobert Ford .
O. H. Churchill
Matt Furnell .
Burnett Murray
Eohert Vaughan
Samuel Bird
Mane & Dennis
James Gibson .
T. J. Stocking .
M. W. Wyatt .
Isaac Kingsberry
Rufus J. Harding
Lepley & Austin
Kipp & Thomas
Sargent & Steele

Number.

200

400

200

10,000

G.OOO

6,000

700

300

3,000

6,000

400

400

300

600

500

600

3,000

500

600

500

2,000

600

350

172 THE BEEF BONANZA.

Of the herds on the south side of the Missouri there
are 20,000 ; on Flat Creek and on Dearborne, 10,000 ;
and on the smaller streams fully 2000 head.

The governor of the Territory, Hon. B. F. Potts, is
one of the most successful sheep-growers in Montana,
and owns lai'ge herds. General A. J. Smith is also a
large owner of this kind of stock.

I have visited many of the stock-ranches and con-
versed with their owners, and all seem highly j)leased
with their experience as stock-growers. They have
large expectations of future profits, and some of the
heaviest owners declared they would not exchange
their herds for the best gold-mine in the Territory.
The profit on herds is estimated at from 26 to 48 per
cent, on the capital invested, and, large as this may
seem, I do not think it too high for realization.

H, F. Galen, a practical stock-grower, writing re-
cently to the author, states :

"I bought my sheep, in the fall of 1876, of Mr.
Calhoun, who drove them in from Nevada. There
were 3500 head in tlie flock. I afterwards sold 1000
head to Mr. Hussey, who is a sheep-grower on Smith
River. In consequence of my inexperience, I leased
the remaining 2500 to the Smith Brothers, on Crow
Creek, who are worthy gentlemen. They, too, had
little experience in sheep, and the lierd took tlie scab
very bad the first year and did not do well. We lost
half of the lambs by their being dropped in winter.
Out of over 1200 lambs M'e only saved 785. Of wool
we had only 7000 pounds. Last year we did not turn in
our bucks with the ewes until the 6th of December, and

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST. 173

then we dipped the sheep in a solution of strong lye
and tobacco, and they did well. I believe we will have
a better crop of both lambs and wool this year than ever
before, and we expect to clip at least four pounds of
fleece per head. I have a grain-ranch at Willow
Creek, Montana, where I keep my cattle principally.
I have let the ranch on shares, but my cattle are in my
own possession. I have 200 head. I cannot give you
much information about cattle, as I pay most attention
to horses. I have 75 brood-mares and 3 stallions, which
I keep in the stables for breeding purposes. I keep
the mares herded from the first of May until the middle
of August, when they are turned out and bred for the
balance of the year. The stable-stallions are well kept
and groomed. The mares are led out to them, each
mare booked, and her colt recorded. I endeavor to
improve the breed by putting horses to mares that are
no kin to them. I castrate and halter and break my
colts every sjjring, M'hen they are one year old. At
three years of age they are put into harness or under
the saddle. I have sold but few horses or cattle since
I commenced the stock-raising business. If I were to
sell out, I think after deducting losses I could realize
30 per cent, per annum on my investment out of my
sheep, and 25 per cent, on my horses. My sheep are
mixed between Spanish merino and cotswold. I think
they are a very good lot, but suppose the Spanish me-
rino to be the best. I expect they will clip over four
pounds of wool to each sheep this year. I believe the
sheep I sold Mr. Hussey will do better than that. I
feed no hay in winter, except to my stallions and some

15*

174 THE BEEF BONANZA.

of my fine brood-mares. I think the Smith Brothers
feed a very little hay to such of their sheep as need
extra care. They have sheds to protect them from the
storms.

" I believe Montana is as good as any country in the
world for stock of any kind. It is peculiarly adapted
to sheep on account of the dryness of the climate. All
that is needed is a good shepherd and experience to cure
sheep of scab, and the herd will thrive. The scab is the
only disease I know of prevalent among the sheep of
Montana. I have made no changes in either bucks or
ewes in my herds since I commenced raising. Mr.
Burt has bought all the sheep he could get afflicted with
scab, and cures them in a short time. It appears to be
a disease easily cured when one comes to understand it.

"H. F. Galen,
" Stock Grower. '''

Charles Cook, of Cook Brothers, who are very ex--
perienced herdsmen, writes to me :

" Our ranch is located on Smith River, in Smith
River Valley, eighteen miles from Camp Baker, Mon-
tana. We have been in business since July, 1873.
We have 1300 head, 900 of them ewes. They were
for the most part common, ungraded ewes and rams,
with coarse wool. I drove them from Oregon to Mon-
tana. We have made no additional purchases to the
herd since starting it, and have sold about $4000 worth
of mutton and wool, as follows :

"Old ewes 11000

Graded rams 1700

Wool 1700

WAITING FOR THE FOG TO CLEAR.

STOCK-GROWISG OUT WEST. 175

" "We have novr on hand 6000 head of graded sheep.
In February, 1877, we purchased in company with an-
other grower 2500 head, and last March another lot of
1800 for new herds. Both these bands are doing well.
The rate of profit is hard to estimate, as that depends
upon economy, judicious management, and the grade of
sheep raised. A herd of 3000 head of well-graded
ewes ought to raise 80 per cent, lambs. We have raised
100 per cent, this year. Each sheep will clip from
$1.25 to SI. 50 worth of wool per annum. Fifty per
cent, will herd and keep them, and 5 per cent, will
cover all losses. Our losses during the past year have
been less than 2 per cent. We have used nothing but
pure-blood cotswold rams in our flocks ; I believe they
are the best, and adapted to our climate. They seem
to stand our cold weather well, and in deep snows they
have length of limbs and strength of body to wade
through it and paw for food. They are veiy prolific,
and make excellent nurses. Their lambs are dropped
large, strong, and well wooled. The merinos are directly
the opposite in all these points. They are not prolific,
nor are they careful nurses ; their lambs are bom small,
weak, and naked. Our lambing seasons are subject to
severe storms and cold nights. These are my observa-
tions in handling both coarse- and fine-wooled sheep.
Our graded sheep clip an average of six pounds per
head. The original herd clipped only fom* pounds.
We have never fed any hay, and make no provision
for feeding further than to keep the winter range fresh.
For shelter we put up a wall of logs and cover them
with poles and hay, which makes a sufficient protection

176 THE BEEF BONANZA.

against all storms of winter. We have never lost any
sheep from severe weather in Montana.

" The only disease which sheep are subject to in this
country is scab, and I do not consider that indigenous
to the climate. When once cured they remain so, unless
they come in contact with diseased animals. The
remedies I use for curing scab are lime, sulphur, car-
bolic and hemlock dip with tobaceo, as it is perfectly
harmless to the sheep and the fleece, and a sure cure for
the disease if riglitly applied.

" I consider Montana one of the best wool-growing
sections of the United States. Our ranges are extensive,
our grasses nutritious and abundant, while pure water
is found on every hillside and in every valley. Califor-
nia has its floods, droughts, and famines ; Oregon its
leeches and scab ; Nevada and Utah their alkali plains
and brackish waters, which aflPect the wool of sheep as
well as their health. The soft alluvial deposits of
many paiis of the West produce foot-rot. We in
Montana alone are free from all these, and I see no
reason why this should not become the greatest stock-
and wool-growing region in the world.

"Chas. W. Cook."

It is, however, as a blooded-stock region Montana
takes the lead. Notwithstanding its remoteness, it
already has a larger number and better quality of
blooded horses and cattle than any State or Territory
in the Northwest. Of its blooded ranches I shall have
to speak in another chapter.

A visit to the blooded-stock farms of Montana will.

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST. 177

convince any one that this distant Territory of the great
West is destined to become in the near future second
only to Kentucky for fine stock. It is astonishing, the
progress it has made during the last five years in breed-
ing blooded animals of all kinds. I have visited many
of the stud- and cattle-farms, and find them superior to
all others in the West. The careful breeding of Mon-
tana owners must in the end, if persevered in, give the
Territory a stock of horses and cattle that cannot be
surpassed by any in this countiy.

Poiudexter & Orr have a fine herd of thoroughbred
cattle near Watson, Montana, which they im2:>orted from
Canada. In 1872 they commenced with five bulls and
eight heifers, short-horn Durhams. They are set down
in the stock books as follows :

BULLS.

