The Sunday Oregonian., August 02, 1908, Magazine Section, Page 5, Image 47

TIIE SUXDAT OREGOXIAX. PORTLAND, AUGUST 2, I90S.
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OCCASIONED DV THE RAPID STTLENSiT OF
BT ARTHUR CHAPMAN.
OVETELN MEN'T experts tn the 'West
I I ere bending every energy to dlscov-
er some means thereby the supply
of beef and mutton can be made to keep
pace with the Increased demand for these
table necessities, but Just at present the
outlook is anything but favorable for
rapid solution of the problem.
With beef at Its highest point in 20
years, and with the Western range
stocked to Its limit, and with a steady
decrease In the available supply of sheep
every year, the United States Government
finds itself face to face with a question
that seems likely to puzzle the experts
for years to come. Just at present the
country is in the position of a man who
is eating his stores of food, and is rais
ing less than he consumes. Sheep have
shown a steady decrease for several
years, and. while the supply of cattle is
not actually decreasing, .it is recognized
that under present conditions it is almost
hopeless to attempt to Increase It, to
keep pace with the growing demand for
beef.
This Summer the shortage of beef, and
the consequent high price, is the result
of a peculiar combination of circum
stances. Not enough cattle were corn-
fed In the Middle Western States. Usually
the supply of corn-fed cattle Is sufficient
to tide the meat-eating public over the
Summer, but when a sudden demand
went forth for more corn-fed steers, none
were to be had. In desperation, the pack
ers have been calling upon the cattle
raisers of the Far West to supply grass
fed cattle, but this is Impossible, be
cause the grass-fed animals will not be
In good 'condition for several weeks, as
they have Just begun to fatten, after
their hard Winter on the open range.
Consequently the price of beef has
soared, and is likely to go still higher
before the next supply of corn-fed beef
from the Middle Western States relieves
the tension.
Natural conditions have combined to
make America the greatest cattle coun
try in the world. The high plains country
west of the Missouri River Is an Ideal
cattle range. In early days this plains
country was covered with the succulent,
curllntf buffalo grass, which sun dries and
cures on the stalk, making the greatest
natural food for cattle In the world.
Great herds of cattle were enabled to
live through the hardest Winters, simply
by pawing through the snow and existing
on the buffalo grass. Then, in the Fall,
after being put in fair condition on the
new growth of grass, the cattle were
shipped to the corn feeding centers In
the Middle West, where a few weeks of
corn diet put them in prime condition for
the market.
If these conditions could be maintained,
there would be no beef problem. It would
all be delightfully simple, just as it has
been in the past. But the rapid settle
ment of the West has changed the as
pect of everything. There are few great
stretches of open range' left. Settlers
have homesteaded most of the available
land along the water courses, and have
even "squatted" on the semi-arid plains,
where "dry farming" Is successfully
practiced. The great herds have van-
"jw ( win"
; ' -
lshed, and the cattle baron lias had his
day. While there are about as many
cattle as ever In the West, the holdings
are for the most part split up among the
small ranchers.
With the division of the great cattle
ranges has come the problem of feed
for the herds. The buffalo grasri must be
replaced by a food containing more pro-
teld. and capable of supporting a great
er number of cattle per acre. To dis
cover some such substitute, the Depart
ment of Agriculture will send one of its
experts abroad, where- climatic and soil
conditions are similar to those in th
high plains country of the West, and
much will depend upon the result of his
Investigations.
Not only has the Government felt
called upon to solve the problem of up
plying a new kind of feed so the plains
will support more cattle, but tho for
estry department Is bending Its energies
to utilize all the available grazing spare
on the forest reserves. There are mil
lions of acres of grazing land in the (or
est reserves, which are leased to cattle
men and sheepmen. The latter graze
their flocks above timber line during the
Summer months, where there Is a gen
erous supply of thick, rich grass a food
that has made the flesh of mduntaln
sheep so sweet and nutritious. Inas
much as the Winter range of the sheep
men has been greatly restricted owing
to homesteading, the owners of the great
flocks are "Winter feeding" that is, the
sheep are kept in corrals during the
Winter months and fed allalfa until it
Is time to turn them out on the Summer
ranges. Kven this, however. Is not solv
ing the problem of increasing the visible
supply of sheep. For several years the
total number of sheep in the country
has been decreasing. The Nation is mak
ing steady Inroads on its supply of mut
ton, and in a few years this constant
drain is certain to send the price of this
food even higher than beef is today. If
Government experts find a new kind of
range fodder that will support greater
numbers of sheep, as well as cattle, the
mutton problem will be answered, but at
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PEH -AT TUB DENVER vSTOCKYARDS.
