History of Colorado; Volume I, Part 57

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 954

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EARLY STOCK-RAISING METHODS

Prof. J. E. Payne, in an illuminating bulletin written for the Colorado State Agricultural College, thus describes the early stock-growing methods:

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HISTORY OF COLORADO

"Cautiously at first, and recklessly afterwards, men went into the cattle busi- ness, until in the 'Sos the tally books of the various outfits whose cattle ranged eastern Colorado summed up nearly half a million head. The most of these cattle were owned by large outfits, supporting high-salaried officers and employing super- intendents and foremen to do the real work. These large companies took posses- sion of the open water along the streams and soon it became an unwritten law among them to allow each ten miles of open water and the valley adjoining it, and from the stream half way to the nearest open water on another stream or in an- other locality. It was the custom then to allow the cowboys to run their own cat- tle with those of the company. The care consisted usually in rounding up, count- ing what could be found, branding the calves, and selecting animals to be sent to market. '

"For some time all the range was entirely open and cattle whose owners lived on the South Platte might drift to the Big Sandy, or possibly as far as the Arkansas River. Under this system it was impossible to improve the range stock, so in the '8os the large companies began to fence large pastures and use pure bred bulls of the beef breeds. The pasture method was quite economical as the only hands needed were enough to ride the fences to see that they were kept in repair and do a little extra work around the home, ranches.

"Following this era came a wave of settlement. As all the country was fenced as cow pastures, the people had to settle in the pasture claimed by some- one. During this era of claim-taking the cowboys of the different outfits, after finding it impossible to bluff the settlers out of the country, filed in many cases on the land containing the open water of the streams, leaving the smooth upland for the settlers who came to farm.

"This wave of settlement came just after the hard winter of 1885-86 had destroyed fully one-half of the cattle on the plains and had caused many owners of cattle to be discouraged and ready to quit business.

"The reports of special agents of the general land office made in 1884 showed that 4,431,980 acres of the public lands had been unlawfully fenced in for the raising of range cattle. In February, 1885, Congress by enactment forbade the unlawful occupancy of the public lands and authorized the President 'to take such measures as may be necessary in order to remove or destroy any such in- closure and to employ civil or military force for that purpose.'

"President Cleveland acted promptly on the suggestion and the settler scored a victory.

"All this, with the crowding of settlement and the losses from the storms dur- ing 1885-86, caused the majority of the large companies to go out of business and be succeeded by men with smaller herds.

"Haste of these men in getting out of the cattle business probably helped to make the period of low prices experienced in 1889-93. During these years cat- tle were considered very poor property; yet those who stayed in the business found themselves on the top wave of prosperity a few years later when ordinary calves sold for $15 and $20 per head at five months old. But the old way of raising cattle by turning them loose and leaving them without further attention except at round-up time, had passed.

"The winter of 1902-03 was the hardest since 1885-86. Old-timers say that the reason the losses were not greater then was that the cattle were kept closer Vol. 1-38

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home and owners were able to get their cattle in and feed them. Some who at- tempted to winter without feed lost nearly all they had. Some fed so much that the cost of the feed was more than the value of the cattle. The owners of cattle are now compelled by public sentiment to feed so as to keep their stock from starving and they did this in 1902-03. If they had not the losses would have been 75 per cent of all cattle on the Plains instead of probably less than 20 per cent as it was.

"The settlers came to the country to farm and settled so thickly that they left no range for stock. After the crop failures in 1903-04, settlement was thinned so much in many communities that there was room for the remaining settlers to pasture as many cattle as they wished. From that time settlers began to gather herds about them until now the country is again almost as much overstocked by the small herds as it was before by the large holdings."

GOVERNMENT REGULATION OF GRAZING

During the administration of President Roosevelt the Public Lands Commis- sion, consisting of W. A. Richards, F. H. Newell and Gifford Pinchot, took up the question of grazing rights. This investigation was the result largely of the frequent collisions between sheepmen and cattlemen, and the incursions into each others' domain. The killing of thousands of sheep, the murder of innocent herd- ers, the equally brutal retaliatory measures, finally brought the Government to a determination to solve this great problem of the west. In 1903, the year of the investigation, the commission in its report states that "there are more than 300,000,000 acres whose chief value will always be for grazing."