1. Loho Lad. Raised by John Zavitz. Recorded
vol. ii. Canadian Herd Book, p. 146, and purchased by
us May, 1872. No. 1661.

2. Bismark. Bred by Robert White, London Town-
ship, Middlesex County, Canada. Recorded vol. ii.
Canadian Herd Book, page 294. No. 2476.

3. General Napier. Bred by J. B. Lane, Dorches-
ter County, Middlesex, Canada. Recorded vol. ii. Ca-
nadian Herd Book, page 109. No. on herd book, 1467.

4. London Duke. Recorded vol. iii. Canadian Herd
Book ; tried by Thomas Elliott, Arva Township,
County Middlesex, Canada.

5. King William. Sold to L. Born of Beaverhead
County, who has certificate of registry.

178 ^-^^ BEEF BONANZA.

COWS.

1. (Imported by Poindexter & Orr from Canada,
1872.) Omry. Bred by Thomas Friendship. Re-
corded vol. ii. Canadian Herd Book, page 385. Red
roan. Calved May 9, 1867.

2. Vidoiia. Bred by Thomas Friendship, Loudon
Township, Middlesex County. Recorded vol. ii. Ca-
nadian Herd Book, page 815. Red and white. Calved
Nov. 5, 1867.

3. Daisy. Bred by Thomas Friendship, London,
Middlesex County, Canada. Recorded vol. ii. Cana-
dian Herd Book, page 410. Red roan. Calved Jan.
16, 1871.

4. Lobo Lass. Bred by Joseph Walker, London
Township, County Middlesex. Recorded vol. ii., page
603. Red and white. Calved Jan. 25, 1871.

5. Fanny. Bred by Thomas Friendship, London,
Middlesex County, Canada. Recorded vol. ii. Cana-
dian Herd Book, page 465. Roan. Calved March
20, 1871.

6. Cherry in the Forest. Bred by John Little, Ilder-
ton Township, Middlesex County, Canada. Recorded
Canadian Herd Book, vol. ii., page 387. Red roan.
Calved Jan. 6, 1871.

7. Alma. Bred by William J. Hill, Dorchester
Township, County Middlesex. Recorded vol. ii. Cana-
dian Herd Book, page 332. Light roan. Calved Feb.
10, 1871. Twin.

8. Lily. Twin of No. 7 ; died 1874.

The produce from the above-named cows has been
as follows :

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST. 179

From Cherry.
1st calf, bull Duke Beaverhead, calved Jan. 12, 1873.

2d "

heifer Imogene,

a

Dec. 1, 1873.

3d "

heifer Roan Cherry,

a

Nov. 30,1874.

4th "

bull Don Pedro,

C(

Jan. 10, 1876.

5th «

bull (died),

i(

Jan. 1877.

From Vidoi'ia.
1st calf, bull Joachim Miller, calved March 10, 1873.
2d " heifer Beatrice, " " 19,1874.

3d " bull H. ^y. Beecher, " Feb. 12, 1875.
4th " Louisa Lome, " March 14, 1876.

From Daisy.
1st calf, heifer Nelly Grant, calved March 3, 1873.
2d " bull St. Patrick, " " 17, 1874.

3d " " Telton, " April 5, 1875.

4th " heifer Daisy Dean, " Feb. 23, 1876.

From Cherry in the Forest.
1st calf, heifer Phoebe Cozzens, calved April 3, 1873.
2d " " Minnie Myrtle, calved March 28,

1874.
3d " " died in calving, March, 1875.
4th " bull Gov. Hayes, calved Jan. 12, 1877.

From Fanny.
1st calf, bull Brick Pomeroy, calved March 16, 1873.
2d " " Gold Hunter, " April 5, 1874.
3d " " Mounted Lad, " March 30, 1875.
4th " heifer Peach Bloom, " April 8, 1876.
5th " bull Humpy Dumpy, " March 5, 1877.

130 THE BEEF BONANZA.

From Loho Lass.

1st calf, heifer Annie Laurie, calved April 14, 1873.
2d " " Mary Queen Scots, calved March 28,

1874.
3d " bull F. K. Moulton, calved April 15, 1875.
4th " " Fortune, " March 27, 1876.

From Lily.
1st calf, heifer Orphan Lily, calved June 10, 1874.

From Nelly Grant.

1st calf, heifer Beauty, calved May 10, 1875.

2d " " Mountain Rose, calved March 3,1876.

3d " bull Red Cloud, " May 7, 1877.

From Annie Laurie.

1st calf, bull Rob Roy, calved May 1, 1875.

2d " " Bobby Burns, calved March 30, 1876.

3d " " Bruce, " June 10, 1877.

From Phoebe Cozzens.
1st calf, heifer Phoebe Jane, calved March 7, 1876.

From Imogene.
1st calf, heifer Euphemia, calved March 29, 1876.

From Fanny Myrtle.
1st calf, bull Alexis, calved March 6, 1876.

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST.. 181

From Beatrice.
1st calf, bull Prince Albert, calved March 10, 1876.
2d " " Prince Alfred, " June 1, 1877.

From Orphan Lily.
1st calf, bull Bristow, calved March 25, 1876.
2d " heifer White Rose, calved June 26, 1877.

From 3Iary Queen Scots.

1st calf, heifer Darchulia, calved April 12, 1876,
making an increase of 46 head from spring of 1873 to
1878. Some 8 or 10 calves are yet to come this season,
which will increase the produce from the 8 cows and
heifers brought to Montana in May, 1872, to about 55
head. It will be observed that in 1872 there was no in-
crease, being mostly one- and two-year-old heifers. Mr.
Orr says in a letter to the author, " I am convinced that
no more profitable or productive class of stock could be
brought to the Territory than short-horned thorough-
breds."

Speaking for the firm, he adds : " We are of the
opinion that blooded-stock breeding will eventually be
one of the greatest interests in Montana. AVith the
healthiest stock-climate in the world, the purest water,
and the best feed, there is nothing to prevent Montana
from taking the front rank in the production of fine
stock.

" We estimate our herd of thoroughbreds to be worth
at least $12,000 to $15,000. In vols. ii. and iii., C. H.
B., and vol. xv., A. H. B., will be found most of our

IG

182 THE BEEF BONANZA.

herd records. Our experience teaches us that half and
three-quarter breeds are as good ' wrestlers' in winter
as ' scrub-stock.' We have been engaged in stock-
raising for more than twenty years in California, Ore-
gon, and Montana, raising cattle, sheep, and horses,
and we are convinced that Montana is far ahead of any
other section with which we are acquainted for stock-
raising."

Sedman & McGregorj^'s blooded-stock farm is nearly
as extensive as Poindexter & Orr's. They have,
among others, the following fine animals:

BULLS.

Kansas Clay, 8449, A. H. Book.— Bred by Charles
T. Redman, Clark Co., Kentucky. Calved May 4,
1869. Got by Burnside, 4618, out of Linda Clay by
Haverlock, 2598 ; Linda by Kansas, 3046 ; Almira
by Belmont, 242; Elvira by Prince Albert 2d, 857;
America by Locomotive, 92 (4242) ; imp. Lady Eliza-
beth by Emperor (1974) ; Elvira by Duke (1933), by
Wellington (2824), by Young Remus (2522), by Midas
(435), by Traveller (655), by Bolingbroke (86).

EthelbeH, Xo. 10,019, A.H. Book, vol. x.— Red and
white. Bred by William Warficld, Lexington, Ken-
tucky. Calved July 19, 1870. Got by imp. Robert
ISTapier (27,310), 8975; 1st dam Eleanor Townley by
imp. Challenger, 324 ; 2d dam Miss Townley by Ren-
eck, 903 ; 3d dam Miss Nanny by Prince Albert 2d,
857 ; 4th dam Red Beauty by John Randolph, 603 ;
5th dam Hannah Moore by imp. Goldfinder (2066) ;
6th dam imp. Young Mary by Jupiter (2170) ; 7th

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST. 183

dam Mary by Saladin (1417) ; 8tli dam Lucy by Meeks
Bull (2288) ; 9th dam bred by Mr. Holmes, of Otting-
ton, England.