Or TliE. .PRESENT.
JEKErtTFTT) TAV
HO KEEP cattle: FROM
present the conditions are rapidly drift
ing from bad to worse.
The changes in the cattle business have
utterly revolutionized that great industry
in the last score of years.' The old-time
cattle herds were mostly "long horns,"
running mostly to horns, hide and bone,
and difficult to fatten. Today tho range
cattle are for the most part heavf, beefy
animals, showing good blood In every line
and hue. Instead of letting their cattle
run unprotected on the range, and figur
ing on an annual loss of from 10 to 20
per cent, owing to exposure. Western cat
tlemen -now spend thousands of dollars
for sheds and other means of protection.
Also the great cattle outfits make a busi
ness of putting up hundreds of tons of
alfalfa hay every Summer. This hay Is
fed to the cattle during the late months
of Winter, and hay-fed steers come to
market In . June and July looking sleek
and heavy. It Is estimated that the in
creased price secured for Winter-fed cat-
tle more than pays for the cost of put
ting up hav. The cowboy who works for
a great cattle outfit today must help with
the having when the Spring roundup Is
over. The olcltime cowboy scorned such
employment, and there is a story current
In the West about an employer who hand
ed one of his cowpunchers a pitchfork and
told him to get busy putting In altalfa.
The cowbov looked the pitchfork over
very carefully and then handed it back,
saying: "Mister, that is too complicated
a piece of machinery for me to run."
The cow outfits that lease portions of
the forest reserves must obey the strictest
rules about overstocking the range. It is
recognized that overstocking the range
has caused much' hardship and loss In the
cattle business, and the Government does
not propose to follow In the footsteps of
the cattlemen who tried to run too many
cattle on a limited area. At the same time
the Government does an It can to assist
those who enjoy leasing privileges. On
some reserves drift fences have been put
up by forest rangers, to keep the . live
stock from . wandering oft the grazing
ground. Eventually places for Winter
shelter will be erected, and the forest re
serves will be the greatest sources of
the Nation's beef supply.
When the rapidly changing condition?
in the West have been met by the Gov.
eminent and bv individual cattle-raisers,
it Is believed that the era of high prices
of beef will vanish. Just at present the
aim is to keep the supply of beef equal
to the increased demand, owing to the
tremendous growth of the Nation and the
expanding foreign market. The small
rancher, with the herd of less than 100
cattle, will winter feed his stock with al
falfa. He will constantly improve his
stock until one average steer will out
weigh two of the old "long horns." His
hay-fed cattle will require little corn feed
ing to be put In prime condition for mar
ket. Every foot of open range, on the
forest reserves or on public lands, will be
utilized under lease. Sheepmen and cattle
men will come to an understanding, and
there will be no more disastrous wars ba
tween those rival Interests. The rango
will be apportioned between each side,
and not an acre of it will be overstocked.
Under such conditions the supply will al
ways prove adequate to the demand, even
when the population of this country Is
quadrupled, and America will never have
to become a non-meat eating Nation, lik
many foreign countries.
Denver, Colo., July 15.
HP
res is:
Old Nan Wiggins relates torilungtwenturesinthe
Arr run TnAiMKi a x ir tx r rT a t riirT-iKT- ta rc 75Ph
get caught. As soon as the trap closed
on a beaver the animal would dive Into
deep water and drown, owing to tho
weight of the trap. Every man In the
outfit was a skilled trapper. He had to
be to work with Carson. We gave Car
son 10 per cent of our proceeds and he
attended to marketing the fur for us.
getting much more than we could have
done individually. He was an absolute
ly square man, the soul of honor, and
the fVapper who got in with the Carson
outfit thought his fortune was made. As
a matter of fact we trappers made little,
however. About $500 a season was our
average, though one season in Montana
I made $1000.
"We had a regular course of procedure,
which we followed for years. First, in
the Fall of the year, we would hire out
Hf I'm the last of the trap-
Y Dr- Alt tne r8 ot them have
gone Chamberlain. Jim Beck
wourth. Tobln, Baker, and the greatest
of them all Kit Carson."
