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Show "DRY FARM" CATTLE Increased Shipments Have Depleted De-pleted Herds and Flocks. In Future Less of Our Eeef and Mutton Mut-ton Will Be Produced on Free Range Pastures of West and Land Devoted to Farming. During the summer and fall months of 1910 the number of western cattle and sheep received at the important live stock markets has been considerably consider-ably larger than number received at the same markets during the corresponding corre-sponding months of 1909. The following follow-ing table, furnished by the bureau of statistics of the United States department depart-ment of Agriculture, shows the total shipment of cattle and sheep into Chicago Chi-cago during June, July, August, September Sep-tember and October of 1909 and of 1910. Cattle. Sheep. wo. into. twin. imo. June 1S0.4 27.519 301,021 S2t',414 July 191.907 234.303 3i'.2,C0S 412. 2S3 August 2::3 SIS 4in.S49 BS9.S2S Boptember 27S.422 23.313 6M.656 OS.iGa October 292.903 330,004 697,177 89i,519 From the figures given above, It might appear to the reader that the production of cattle and sheep on the western ranges is on the increase. What the table actually does indicate, however, is that the increased numbers num-bers of stock sent to. market, have depleted de-pleted the numbers of cattle and sheep in the herds and the lambs left on the range. For some time there have been several factors operating gradually to decrease the numbers of cattle in the west. In some places, where thousands of cattle used to graze, sheepmen have brought In their bands of sheep and crowded the cattle cat-tle out. Another cause, which is responsible re-sponsible for the decrease of both cattle cat-tle and sheep, Is the recent interest In "dry land" farming, and the new homestead law which grants to homesteaders home-steaders in the semi-arid region, 320 acres, Instead of 1G0 acres. In one section of northern Montana with which the writer ia quite familiar, within the last two years several hundreds hun-dreds of homesteaders have taken up land, so that at the present time many thousand acres of the best portion of the range. has been fenced In for farming farm-ing purposes, says a writer in the Rural New Yorker. Some of these new homesteads were fenced In as early as 1909. The pasture that year, however, was unusually good, so that the effect of the reduced acreage was not noticed very much. By 1910. not only were there many more Homesteads Home-steads fenced In, but also the season was an exceptionally dry one throughout through-out the west, and the growth of grass was correspondingly short. Owing to the large numbers of stock on the range that has been reduced in area, and to the unusually dry season, by the time late summer had arrived the range had already been grazed off short, and but comparatively little grass was left for fall and winter. Consequently, in order to winter the stock it would be necessary to purchase pur-chase and feed unsually large quantities quanti-ties of hay. In response to this demand, de-mand, the price of hay soared. In localities lo-calities where, two years ago $4.50 to $G was considered a fair price for alfalfa hay In the stack, the ranchers were asking from $10 to $12 In the early fall months of 1910, and some were holding for even higher price. The price of good mixed hay or of Bluejoint or Timothy hay, was even higher than for alfalfa hay. To purchase pur-chase the hay that would be necessary to carry the stock through the winter, at existing prices, would In many cases mean that the stock would "eat their heads off" before spring. Under these conditions the only thing which many of the cattle and sheep owners could do was to sell off stocK wnicn unaei ordinary conditions would have been wintered over. This Is the reason why so many more western cattle and sheep have been received at Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha, and other largo markets, in 1910 than in 1909. There will be less cattle and sheep on the ranges next spring than for a considerable number of years previously. previ-ously. And in view of the conditions which have been stated in the preceding pre-ceding paragraphs, it does not appear likely that the herds and flocks will again be Increased to what have been , the normal numbers In recent yenrs. If "dry-land" farming can be successfully success-fully carried on, it is probable that considerable more land that is now unfenced will sooner or later be fenced in for grain farming. If this be true, it would appear that In the future fu-ture less of our beef and mutton will be produced on the free range pastures pas-tures of the west, and therefore more will have to be produced on farms throughout the United States. |