Lord Lovell (17,574), A. H. Book. — Red roan. Bred
by Walter Handy, Mount Freedom, Jessamine Co.,
Kentucky, the property of Stedman & McGregory,
Nevada, Madison Co., jNIontana. Calved in Septem-
ber, 1870. Got by Vivian, 9272, out of Alba 2d by
Ben Nevis (6451); Alba by Minstrel, 5960; Winter
Rose by Valentine, 1060; Cherry by Bulwer, 300, by
Oliver, 2387 ; Nancy Dawson by Sam Martin, 2599 ;
Lady Kate by Tecumseh, 5409 ; ]\Irs. Motte by Adam
(717), etc.

cows.

Inez M, A. H. B., vol. viii., page 383. Red. Calved
March, 1877. Got by Rama, 7158, out of Inez 2d by
Ben Nevis, 6451 ; Inez by Minstrel, 5960 ; Jane Grey
by Young Oliver (2441) ; Nancy Dawson 3d by Bul-
wer, 300; Nancy Dawson 2d by Duke of York (1 941);
Nancy Dawson by Sam Martin (2599) ; Lady Kate by
Tecumseh (5409); Mrs. Motte by Adam (717); bred
to Vivian (9272).

Scdlie Meadows, A. H. B., vol. ix., page 948. Red
roan. Bought of Walter Handy. Got by the Meadows
Duke, 9200; Nanny Goodloe by Duke of Argyll,
5539 ; Bellflower by Seaton, 4356 ; Susannah by Prince
Hal, 3302 ; Cranberry by Locomotive, 645 ; Mary
Tompkins by Comet, 356, by Accommodation (2907),
imp. White Rose by Publicold, 1348; Fanny by
Premier (1331), by Pilot (495), by Agamemnon (9),
by Marshal Beresford (415).

184 THE BEEF BONANZA.

Emma Kendall, A. H. B., vol. xiii., page 574. Red
and Avliite. Bred by S. P. Kenny, Lexington, Ken-
tucky, the property of Sedmaii & McGregory, Nevada,
Madison Co., IMoiitana. Calved March 3, 1870. Got
by Campbell, 9592, out of Ella by Duke Amelek
(GG16); Minnie by Orontes 3 (3226); Mattie Wright
by Allen (2492) ; Pocahontas by Achilles, 2471 ; Ade-
laide 2d by Comet (356); Beauty of Wharfdale by
Brutus (1752) ; Adelaide by Magnum Bonuni (2243) ;
Beauty by George (1066), by Lancaster (260), by Lan-
caster (360), by Welliugton (680), by George (275), by
Favorite (252), by Punch (531).

Lizzie^ A. H. B., vol. xiii., page 728. Ped and white.
Bred by S. P. Kenny, Jessamine Co., Kentucky, the
property of Sedman & McGregory, Nevada, Madison
Co., Montana. Calved November 12, 1869. Got by
Gratz (14,412) out of Lucina by Royal Arcli, 7230;
Graceful by John O'Groat (1707) ; Magnolia by Don
John (426); Moss Rose by Eclipse (1494) ; Miss Points,
Jr., by Northern Light (1280) ; Points by Aide-de-
Camp (722), by Charles (127), by Prince (521), by
Neswick (1266).

In a communication to the author, Messrs. Sedman
& McGregory say, " We have been in the business
nearly six yenrs, and our increase from the original
nnmber of thoroughbreds imported by us from Ken-
tucky (which nnmber consisted of three bulls and
four cows) has been 26 head, of which 25 are living,
and the pedigree in brief form of these 25 head is
given below.

"We bought, in the year 1871, in Missouri, 156

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST. 185

head of yearling heifers (common stock). In 1872 we
purchased an additional number (206 head) of the same
kind, sex, and age, making our total purchases of com-
mon stock equal 362 head. We have sold and killed
about 200 head from the increase of the above 362 head,
and our herd now numbers 1500 head ; and by the use
of our thoroughbreds and grade-bulls we have improved
the herd and increased the vauie of the stock we have
.raised from $2 to $5 per head, at the present low
market-price. From our thoroughbreds we have raised
25 head, of which 10 are bulls and 15 cows, and the
pedigree and names of these 25 head are as follows, to
wit :

" From Inez Sd we have raised the following animals,
to wit :

"Alpha, got by Vivian, 9272, vol, xiii., page 443, A.
H. B. Prince Albert, 18,006, got by Kansas Clay,
8449. Inez Clay, A. H. B., vol. xiv., page 676, got
by Kansas Clay, 8449. Inez Clay, 2d, A. H. Book,
vol. xiv., page 576, got by Kansas Clay, 8449. Fanny
Lovell, got by Lord Lovell, 17,574.

"From Alpha we have raised Alfaretta, A. H. B., vol.
xiii., page 438, got by Ethelbert, 10,019.

"From Alfaretta we have raised Ada, got by Ethel-
bert, 10,019.

"From Sallie Meadows we have raised Pocahontas, A.
H. Book, vol. xiii., page 558, got by Corporal, 7760.
Captain Clay, got by Kansas Clay, 8449. Lady Sheri-
dan, got by Ethelbert, 10,019. A bull calf, got by
Ethelbert, 10,019.

"From Pocahontas we have raised H. P. Napier, got
16*

186 THE BEEF BONANZA.

by Ethelbert, 10,019. Ex. got by Ethelbert, 10,019.
A cow calf, got by Captain Clay, 16,395.

"From Lady Sheridan we have raised a cow calf, got
by Ethelbert, 10,019.

"From Lizzie we have raised Champion, 16,451, got
by Kansas Clay, 8449. Stella, A. H. Book, vol. xiv.,
page 872, got by Etlielbert, 10,019. Don Juau, got by
Etlielbert, 10,019. Two bull calves, got by Ethelbert,
10,019.

"From Stella we have raised a cow calf, got by Ethel-
bert, 10,019.

"From Emma Kendall we have raised Ethelbert 2d,
17,057, got by Ethelbert, 10,019. Maud, A. H. B.,
vol. xiv., page 708, got by Ethelbert, 10,019. Chance,
a cow calf, got by Captain Clay, 16,395; and one cow
calf, got by Lord Lovell, 17,574.

" Our experience with our thoroughbreds has been
that low, heavy, compact, and square-bodied bulls of
the ' Booth' strain of blood are the best to cross with
common stock. All the use and purpose of the impor-
tation of thoroughbred stock to this Territory at the
present time is to improve common stock and increase
its value.

" Our ranch is situated on upper Ruby Valley, on
Ruby River, in this (Madison) county, about twenty
miles south of Virginia City, and contains about two
thousand acres under fence, with good and substantial
dwellings, stables, barns, corrals, out-houses, etc., etc.,
and the range for grazing extends from our premises a
distance of several miles in all directions.

" Ruby River runs through our ranch, and is kept

.'-TOCK-GEOWING OUT WEST. 187

entirely free from ice during the winter by water issuing
from the warm springs, which are several miles distant
from our premises.

" The raising of thoroughbred stock in this Territory
is as yet in its infancy ; there has not been and is not
now that care taken here with them as there is in older
settled communities. Nearly all our thoroughbred
stock are turned into pastures, and remain there during
the whole year. During the severe storms of w'inter
they have access to straw-stacks and shelter, and they
keep in good order all the time.

"Our thoroughbred stock raised in this manner is
fully as good as that which we imported from Ken-
tucky.

" Our herd of thoroughbred stock is probably worth
about §4000.

" In conclusion, we would say that we now have some
1500 head of common stock ; that we employ from one
to two men constantly as herders ; we cut and put up
one hundred tons of hay per annum, nearly all of which
we feed to horses and stock on the ranch.

"Among the stock on the ranch to which we feed hay
are included a number of dairy cows. Our losses of
common stock from eating poisoned weeds during the
spring, from exposure during the winter, and from all
other causes, excepting that hereinafter mentioned, have
not exceeded one per cent.

"Losses of calves that have been dropped during the
very severe storms of winter are not included in the
foregoing statement.

" Last season we raised 375 calves, and lost only some

188 THE BEEF BONANZA.

8 or 10 by their being dropped in very stormy
weather.