Regret saddened the features of Oliver
P. Wiggins, the last of the great pioneers.
as he spoke of his beloved chieftain. Kit
Carson, under whom he became a full-
fledged trapper shortly after his arrival
tn the Rocky Mountain country In 1S38,
and with whom he spent many adven
turous years In the Far West.
Mr. Wiggins lives In Denver, and but
for a sudden attack of blindness which
came on him a few months ago. would
give little Indication of the life of hard
ship he has lived the greater part of his
65 years. His memory Is clear, especially
regarding dates and occurrences of long
ago, and he talks fluently and Inter
estlngly of Jim Brldger. Kit Carson, Jim
Beekwourth, Jim Baker and other great
pathfinders and trappers with whom his
lot was cast when the Rocky Mountain
country was an unmapped wilderness.
Kit Carson, with whom he trapped and
hurled and fought Indians for many
yrsrs Is Mr. Wiggins" Idol, and a copy
of an oil painting of Carson la his most
prized possession
"I came West, that Is. to th Rocky
Mountain country, in 183S.'-' said Mr. Wig
gins. "I was born in 1823, near Buffalo,
and always loved outdoor life. I hunted
and trapped with the Tonawanda In
dians, and could paddle a canoe with
the best of them, and was a dead shot
with the rifle as soon as I could put a
weapon to my shoulder. My father went
to the Hudson Bay country as' a sur
geon when I was' 12, and that settled it
with me nothing but th wild life of the
frontier would do. So I ran away from
home next year and made my way to
Fort Dearborn, on the site of Chicago.
Here X paddled the canoe for the com
mandant for three months while be shot
ducks. Finally I got a chance to get
through to St. Louis. My uncle ran a
ferry at St. Louis and I worked awhile
for him. This ferry property eventually
became worth many trillions, but I was
not looking out for business oppor
tunities. I wanted to get to that magic
land, the mountains and plains of the
Far West.
"St. Louis was the great fur trading
center in those days. Pretty soon I heard
that a party of trappers was about ready
to start. The trapping parties would go
by boat to Independence and then over
the Santa Fe trail for the West. I told
my uncle I wanted to go home, but he
suspected that I intended to go with the
trappers, and would not give me any
money. Incidentally he put a big. Irish
man to guard me. The Irishman slept
on the outside of the bed and I slept
against the wall. But on the night the
trapping party was to start my guard
was OTUivk and went to sleep early.
crept away from him and dashed aboard
the boat Just as the trappers were putting
out.
"After leaving Independence with the
wagon train I was assigned to work
herding cattle ror the wagon boss. I
kept hearing stories about Kit Carson
and determined to Joia him. Carsons
headquarters were at Taos. New Mexico,
and when we reached the branch trail to
Taos I hinted that I wanted my money.
But the wagon boss said I would be paid
when we reached Santa Fe. the western
terminus of the trail. 9r I 1ft out across
the prairie without waiting for mv pay,
and showed up in Taos tn a few days and
asked Kit Carson for a Job. I was put at
work herding cattle, but pretty soon Car
son saw I was an expert with the rifle,
and could do good work trapping, so he
took a personal interest in me and began
to teach me trapping lore. At 17 years I
was a full-fledged trapper, and went out
annually with Carson's trapping parties.
How Carson's Outfit Worked.
There were 4 trappers making up the
Carson outfit About half went out un
der Kit and half under a trapper named
Chamberlain. tTeually I went with Cham
berlain's party. Beaver formed the main
part of our catch. Each trapper had 20
No. 3 double spring traps. These traps
would hold anything, even to a bear. We
would plant the traps along the edge of
a stream, about four Inches under the
water. The little beaver would swim
over the trap and the big ones would ,
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I OLIVER, P. WIGGINS, M
FBOM MS MOST
AlrfEMTJC PORTRAIT.
r possessou or
OLIVER f. WIGGINS
to the soldiers at the various forts in thM
West, killing game. We would supply
the forts with game until the latter part
of January, when we would gather at
Taos and sart out on our trapping cam
paign. We would trap until the first of
May. Then we would take a month to
get home, when we would get our furs
arid accountrement ready and travel over
land to St. Joe, where we would dispose
of our pelts to old man Roubldeaux.
who owned the only house on the site of
St. Joe.' He would take the pelts to St.
Louis, where he would dispose of them
to the agents of the Montreal fur houses,
who were buying for the London market.
The trapper averaged about $8 apiece for
beaver skins.