"At present," the commission says, "the vacant public lands are theoretically open commons, free to all citizens. This general lack of control in the use of public grazing lands has resulted naturally and inevitably in overgrazing and the ruin of millions of acres of otherwise valuable grazing territory. Lands, use- ful for grazing are losing their only capacity for productiveness as of course they must when no legal control is exercised."

In August, 1904, the commission conferred with the National Live Stock As- sociation in Denver. This meeting was attended by the leaders of agriculture and by representative stockmen from all the grazing land states and territories. The commission then recommended that suitable authority be given to the President to set aside by proclamation certain grazing districts or reserves. To the Secre- tary of Agriculture should be given the right to classify and appraise the grazing value of these lands, and to collect moderate fees for grazing permits.

With some modifications this policy is now being carried out, the public lands having been carefully classified and valued in the past few years.

Under the Federal grazing laws the Colorado area of national forests is care- fully limited as to number of cattle or sheep to be grazed. In the Arapahoe For- est reserve, which comprises 636,899 acres, the number of cattle and horses per- mitted to graze is 12,600, and of sheep 106,500. The Rio Grande reserve, which totals 1,137,067 acres, permits the grazing of 266,000 sheep and 23,400 cattle and horses. The White River reserve leases grazing areas for 40,000 cattle and horses and 220,000 sheep. The Government grazing areas in Colorado permit the

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grazing of about 400,000 cattle and horses and approximately 1,200,000 sheep and goats.

The yearly rates for grazing cattle is 54 cents, for horses, 67 cents, for sheep and goats, 131/2 cents.

The Federal Government states that the ranges of the country are now sup- porting over 1,750,000 cattle and 7,850,000 sheep, exclusive of calves and lambs. It is estimated that in the next decade this will be increased by 10 per cent.

The years 1915 and 1916 witnessed a great stride forward in live stock breed- ing. In 1916 dairy production in the state increased 37 per cent, and that meant the shipping in of a large number of dairy cows and high-class bulls. The grade dairy cows went chiefly to the Arkansas Valley, Carbondale and Rifle districts.

The interest in beef cattle was evidenced by the sale in 1916 at the Western Live Stock Show of a Hereford bull for $5,000. A Shorthorn bull was bought for $6,600 in December, 1916, for Steamboat Springs.

THE PASSING OF THE LAST GREAT HERD

The Prairie Cattle Company was the last of the big range cattle raisers to go out of business. This was in 1916 when they sold out their vast holdings at the highest market prices of the year. In 1886 this company had three ranges, the first extending from the Arkansas River to the New Mexico state line and fifty miles in width from La Junta east. Their other divisions were in Texas and New Mexico. The Colorado range alone was 2,240,000 acres. On this they had 53,982 cattle. In 1882 this company branded 26,000 calves on its three ranches.

The Prairie Cattle Company was a foreign corporation (Scotch) organized unders the laws of Great Britain in 1881, and all its general managers in Amer- ica, with the exception of one, have been either Scotchmen or Englishmen.

About 1880, when cattle reached a higher price than they had ever attained since the war, the price that the Jones brothers were offered for their herd by Underwood, Clark & Co., of Kansas City, representing the Prairie Cattle Com- pany, was too tempting. No one knew how long these prices would continue. A bird in the hand seemed worth more than two in the bush, and so Jones Brothers disposed of all of their holdings to the Prairie Cattle Company. One of these brothers was named Jim-Jim Jones-and thus originated the J J brand.

At the time of this purchase in that portion of southern Colorado known as the J J range, nearly all the small owners of cattle offered their herds at the same price paid for the Jones herd, and they were taken by the same syndicate. About the same time the Hall brothers, owning the Crosselle ranch, whose cattle ranged in northern New Mexico, and the then "Neutral Strip," now Oklahoma, disposed of their herd to the same company. Immediately afterwards Mr. Littlefield sold to the company his range with the cattle, known as the L I T herd, located in the northern part of Texas with headquarters at Tascosa, known at one time as the toughest town in Texas.

The Jones brothers were among the first to give consideration to the im- provement of the grade of cattle then in Colorado. They imported Shorthorn bulls from the eastern states, and their herd became one of the finest in the west. The Halls, at the Crosselle ranch, did much the same, but they, a little

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later, went more extensively into Herefords. The Prairie Cattle Company sold this ranch some years ago to Mr. G. A. Fowler of Colorado Springs. Mr. Fow- ler has continually purchased the best bulls obtainable in the east, and has now brought his herd, which for its size is probably the best bred herd in the States, to a high state of perfection.