"As items of interest to you Ave would state that in
March, a.d. 1877, we had a calf dropped from one of
our common-stock cows that weighed one hundred and
twelve pounds when it was only thirty-six hours okl,
and it was a healthy and well-formed calf. Also, that
in April, 1876, we sold to butchers a barren cow, the
meat of which weighed nine hundred and three pounds
net.

" This was after a severe winter, and the cow had been
on the range all winter. This will serve to show you
the nutritious qualities of our grasses during a severe
winter."

C. E. Williams, of Helena, Montana, has some fine
blooded horses and mares, among others,

Canhou.

Bay horse. Bred by A. J. Alexander, Woodburn
Farm, Spring Station, Kentucky. Foaled, 1870.

By Lexington.

1st dam, Alice Jones, by imp. Glencoe.

2d " Blue Bonnett, by imp. Hedgford.

3d " Grey Fanny, by Bertrand.

4th " by imp. Buzzard.

5th " Arminda, by imp. Medley.

6th " by imp. Bolton.

7th " Sallie Wright, by Yorick.

8th " Jenny Cameron, by imp, Childers.

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST. 189

9th dam by Morton's imp. Traveller.
lOth " Imp. Jenny Cameron, by a son of Fox.
lltli " Miss Bel voir, by Gray Grantham.
12th " by Puget Turk.
13th " Betty Percival, by Leede's Arabian.
14th " by Spanker.

No. 1. Terlulia.

Bay. Bred by Major B. G. Thomas, Lexington,
Kentucky. Foaled, 1874.

By 3IeIboum, Jr.

1st dam, Varsouvienne, by imp. Australian.

2d " Geneva, by Lexington.

3d " Grisette, by imp. Glencoe.

4th " Fandango, by imp. Leviathan.

5th " Imp. Gallopade, by Catton.

6th " Camillhm, by Camillus.

7th " by Smolensko.

8th " Miss Cannon, by Orville.

9th " by Weathercock.

10th " Cora, by Matchem.

11th " by Turk.

12th " by Cub.

13th " byAllworthy.

14th " by Starling.

15th " by Bloody Buttocks.

16th " by Greyhound.

17th " Brocklesby Betty, by Curwen's Bay Barb.

18th " Leede's Hobby mare, by Sister Barb.

190 THE BEEF BONANZA.

No. 2. Juggle.

Bay. Bred by Major B. G. Thomas, Lexington,
Kentucky. Foaled, 1874.

By Melbourn, Jr.

1st dam, Mary Had ley, by O'Meara.

2d " Parisina, by imp. Leviathan.

3d " Marie Shelby, by Stockholder.

4th " Patty-puff, by Pocolet.

5th " Rosa Clack, by imp. Saltram.

6th " Jet, by Haynes' Flimnap.

7th " Camilla, by Melzar.

8th " Diana, by Clodius.

9th " Sally Painter, by Evans' imp. Sterling.

lOtli " Imp. Silver, by Belsize Arabian.

11th " by Croft's Partner.

12th " Sister to Roxana, by Bald Galloway.

13th " Sister to Chanter, by Akaster Turk.

14th " by Leede's Arabian.

15th " by Spanker.

No. 3. Artistic.

Chestnut. Bred by T. J. Montague, Lexington,
Kentucky. Foaled, 1874.

By Imp. Australian.

1st dam, Maud Tauris, by imp. Yorkshire.
2d " Rosemary, by imp. Sovereign.
3d " Beta, by imp. Leviathan.

STOCK-GROWING OUT WEST. 191

4 4th dam Juliet, by Kosciusko.

5th " Blank, by Sir Archy.

6th " Imp. Psyche, by Sir Peter Teazle.

7th " Bab, by Bordeaux.

8tli " Sperauza, by Eclipse.

9th " Virago, by Snap.

10th " by Regulus.

11th " sister to Black and All Black, by Crab.

12th " Miss Slammerkin, by Young True Blue.

13th " by Lord Oxford's dun Arabian.

14th " D'Arcy's black-legged Royal Mare.

No. 4. Reply

Bay. Bred by H. P. McGrath, Lexington, Ken-
tucky. Foaled, 1872.

By Enquirer.

1st dam. Colleen Bawn, by Endorser.

2d " Poxaua, by imp. Chesterfield.

3d " Levia, by imp. Tranby.

4th " Tolivia,-by imp. Contract.

6tli " Diamond, by Turpin's Florizel.

6th " by Levis's Eclipse.

7th " Minerva, by Melzar.

8th " by Union.

9th " Kirtly mare, by Madison's Milo.

10th " by imp. Fearnought.

11th " a thoroughbred mare.

There are, besides these, some fifteen other blooded-
stock farms in Montana of which I might give a par-

192 THE BEEF BONANZA.

ticular account, but to speak of all in detail woul^
swell the size of this chapter beyond its proper propor-
tions, and the above will serve as samples of the rest.

In regarding Montana the reader must remember
that this Territory is now almost isolated from the
great and stirring events which are going on in the
new path of commerce which stretches across the con-
tinent. It seems to be, and really is, one of the most
remote portions of our country, blocked in by the far
Western States and those of the Pacific, and having for
its boundary on the north the bleak and almost limit-
less British possessions.

It is a majestic, wild, and solitary land, embracing
that region lying between the 45th and 49th parallels
of north latitude and the 27th and 39tli meridians west
from Washington. It contains an area of 143,766 square
miles, — equal to 92,016,640 acres, — extending from
east to west about 750 miles, and from north to south
about 275 miles. This area is nearly equal to that of
California, and three times that of New York.

Of this region the surveyor-general, in his report for
1869, estimates that fully 30,672,216 acres are suscep-
tible of cultivation.

This is about one-third of the Territory. The other
two-thirds comprise the main range of the Rocky
Mountains, running north and south across the Terri-
tory, and numerous subordinate spurs, whose peaks
often surpass in altitude those of tlie main range.

Among the spurs may be mentioned the Coeur
d'Alene and Bitter Root Mountains, making the
dividing-line between Montana and Idaho on the west,

A QUIET INSPECTION.

STOCK-O ROWING OUT WEST. I93

between which and the main range lies the rich and
productive country embraced in Deer Lodge and Mis-
soula Counties ; the Belt and Judith ^Mountains, sepa-
rating the sparsely-settled Muscleshell County on the
northeast and Choteau County on the northwest from
the rich mining regions of Meagher County on the
south, extending to the Missouri River, which is also
the northeastern boundary of Lewis and Clark County ;
the Bear's Paw and Little Rocky Mountains, still to
the north ; the Big Horn Mountains, extending into
Dakota, in the southeast, north and east of which lies
the unorganized county of Big Horn or Vaughan, em-
bracing the Yellowstone region, with Gallatin County
to the northwest, and Madison and Beaverhead lying
west and southwest ; and the western spurs of the Wind
River Mountains on the extreme eastern border.

Coal of a good quality has been found in Montana,
and as rapidly as the country settles up and it becomes
necessary to develop this source of wealth it will, no
doubt, be found in great abundance, and perhaps of a
superior quality. Near Bozeman a fine vein of bitu-
minous coal has been developed. Just above Benton a
promising vein has been opened ; above Bannock, and
also near Virginia City and on the Dearborn, veins of
from four to five feet have been discovered.

The inhabitants of ^Montana are a generous, open-
hearted people, full of life and activity, and noted for
that boundless hospitality which is peculiar to the
frontier. They change their places of abode readily,
build up a town rapidly and with little or no ceremony,
and abandon it as readily with no symptoms of regret.

194 '^SE BEEF BONANZA.

"Wherever mines are, there are they also. They believe i ii
themselves ; take an immense amount of stock in the
Great West ; do not object to " whiskey straight ;" are
always on hand to assist a friend in distress; and take
kindly to theatres and saloons. It is not a good place
for ladies to come who wish to keep single. There are
so many bachelors a young lady finds herself sur-
rounded at once with suitors, and some of the ap-
plicants will not be put off. In many parts of the
Territory plug hats and store clothes are still the
abomination of the Montanian. A buckskin rig, in
the mountains, is considered the height of fashion, with
a broad-brimmed soft hat reared back in front.

APPENDIX.

195

APPENDIX.

CATTLE-RAISING IN COLORADO.