"After selling our beaver skins, we
would guard wagon trains on the Santa
Fe trail and, as that historical highway
was almost constantly infested with.
Indians, we had much fighting to do.
Some of the most desperate Indian con
flicts in Western history were fought on
the Santa Fe trail, and we men of Car
son's command were mixed In many of
them. On one occasion, when we were
at Taos. Just after our trapping cam
paign, preparing to go to St. Joe, we
got word that a wagon train was bc
plcged by Kiowa Indians, not a great
distance from Taos. There were about
S50 Indians, but the men In charge of
the train had put up a good tight and.
after getting their wagons parked and
cattlo corraled. had stood off the Indians
all day. At night a man got through and
came to us with word of the plight of
the train. We were In the saddle at 1
once and, headed by Carson, were soon
on the scene of the fight. There wene
4t of us, both trapping parties being rep
resented in full strength. We were
armed with a new gun an eight-shot af
fair, which was about the first repeating
weapon to be used on the frontier. In
addition we had new model Colt's re
volver?. So we felt capable of carina; for
all the Indians In the Southwest.
"It was customary for the Indiana to
wait until the white men had fired a
volley and then charge so quickly that
reloading was impossible. The Indians
who were besieging the wagon train pur
sued these tactics when we same up. We
waited until they had come close to us,
and then we opened up on them with
the new weapons. There never was such
a surprised lot of Indians In the world.
We had orders to get the horses first.
As fast as a horse would fall the rider
would hop up behind another mounted j
Indian. But the horses began falling so
fast that pretty soon many of the
Indians were afoot. The others tried to
get away, two or three to a horse, but
of course we overtook them easily. We
had used up about all our'rifle ammuni
tion -on the horses, and we cut loose on
the Indians with the heavy revolvers.
Not over 60 of that band of Indians got
away. We pursued the stragglers four
or five miles and there were dead Indians
all the way. We found the wagon train
In pretty bad shape. A few hours mors
and the brave men would have been
overcome, but, with our help, they were
sent on their way rejoicing.
'The Klowas made a- lot of trouble
along the old trail, and one never knew
when they were going to break out. On
one occasion, when there had been a long
spell of peace, some visitors of Kit Car
son's started home for Missouri. There
were several men and three women and
a girl In the party that left Taos. They
stopped at the trail and camped. Intend
ing to Join the first wagon train that
came along, bound east. The men were
out hunting deer one day, when about 6"
Klowas swept down on the camp and
ran away with the womn and the girl.
The men hurrrled to Taos with their
story, and Kit Carson was about as near
wild a.- I ever xaw him. He got some
of us trappers together and we hit the
high places along that Indian trail. We
followed it for about 150 miles east,
across rough country,
"At one spot in the trail I found a pair
of woman's shoes. I knew what that
meant. One of the captives had tiled
to get away and the Indians had caught
her and thrown her shoes away, know
ing it would be Impossible for her to es
cape barefooted in that country of prlrk
ly pears. Some- distance farther on we
surprised the camp. The Indians had no
idea we would make such a quick pur-
,.sult. We opened fire and killed several
of them, and succeeded in getting the cap
tives. We found that the women had not
been harmed, and one of them said she
had tried to get away and had succeeded
In getting off several miles but had been '
recaptured and her shoes had been taken
from her. The women had been put In
charge of the medicine man. who treated
them kindly. Several years afterward I
learned through some Klowas that fh
Indians had Intended to sell the white
women to other tribes, and had counted on
getting many ponies and much ammuni
tion for the paleface squaws."
Mr. Wiggins knew all the noted charac
ters of early frontier days. He came
West the same year Jim Baker, the
famous trapper, penetrated the Rocky
Mountain region. He knew Jim Bridger.
one of the most famous pathfinders of
the West the man who first gazed on
Great Salt Lake and who was one of the
first to penetrate the region now em
braced In Yellowstone National Park. Jim
Beekwourth. for several years chief of
the Crow Indians, was one of Mr. Wig
gins' fellow trappers. ,
"Beekwourth was one of the most pe
culiar characters the West ever knew,"
said Mr. Wiggins. "He was a mulatto,
and on account of his dark skin the
Crows took a great fancy to him. Indeed
It is said that they supposed him to be
the son of a Crow chief who had been
abducted by other Indians. But this I
never believed. Beekwourth was a great
trapper and a brave man, as he proved
In many a fight with Indians. On one
Concluded on Pegs TO