March, 1882.
THE WEST SHORE.
45
ton from native pastures. Their stock
J has been improved and graded up with
I the best breeds of the Western and
i Eastern States. Besides this fact, the
natural grasses and the mild climate of
this interior region contain elements,
I which increase the sure health of ani-
m.iln f CiY a t
n -r iimii rn Will.. ni.'VVC
, that of the same class of animals in the
moister regions west of the Cascade
Mountains. ..This is the testimony of
butchers and stock buyers and drivers.
; It is noticed by travelers on the boats
and cars, on which stock is shipped to
' market. Brought up on a farm, and
I accustomed to the care of all kinds of
; stock during earliest boyhood in Massa
chusetts and in Vermont, I never fail to
I notice and admire the large and per
; fectly formed sheep, and the tall, long
bodied y well rounded cattle, and horses,
f also, of Eastern Oregon and Washing
f ton.
' Raised on those high prairies and
hills, seldom fed in yards, never housed,
nourished on those native grasses, thev
I attain 'a perfectness of form, and large
; ness of bone and muscle, and a degree
i of strength, vigor and nerve, rarely
.. I ' 11
; ecu miu never exceeuea ay animais or
the Ramp rlflua ntA hrn1 in anv ntfiAr
locality, east or west from the Atlantic
to the Pacific. The cattle from Texas,
Colorado and Wyoming, do not equal
Miose from Oregon -and Washington.
They have for six years past attracted
Eastern buyers, and in 1876 they began
to appear in the Chicago market. A
gentleman called my attention to the
first lot of seven car loads, which stopped
for food at ; Geneseo, Illinois, in 1876.
I Ie was surprised at their length, heighth
and size, and beauty of form. He had
been a farmer, and stock raiser in Illi
nois' forty years, but had seen no such
cattle from, natural pastures. A few
days later, January 1st, 1877, a Chicago
j. stock buyer was interviewed on the C.
k R. I. K. R. respecting the market for
'. such cattle. His prompt reply wan:
"They are the finest and largest we
; have ever received from pasture lands
west of the Mississippi. Those four
year old steers averaged 1400 lbs. each
, on toot. They will always command
the highest price of pasture fed cattle.
' They now sell quick at five cents per
pound gross, while other droves com
mand only 4 and 4. We shall want
all that your country, though o far
; away, can supply." ,
Two years ago, the President of the
Stock , Growers' Association of Iowa,
resident at Council Bluffs, was in Prine
ville, Oregon, with three other stock
buyers for Enstern and for California
markets. He reported that 50,000 head
would be bought, during 1S80, for the
Chicago maikcU. Tliey weie lo be
driven to Wyoming and Nebraska; to
be wintered and fed and assorted for
their several markets the two following
years. The larger animals would be
fattened to weigh 1,600 to 1,800 lbs.,
and would be sent to England. Bought
inOregon at $20 each for three-year olds,
they would command in Liverpool or
London $100, or more. Withfairsuc
cess in driving, and mild winters on
the route, the purchasers expected a
large per cent, on their investment
But the fierce winds and intense cold
of the winter of 1881-2 and the destruc
tion of stock in Nebraska doubtless re
duced their margins of profit and pos
sibly their principal.
TWO CHECKS UPON MHHE STOCK
RANGES,
The business of raising herds and
flocks upon natural pastures grew rap
idly. It not only enlisted farmers but
invited large speculators. Larger bands
were bought and turned out upon those
high plains. The first cost was the
chief expense. The pay of a few herd
ers and shepherds was a small item.
Stock multiplied so fast that the loss of
ten or twenty per cent., by a hard win
ter, was more than replaced two and
three-fold by the increase of the eighty
per cent, saved. The result has been
to rapidly overstock the ranges and eat
them out. Lands, ten years ago cov
ered with bunch grass eighteen inches
and two feet high, are now almost bare
of grass, except a few clumps under the
dense scraggy sage brush. Flocks have
followed the herds and cleaned many
hills even down to the roots, leaving
dusty barrens instead of green pastures.
As a consequence, large stock raisers
have sought new and distant ranges,
scores and hundreds of miles from their
first location. The whole upper coun
try has been thus explored, tested and
overrun by larger and larger herds and
flocks, nil of which is destined to be
eaten out, and abandoned for newer
and still more distant region.
AN EVIL.
To overstock a pasture is to destroy
its usefulness. Grass must have time to
grow and go to seed in order to repro
duce itself. If eaten off and kept bare
it becomes dusty and subject to be blown
away by winds, or to become hard
baked in summer and useless. Herb
age condenses the invisible vapors and
nourishes itself. Barren hills and plaint
condense very little moisture. The
waste of grass becomes the cause of the
loss of water supply in the interior.
The stock raiser suffers from his own
eagerness to overstock the ranges, and
make his money in a few years. The
process kills the enterprise. Stock
raising in that way is checked.
Hard winters, deep snows and kevere
cold, comes without forewarning, and
find many men without fced for their .
large droves, and without power to
care for them. The result is that thou
sands of cattle and sheep starve or freeze
to death. These disasters close the ac
counts and the business of the Improv
ident often with a heavy balance on the
wrong side of the ledger. The herds
and flocks finally concentrate in the
hands of few more prudent owners.
The sales for Western and Eastern mar
kets fall off for lack of supplies, and all
careful observers tee the beginning of
the end of this style of stock raising.
A gentleman, now in it, in southeastern
Oregon, says, that two or three years
more will finish it. The predictions of
two years ago arc in quick process of
fulfillment.
STOCK FARMS.
Instead of buying up farms for stock
ranges, as some have done, the wiser
course is to fence as large areas of farms
and pastures as will be needed for 11
given amount and variety of stock.
Cultivate enough to raise an abundant
food supply for winters, and change
pastures frequently and give time for
the growth of natural grasses. Seed
fields down with varieties of cereals and
grasses. Make a single acre by good
ploughing and tilling give the product
of five acres in the natural state. Carry
the product of that one acre, by deep
and finest tillage and the use of fertil
izers, up to six hundred and even a
thousand per cent, above its product in
the natural condition. Tho cost of la
bor will not equal a fourth part of the
gain. Stock will be more easily cared
for in home pastures and they will
thrive better, and command higher pri
ces and quicker salei. Farmers who
provide for their stock at home, will
find that their stock will not fail to pro
vide for them. Stock farms will join
and neighborhoods will be formed, and
their united product of flocks and herds
will far exceed in number and value all
the results of stock ranges on lutnrul
postures.
A few days since I received a letter
from an Illinois farmer, well endorsed,
and asking Information about this coun
try and closing with this statement:
"I have some money. I wish to buy
land enough to keep stock and raise
food for them." His plan is correct in
a scientific and in a busines view. The
adequate food supply of stock i the
first essential factor in the business, and
without it the business cannot be a suc
cess. But the mere stock farm is not
the model farm of Fjwtern Oregon and
Washington in the future.
(To t continued. )