Judge David W. Sherwood, of Connecticut, re-
cently wrote to Wilkes' " Spirit" :

" Editor Spirit of the Times, — In a recent issue of the
* Spirit' I see General Brisbin, U.S.A., your valuable
correspondent on ' Cattle-Growing out West,' writes as
follows :

" ' I have often thought if some enterprising person
would form a joint-stock company for the purpose of
breeding, buying, and selling horses, cattle, and sheep,
it would prove enormously profitable. I have no doubt
but a company properly managed would declare an
annual dividend of at least 25 per cent. Such a com-
pany, organized -with a president, secretary, treasurer,
and board of directors, and conducted on strictly busi-
ness principles, would realize a far larger profit on the
money invested than if put into any other kind of busi-
ness. Nothing, I believe, would beat associated capital
in the cattle trade. The ranches and ranges should be
located with a view of ultimately buying the land or
securing control of it for a long term of years.'

" I have for some time held the same opinion as your
correspondent, but it never struck me so forcibly as

17* 197

198 APPENDIX.

when on my ranch this spring. I saw so many ways
for improving the business and increasing the profits
with the use of capital that I came East with the deter-
mination to form a company and carry on the business
on a proper scale to realize the largest possible profits.
Everybody is satisfied that it is the business of the
future in this country, and capital is rapidly but
blindly turning toward it. Men of experience in the
business are needed to direct it successfully. I may
here add that I have dealt in stock, more or less, all
my life, and have been in the cattle business in Colo-
rado for the past six years. I propose to form a joint-
stock company, under the laws of either the State of
New York or Connecticut, with a cajjital stock of
$500,000, for the purpose of carrying on the general
business of raising, buying, fattening, and selling beef
cattle, and perhaps butchering and transporting by cars
to Eastern markets. I am now, and have been for the
past six years, part owner of the cattle and ranch of the
Huerfano Cattle Company, situated on the Huerfano
and Apache Eivers, in Huerfano and Pueblo Coun-
ties, in Southern Colorado, about thirty miles south
from Pueblo City. This ranch extends along both sides
of the above rivers for a distance of eleven miles, and
controls the adjoining Government lands as a grazing
range. The title to this ranch is held by United States
patent. The cattle now number between 5000 and
GOOO head, and are American improved from Texas
cows through Kentucky bulls. Men who have seen
our stock say that we have the finest ciittle in the State.
With a view to forming this stock company I have

CATTLE-RAISING IN COLORADO. I99

arranged with the other owners of this ranch to turn
the whole business over to the company on a low cash
basis, placing cattle and land at the lowest possible
figure, and the owners taking large interests in the new
company.

" I have also entered into a contract with Colonel
"William Craig for the purchase of his extensive ranch,
adjoining oure on the east, on the Huerfano and Cucharas
Rivers, extending- alonsr both sides of these rivers for
a distance of about seventeen miles. The title to this
ranch is also secured by United States patent. The
two ranches together comprise about 80,000 acres, se-
cured by patent and platted. They embrace a river
frontage of twenty-eight miles, and control a grazing
range of nearly 500,000 acres, well known as one of
the best grass districts of Colorado. Four thousand
acres are bottom-larids under cultivation, and irrigated
by ten miles of ditch. More than $150,000 worth
of improvements have been put upon these ranches.
Colonel George W. Schofield, major Tenth Cavalry
U.S.A., formerly owner of our ranch, says, 'I have
si)ent the last ten years in Colorado, Wyoming, New
ISIcxico, Indian Territory, Texas, and other parts of
the West, and I have never seen a more favorable loca-
tion for stock-raising. It is the best cattle range I
know of in all the West, and for that reason I located it.'

" It is estimated that the range will graze over 20,000
head of cattle permanently, and I propose to gradually
increase the number to its full capacity. The capital
stock of the company will be divided into 5000 shares
of SlOO each, and used as follows : For land with im-

200 APPENDIX.

provements, $325,000 ; for the cattle on hand at a low
market value, $75,000 ; leaving $100,000 for a work-
ing capital with which to increase the stock and con-
duct the business. I propose that the company shall
have an office in the East, where the books and accounts
shall be kept and always of»en to inspection by stock-
holders. The treasurer of the company should be an
Eastern man of undoubted character and responsibility,
to whom full returns should be sent from the ranch
every month or every quarter, as we now have them.
I have no doubt but that the business, properly man-
aged, on so large a scale will pay, including increased
value of land and cattle, as high as fifty per cent, per
annum. The profits are enormous. There is no busi-
ness like it in the world, and the whole secret of it is,
it costs nothing to feed the cattle. They grow without
eating your money. They literally raise themselves.
" General Brisbin, writing from the Plains, says, —
" ' If $200,000 were invested in Texas cattle, it would
double itself in four years, and pay a semi-annual divi-
dend of eight per cent. It should be remembered tliat
the larger the original capital put into the business
the greater would be the ratio of net profits.'

" It may be asked, * How long will this business con-
tinue to pay such large profits ? Will not capital flow
into it so fast that in a few years the country will be
overstocked ?' The answer is plain. There is always
a steady demand for beef at home, and the heavy ship-
ments of fresh meat to other countries, amounting in
the year 1877 to over ten millions of dollars in value,
must constantly increase this ; and there is no doubt

CATTLE-RAISING IN COLORADO. 201

that this country is destined to be the beef market for
the whole world. No other country has such immense
grass-growing districts.

" If we consult tlie tables, it will be observed that if
cattle-breeding in the United States was stopped for
five years all the cattle would be eaten up. Since 1860
four States and Territories have increased their stock,
five have stood still, and thirty have decreased in com-
parison with the population. The rapid increase of
our population will soon require that more cattle be
raised, or we shall have to pay higher prices for beef.
The number of people are increasing much faster than
the number of cattle. The ratio of annual increase of
stock in the country now is If per cent., to an annual
increase of population of 2f per cent. So it will be
seen that we must raise more cattle, or in a few years
pay higher prices for beef. For ten years yet, at least,
stock-p-rowers need have no fear of overstockin<y the
market. The beef business cannot be overdone. The
census of the United States will probably show a popu-
lation in 1880 of not less than 47,000,000 of people,
and the cattle-raising does not keep pace with this rapid
increase. In the Eastern and Middle States there has
been a rapid decrease of cattle, and in a few years the
West will be called on to supply almost the whole
Eastern demand. Land worth over §10 per acre is too
valuable to be devoted to stock-raising, and farmers
can do better in cereals.

" It is for this reason that our Eastern farmers are
giving up cattle-breeding and devoting their land to
growing corn, wheat, rye, oats, and vegetables. They

202 APPENDIX.

cannot compete with Plains beef, for, while hay and
other fodder has to be cut for winter feeding there,
on the Plains the cattle run at large all winter, the
natural grasses curing on the ground, and keeping the
cattle fat nearly all winter.

" It has been the custom heretofore among cattle-men
in Colorado and elsewhere in the West to depend en-
tirely upon grass for fattening cattle for market, and,
consequently, sales cannot always be made to advantage
unless the grass is in unusually good condition ; but I
propose to grow corn, and feed sufficient to keep a cer-
tain number of steers in excellent condition for market
at any time, and have it generally known that fat cattle
can always be had at our ranch. Corn can be raised on
the ranch as cheaply as in Kansas, thus saving the
freight and adding largely to the value of the cattle,
because of their better condition for market.

" It may be asked, ' Is it desirable to invest so much
money in land ?' I reply that it is absolutely necessary
to own a large part of your range, especially the water-
front, so as to keep out sheep-men, settlers, and other
cattle-owners. Sheep and cattle cannot be grazed to-
gether, and the interests should be entirely separate.
Government lands, where watering-places exist, are fast
becoming occuj)ied by settlers and colonies, and very
soon the opjjortunities for locating large ranches will
entirely disappear. In a few years at the most it will
not be possible — it is scarcely so now in Colorado — to
obtain a range where the cattle business can be con-
ducted on a large scale. The longer, therefore, these
large ranges are kept intact the more valuable will they

CATTLE-RAISING IN COLORADO. 203

become for any purpose. It should be carefully re-
membered that large ranches can be managed with much
greater profit than small ones.

" The ranches I now have possession of together make
one of the largest, if not actually the largest, in Colo-
rado, and are situated in the most favored portion of
the State. There is hardly an advantage belonging to
the country or the business which they do not possess.
They have good buildings, extensive fences, bluffs and
canons for sheltering cattle in winter, and always an
abundance of grass and water. There are several fine
water-privileges and a large suj^ply of pine timber close
at hand. Besides the rivers spoken of, there are
numerous never-failing natural springs and lakes, and
many excellent opportunities for storing water in reser-
voirs at small cost. Among others the several species
of the grama grass abound, and of its nutritious
qualities I add the following, taken from the ' United
States Land-Office Reports for 1869,' page 147 :

" ' The most valuable and widely distributed of these
(grasses) is the grama grass, its peculiar value con-
sisting in its adaptation to all the requirements of an
arid climate. It grows during the rainy season, and
ripens a large quantity of seed as the dry season ap-
proaches, while the leaf and stem retain most of their
nutritive qualities in drying, forming superior feed for
grazing animals during the entire season.'

" Governor McCook writes of cattle-growing in Colo-
rado:

"'The natural grasses of our hills and valleys are
equal in nutritious qualities to the Hungarian or other

204 APPENDIX.

cultivated grasses of the East, and their abundance is
such that the herds of a dozen States could have fine
pasturage ; and the winters are so mild that shelter or
hay is unnecessary. The natural increase of cattle is
80 per cent, per annum.'

'' J. W. Iliif, late the great cattle-owner of the West,
wrote :

" ' I have been engaged in the stock business in Colo-
rado and Wyoming for the past fourteen years. During
all that time I have grazed stock in nearly all the valleys
of these Territories, both summer and winter. The
cost of both summering and wintering is simply the
cost of herding, as no feed nor shelter is required. I
consider the summer-cured grass of these Plains and
valleys as superior to any hay. My cattle have not
only kept in good order on this grass through all the
eight winters, but many of them, thin in the fall, have
become fine beef by spring. The percentage of loss in
wintering here is much less than in the States, where
cattle are stabled and fed on corn and hay.'

" Mr. Iliff, at the time of his death last winter, owned
20,000 acres of water-front and was fast buying more,
thus recognizing the necessity of owning his ranges.
His cattle numbered over 30,000 head, and he was
called the ' Colorado Cattle-king.' He began with
nothing.

" I wish again to call attention to the favorable loca-
tion of our ranch, on account of its ready access to rail-
road facilities, and thus to market. The Denver and
Rio Grande Railroad just touches the western end of
it, and the station is about two miles from our ranch-

CATTLE-RAISING IN COLORADO. 205

house. From the house to Pueblo it is about thirty
miles. From the eastern end of the ranch it is eighteen
miles to Pueblo, over a broad, splendid driving-road,
and fourteen miles to the Arkansas River, and the At-
chison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad along the river.
This is the great through route to the East, over which
most of the stock is shipped.

"The following distinguished gentlemen are familiar
with this ranch and the surrounding country. They
have visited it when the residence of Colonel Craig, a
well-known army officer, now retired, and will, no
doubt, vouch for what is here said relating to its favor-
able location and many great advantages : General W.
T. Sherman, Major-General John Pope, Major-General
John M. Schofield, Inspector-General Marcy, U. S. A.;
Hon. John D. Perry, ex-President Kansas Pacific Rail-
road; Hon. John P. Usher, ex-Secretary Interior;
Senator Chaffee, and Representative Thomas M. Pat-
terson, of Colorado.

"General Brisbin, your correspondent, writing from
the Plains in February last, seems to think that the
northern country furnishes superior advantages over
the southern on account of cooler climate, cattle being
less liable to disease. That would be true of New
Mexico, perhaps, but not of our ranch, situated as it
is between the two extremes. We have not known in
our six years' experience a single disease among our
cattle. Our loss in winter has not, so far as we can
determine, ever reached two per cent. even. It has
been so small as not to be reckoned in our estimates at
any time. But how is it at the north from Denver to

18

206 APPENDIX.

Cheyenne ? Seven years ago a severe winter killed off
nearly one-half of all the stock in that section of the
country, and only last March, your readers will re-
member, there came such a blast of cold weather and
such deep snows that the railroads were blocked for
days and the cattle and sheep perished by thousands. '
At the same time our ranch was entirely free from dis-
aster of every kind. The storm did not reach below
the divide between Denver and Pueblo.

"The winter has been mild and pleasant, and no more
snow has fallen than was sufficient to start the grass in
the spring. Actual settlers, who have lived there for
twenty years past, say that they have never known a
winter severe enough to kill grazing-stock. We are
two hundred and fifty miles south from Cheyenne, on
the Pacific Railroad ; one hundred and fifty miles south
from Denver, on the Kansas Pacific Railroad ; and one
hundred miles south from the divide between Denver
and Pueblo. South of this divide deep and lasting
snows, the terror to stock, are never known. We are
too far north to be subject to diseases induced by
warm climates, and too far south to experience severe
winters.

" I do not hesitate to say that this is the grandest op-
portunity for investment that can be offered. There
are no uncertain risks attached to the business to eat up
the profits, as the losses are almost nothing and the
profits many times those afforded by other invest-
ments. As to profits, I quote your correspondent on
the ground :

" ' In cattle-raising in Colorado, General Cameron puts

CATTLE-RAISING IN COLORADO. 207

the profits at 50 to 55 per cent, per annum on the capi-
tal invested, over and above all expenses and losses of
every kind/

"Mr. J. L. Brush, a reliable gentleman of Weld
County, Colorado, says, ' I think the average profit
on capital invested in cattle will not fall short of 40
per cent, per annum over and above all expenses. It
is a well-known fact that stock-men in Colorado have
paid from 18 to 24 per cent, interest per annum for
money to invest in the cattle business, and have then
made large profits.'

" We have had to learn by experience, having gone
into the business without fully understanding how to
conduct it in the Far West, and with only our New
England farm experience to guide us. Although labor-
ing under many disadvantages, which exist no longer,
we have paid all our expenses, greatly improved our
range, changed our Texas into American cattle, in-
creased our original capital more than threefold, and
realized large dividends from the business.

" I have carefully prepared the following schedule,
showing the increase of a herd of 4000 cows for seven
years. We would have this number by adding 2000 to
our present herd. I have allowed a large margin — 20
per cent. — for loss in various ways. I have found by
experience that the calves average about half heifers
and half steers. One of the greatest sources of profit
will be in buying two-year-old steers, keeping them a
year or a little longer at almost no additional expense,
and selling them at an advance of $10 or more per
head. This branch of the business is a great deal more

208 APPENDIX.

profitable tlian raising cattle, even though that yields
such enormous results. This schedule is made with
reference entirely to grass-fed cattle, but fattening with
corn and other feed grown on the ranch will be an ad-
ditional source of large and never-failing profit.

" The first column indicates the year ; the second, the
number of cows ; the third, the number of calves ; the
fourth, the number of heifer calves ; the fifth, the value
when yearlings, at $10 per head ; the sixth, increased
value when two years old, at $5 per head ; the seventh,
increased value when three years old, at $3 per head ;
the eighth, the value when three years old, at $18 per
head :

1st

4,000 3,200

1,C00

$16,000

18,000

14,800

$28,800

2d

4,000 3,200

1,G00

16,000

8,000

4,800

28,800

3d

6,G00 4,480

2,240

22,400

11,200

6,720

40,320

4th

7,200 5,7G0

2,880

28,800

14,400

8,640

51,840

6th

9,440 7,552

3,776

37,760

18,880

56,640

6th

12,320 9,856

4,928

49,280

49,280

7th

1G,09G 12,877

6,438 at $6 per head

.

. 88,627

Orij

jinal cows, at |18 per head

Total ....

•

. 72,000

$366,308

"The first column of the next table indicates the
year ; the second, the number of steer calves ; the third,
the value when yearlings, at $10 per head ; the fourth,
the increased value when two years old, at $6 per head ;
the fifth, the increased value when three years old, at
$10 per head ; the sixth, the value when three years
old, at $26 per head :

CATTLE-RAISING IN COLORADO. 209

1st

1,600

$16,000

$9,600

$16,000

$41,600

2d

1,600

16,000

9,600

16,000

41,600

3d

2,240

22,400

13,440

22,400

58,240

4tli

2,880

28,800

17,280

28,800

74,880

5th

3,776

37,760

22,656

60,416

6th

4,928

49,280

49,280

7th

6,438 at |6 per head

•

.

. 38,628

Total $364,644

Total product in seven years of 4000 cows, costing

$72,000, including cost of cows . . . $730,952

" The profits, or increase, on the seventh year alone
would be $254,792, or 50 per cent, on the entire capi-
tal of $500,000. Each subsequent year the increase of
profits is enormously enhanced.

" Each year, also, from 3000 to 5000 head of steers
would be bought, and sold a year later at a profit of
$10 or more per head, which item alone would pay
double the expenses of the entire ranch.

"There are many plans and details connected with this
enterprise which cannot well be explained in a letter of
this kind without making it of great length, and which
would not be thoroughly understood without reference
to maps of the property and a personal interview with
the author. To assure your readers that this is a per-
fectly legitimate enterprise, and will be organized and
conducted in a practical, business-like manner, I take
great pleasure in referring by special permission to the
following well-known gentlemen, several of whom,
with myself, will take large interests in this organisa-
tion :

o 18*

210 APPENDIX.

" General Josepli E,. Hawley, late President United
States Centennial Commission.

" His Excellency Governor Richard D. Hubbard,
Hartford, Connecticut.

" Hon. David Clark, Hartford, Connecticut.

" Hon. Salem H. Wales, 520 Fifth Avenue, New
York City.

" Hon. De Witt C. Wheeler, Police Commissioner,
New York City.

"Hon. William D. Bishop, President New York,
New Haveu and Hartford Railroad.

" Hon. Nathaniel Wheeler, President Wheeler &
Wilson Sewing-Machine Company.

" Hon. P. T. Barnum, Bridgeport, Connecticut.

" Hanford Lyon, Esq., President Bridgeport National
Bank, Bridgeport, Connecticut.

" G. B. Waller, Esq., President City National Bank,
Bridgeport, Connecticut.

" Samuel W. Baldwin, Esq., President Connecticut
National Bank, Bridgeport, Connecticut.

" Charles B. Hotchkiss, Esq., President Pequonnock
National Bank, Bridgeport, Connecticut.

" David M. Read, Esq., President of Board of Trade,
Bridgeport, Connecticut.

" Nathan Seeley, Esq., of Averill Chemical Paint
Company, Burling Slip, New York.

" Professor John E. Clark, Yale Scientific School,
New Haven, Connecticut.

" Professor Clark thoroughly understands the coun-
try, having surveyed within ten miles of the ranch.

"The Hon. Salem H. Wales has kindlv consented to

CATTLE-RAISING IN COLORADO. 211

act as treasurer of the organization, and will receive
subscriptions to the stock at his office, No. 10 Spruce
Street, New York City.

"David "W. Sherwood."

The following letter to Wilkes' Spirit will be of
interest to those who have read this book :

"MORE CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST.

" Dear Spirit, — Observing several articles on the
cattle-project at the West lately in your paper, I there-
fore have simply taken some pieces from my scrap-
book, and can myself vouch for their being authentic,
being a pioneer of six years' standing. Stock of all
kinds grazing the whole year seems marvellous to any
one at the East. When they take into consideration the
altitude above the sea-level (7500 feet), temperature
frequently twenty degrees below zero, the whole story
is in a nutshell. The grass naturally cures on the
stalk and becomes hay. Of bunch-grass there are sev-
eral varieties, — two named Tnticum strigosum, Stead.,
the best for cattle ; Stipa spaHea, Trim., often called
porcupine grass. Of all grasses which grow without
cultivation in any clime on the face of the globe, we
doubt if there is any which possesses as much nutri-
ment the year round, or upon which stock fatten
better than the bunch-grass of Wyoming. Clover,
blue-grass, and the far-famed mezquite of Texas sink
into insignificance when compared to it. This asser-
tion will not be questioned by any one acquainted with

212 APPENDIX.

its merits, or who has seen the fine beef or mutton in
our markets from June until June again.

" There are several varieties of this grass, two of
which are the most common and generally known, —
one with a blade that resembles blue-grass, and stems
which run up in a cluster and bear seed of much the
kind that blue-grass does except that it does not form
a turf, but grows in bunches, and is found in high roll-
ing bench-land, parks, and mountains. The other kind
grows more frequently upon the first bench, and may
be thus described : The blade is sharp and the heads all
turn to one side, and, from the broad boot on the seed-
stalk, it is often called flag-grass : as to the quantity to
the acre, there is little or no difference. The latter
kind is usually preferred for cattle, but the former is
preferred for sheep, yet either is very fine for both.
These grasses start forth in the early spring and grow
very rapidly ; in ordinary springs the grass is headed
out by the first of June. The height of the grass is
usually eighteen inches, yet, under favorable circum-
stances, it grows much higher. By the last of June
the heads are ripe, and, in ordinary seasons, the blades
are all nicely cured by the middle of July, and the
whole landscape is as brown as a field of grain ready
for the sickle, and would burn if set on fire. There is
no time that stock takes on fat better than in the early
autumn. The cured grass retains its nutriment all
winter, from the fact that we have no drenching rains
in the autumn to bleach it ; the light snows that come
in the early winter and melt off soon only serve to
moisten it and make it more palatable. When we

CATTLE-RAISING IN COLORADO. 213

have late summer rains and the grass remains green
until frost comes (which is generally early), it is in-
jured, and stock does not seem to do as well as when
it dries up early, as is generally the case. During the
winter the lowlands and sharp foot-hills are, for the
most part, free from snow. Usually the snow is
chased away by the winds, except that which is driven
into the thick cluster of grass and becomes bedded
among the old blades of other years. While grazing,
stock gathers up more or less snow, which serves in a
great measure as a substitute for water. When the
snow departs in the spring, stock goes to the foot-hills,
following up the receding snow, the grass which lies
covered all winter being relished best, and, besides, the
young crop starts first and grows fastest among the
sharp foot-hills. In the States young grass seems to
have a weakening effect upon stock, and here it comes
forth among the old crop, and is so well mixed that
there is scarcely any difference between the old and
new. Many have claimed that it could not induce
close pasturage, but experience and practical tests have
proved to the contrary. It is a perennial, yet, when
the root becomes killed, the seeds are so generally dis-
tributed by the winds that a barren tract will become
covered.

"WHAT ONE MAN CAN DO.

" Iliif, the Cattle-king of the Plains, now deceased, had
a range of one hundred and fifty miles long and a herd
of cattle numbering 26,000, and was called the great
Cattle-king of the Plains, and had the boss ranch in

214 APPENDIX.

this Western country. This ranch is in Northern Colo-
rado ; it begins at Julesburgh, on the Union Pacific
Railroad, and extends to Greeley, one hundred and fifty-
six miles west ; its southern boundary is the South
Platte Kiver ; its northern, the divide, rocky and bluff,
just south of the Lodge Pole Creek. It has nearly the
shape of a right-angle triangle, the right angle being at
Greeley, the base-line being the South Platte River.
The streams that flow from it are, first, the river just
mentioned, Crow Creek, and other small creeks that
take their rise in living springs in and near the bluff
just mentioned and flow in a southerly direction, and
empty into the South Platte River. It inchides bottom
and upland range, and has several camps and ranches.
The chief ranch is nearly south of Sidney, and about
forty miles from Julesburgh, At this ranch there are
horses, sheds, stables, corrals, and more than two sec-
tions of land fenced. All cattle bought by Mr. Iliff
were rebranded and turned over here. Here are the
private stock -yards, corrals, sheds, pens, and all neces-
sary conveniences for handling of cattle. It is near the
river, and of course has fine watering facilities, while
from the adjoining bottom-lands plenty of hay can be
cut for the use of the horses employed in herding. No
hay for cattle is cut. They live the entire year upon
the rich native grass upon the range, and, with the ex-
ception of a severe winter now and then, the percentage
of loss is not very great. Mr. Iliff was a thorough
cattle-man, and from his long experience had a perfect
knowledge of the business. He began in 1860, and
during the war had government contracts to fill in New

CATTLE-RAISING IN COLORADO. 215

Mexico and other frontier Territories. He supplied
most of the beef to the contractors who built the Union
Pacific Railroad, and brought immense herds from
Texas and the Indian Territory, which were driven
along the line of the Union Pacific Railroad to supply
the army of laborers. He had been engaged in the
stock business in Kansas and New Mexico, and now in
Colorado, and the present location is admirably adapted
to it if the sheep-men will only keep out. Cattle and
sheep do not do well together on the same range. Suc-
cess in either requires separation. Mr. Iliff had pur-
chased and owned 20,000 acres of the range when he
died, which of course includes the choice springs and
watering-places within its limits, and his heirs will un-
doubtedly purchase more when it comes into market.
His herd comprised more than 26,000 head of cattle, of
all ages, sizes, and conditions. The number of calves
branded on his range in 1876 were 5000 head, and his
sales of three- and four-year-olds amounted to nearly
the same number. He realized nearly $32 per head
net on the sales. At this 4000 head would bring him
in the snug income of $128,000. To take care of this
immense herd he employed from twelve to thirty men,
very few usually in the winter montlis, and the largest
number during the ' round-ups' in the spring. During
the shipping season of 1875 he had twenty-four men,
who were employed in ' cutting out' of his herd of
four-year-olds the fat three-year-olds and fat cows that
were no longer of any use for breeding purposes. While
engaged in this work the same men gathered the cows
with unbrauded ct\lves, which they put into corrals near

216 APPENDIX.

by, and after the calves were branded they were turned
out on the range again.

"The wool-shipments from the West for 1873 in
AVyoming alone were 85,077 pounds; for 1874, 215,-
242 pounds; 1875, 228,033 pounds; 1876, 333,919
pounds; 1877, 346,280 pounds; 1878, 400,000 pounds.
The cattle-cars carry twenty head per car, and there
was shipped last year by IlifiF & Co. 32,480. These
cattle yielded a net income to their owners of $30 per
head, making an aggregate sum of §974,000. The
cattle literally raised themselves; they had been on the
range from one year to another, without shelter or
hay.

"Winter grazing in Wyoming has become an estab-
lished fact. I have already taken up so much of your
valuable space I am afraid I shall be barred out, but,
in conclusion, I \yould like to add I am doing some-
thing in the stock business, — ship annually to Boston
tons of wool and round up hundreds of cows and
horses. I will also add I am very enthusiastic about
stock-growing associations. But if I get started on
this, there is no one on the range can stop me, so I will
close at once. W. J. 0."

I cannot give a more fitting close to a book like this
than by making the following quotation concerning
the wool -clip of Colorado during the past year:

In 1879, 2,000,000 head of sheep were sheared in
Colorado, the average weight of fleece being three and
a half pounds, and the average price paid 20 cents per
pound, the amount realized reaching $1,400,000 on

CATTLE-RAISING IN COLORADO. 217

wool alone. Some mutton has also been shipped out
of the State, fourteen cases having been shipped from
Jnlesburgh alone. The price of wool was much greater
last year than it was in 1878, and the advance in price
has been regular and still continues. Wool which
brought 22 cents in Colorado last spring is now selling
for 35 cents in Boston, and would, if to be had, be
worth 31 cents here now. Mr. Wright estimates that
500,000 lambs were added to the number of sheep in
the State during the year. Several thousand head of
sheep were also driven in from outside points, — Cali-
fornia contributing 45,000, which were sold, upon ar-
rival, at : lambs, $2 ; wethers, $2.50 ; ewes, $3. The
California shipments of sheep are not especially popu-
lar. They come in late in the season, and generally
with the scab, so that they cannot be cured before cold
weather sets in, thus causing them to lose to their pur-
chasers considerable quantities of wool ; hence the first
clip is not so good, though after that time they shear
more heavily than Colorado breeds.

19

INDEX.

Alben, Dr. Charles, opinion on the best cattle-climate
Big Horn, temperature of the valley of . . .

Bkadley, Gen. L. P., opinion on the best grazing grounds 82
Bbush, J. L., operations in cattle ....

Cameron, Gen. E. C, operations in cattle

opinion on stock-grasses of Colorado
Campbell, Gov., opinion as to the best grazing-grounds
Capital, estimated profits on .... 52,

associated in the cattle business ....
Cattle-Raising, profits in Nebraska ....

profits of R. C. Keith

profits of Thos. Lonergan

Cattle, Texas, number brought North yearly .
Chaffee, Senator, stock in Colorado ....
Chaves, Hon. J. Francisco, operations in sheep
Clark, Willard, operations in sheep ....

Climate, best cattle- 76, 77, 78,

Colorado, stock in

stock-grasses of

wool clip of
CoNKLiNG, Hon. Eoscoe, opinion about the Plains
Cook, C. "W., operations in sheep
Corey, Dr., opinion as to best cattle-climate

CoTvs in the United States

Ckeighton, Edward, opinion as to the best grazing-grounds
CuRLEY, Edward, on the climate of the Plains

Dairy-Farmers, operations of

dairy and stock-ranch combined ....

219

76
85

43

43

116

88

46,60

56

85

86

89

42

128

122

112

79,80

128

116

217

134

175

77

151

86

111

158

156

220

INDEX.

Dairying in the United States
trans-Missouri country for
Durham bulls and calves .

Galen, H. F., opinion on Montana as a sheep country
Goats, Angora, best land for ....

Grazing country, the best

Grinnell, Hon. J. B., sheep on the prairies

81, 82

86,

Hooper, H. W., Utah as a stock country .
Horses, blooded

raising ........

grazing ........

Iliff, J. W., opinion on the best cattle-climate

Keith, R. C, profits of his ranch

Kelley, Hon. W. D., opinion about the Plains

Kingman, Judge, operations in sheep

Latham, Dr., opinion on the best cattle-climate

trans-Missouri country for dairying
Lawrence, Hon. W., his sheep-ranch
Letter from One who Knows .
Lonergan, Thos., profits on cattle-raising

Major, Alexander, opinion on the best cattle-climate
McCooK, Gen., opinion on the best grazing-grounds
Merriman, a. M., operations in sheep
Money, amount to be made
Montana, its advantages

live-stock owners in

for live stock

blooded stock-farms in

inhabitants of
More, James A., opinion on the best cattle-climate
Myers, Gen. Wm., opinion as to the best grazing-grounds

Nebraska, profits of cattle-raising in

Plains, the, rainfall on
snowfall on .

INDEX. 221

PAGE

Plains, the, climate of . . . ... Ill

opinion on 133, 134, 137

Platte River, ranches along ...... 28

Plattes, herd-owners on the 80

PoiNDEXTER & Orr, bloodcd herd 177

Post, E. M., operations in sheep 122

Prairie cattle, habits of 29

Eainfall on the Plains 27

Reynolds, Gen., explorations on the Yellowstone . . 81

Rdmsey, H. B., operations in sheep 112

Sedman & McGreqory, blooded herd .... 182

Sheep fields of the world 93

growing countries 96

lands in the West 97

ranch, a natural ........ 99

best pasture-lands for 106

owners, principal in the "West 109

operations in . 112, 114, 122, 123, 127, 128, 137, 175

scab in, antidote for ....... 115

ranch, requirements of a good ..... 119

raising, profits in 121

Sherwood, Judge D. W., communication on a joint-stock

farm 199

Snowfall on the Plains 27

Street, Alex., opinion on the best grazing-grounds . . 87

Stock, blooded 177, 182, 188

Taylor, Bayard, opinion on the "West .... 98

Texas cattle, number brought North every year . . 42

lands of 73

calves born yearly in 74

great ranches in 74

cattle-drivers 75

Utah as a stock country 129

Vegetables, big 26

19*

222

INDEX.

West, the, sheep-lands in .

questions about

growth of . . .

great grazing-lands of .
"Western pasture-lands, extent of
Wool in the United States .

in its relation to progress

clip of Colorado
Woollens used west of the Mississippi
Wyoming Territory, cattle-men of

PAOE

97
15
16
24

103
94
95

217
67
32

Yellowstone, explorations of, by Gen. Keynolds
advantages of as a grazing-ground

81
82

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035537

SF 51 B 86 1881

University of British Columbia Library

DUE DATE

IIIN 1 ') 1966

v) U I ' X O I*-* WW

.'AN 2 7 1967

/. ;:: 6 Htiry

rrp 1 7 iqR7

FORM 3IO