The Littlefield L I T herd was started with well selected southern Texas cows, but the improvement of that herd and the high standard it subsequently reached was due to the management of the Prairie Cattle Company.

The J J herd branded at one time about ten thousand calves a year on the J J division; the Crosselle division branded about the same number, and the L I T about four thousand a year. These three herds were run as separate and distinct outfits under one general management. The cattle roamed freely with- out hindrance, and in the spring, when the general roundup took place, the J J cattle from the Arkansas division could be found as far south as northern Texas. The bulk of them, however, were north of the Cimarron River. The Crosselles went as far south as the Canadian.

THE OLD FENCE LAWS

The stock-raising experiments of Horace Greeley's famous Union Colony make interesting and somewhat amusing reading in these "thoroughbred" days. In his famous book on "What I Know of Farming" the editor of the New York Tribune had epitomized two of his pet horrors into the phrase: "No fences and no rum." Thus when the "Greeley Cooperative Stock and Dairy As- sociation" was formed in 1870 with a capital of $10,000, N. C. Meeker, in his Tribune letter, said: "We are to engage in all kinds of business relating to stock, including the supplying of the town with milk and beef. As a start seventy-five head of cows and young cattle have been purchased for $1,100, and they make a respectable show when stretched out across the prairie. This herd is to be increased as we find good bargains, and we mean to cover the unoccupied land in every direction with our cattle." This is exactly what happened. The hard winters of 1871 and 1872 drove the herds south, the capital of the company was small, and the greater part of the herd was never recovered. Then too, hay was high.in this period, and the experiment was given up, the stockholders getting back half of their money.

When Mr. Meeker started his paper the "first use of our type" was an appeal to "fence in all of the property as the roaming prairie cattle were destroying whole fields. * * * The protection of our strawberry grounds, containing as much as a quarter million plants alone, demand our organization" (for fencing purposes). Horace Greeley arrived in Greeley the following day, and quietly ap- proved the new "fence" program. He never changed his mind on the "rum" part of his epigram.

Before Union Colony was through it had spent $20,000 on a smooth wire fence.

But the cattle still roamed and did enormous damage. In 1872-3 Greeley was allowed to put gates across the public roads leading into the town. These were kept closed during seven spring and summer months of the year. In 1875 the Legislature authorized the forming of fence districts. The first one organized

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under the law was the "Poudre Valley Fence District." But the fence required approval of the county commissioners, two of whom were stockmen.

The stockmen saw in this general early fencing proposition the doom of the range, although they resorted to it later on a huge scale. But in many instances it kept them from getting to water with their cattle.

The publication of a private Meeker letter to Horace Greeley, in which the former reported the tremendous cattle losses in the hard winter of 1871-72 im- paired the credit of the stockmen in the east and the fight between this colony and the cattlemen was on in earnest. The colonists were called "Greeley saints" who had "fenced themselves in" from "the heathens." The cattlemen argued that farming could never pay-"the country was fit only for grazing."

The colony started impounding cattle found roaming at large. This worked for a while, but the armed guard went to sleep one Sunday and the stockmen drove all of the impounded cattle over to Evans.

The cooperative fencing plans worked well for a while but with the invention of barbed wire, put up at one quarter the previous cost, individual fence building began and the community plan was discontinued. Orchard and Sterling and the English company which built the Larimer and Weld Canal, all put up these co- operative fences.

THE BREEDING OF HORSES

In 1880 the breeding of a better class of horses was begun in Colorado. It was found that the broncho "with sinews of steel and tireless gallop" was fit only for rough riding and herding. He was at his best worth about fifty dollars, while an eastern animal commanded double that amount. It was not long before the best long distance racers in the west were bred on Colorado grasses.

At the great Lexington race meet in the autumn of 1909 the standard bred mare, Catherine Direct, a three-year-old product of Colorado soil, climate and grasses, demonstrated the superior quality of these products when she won the Kentucky Futurity for pacers in three-year-old form from eighty-seven entries. This mare was bred and reared on the farm of J. M. Herbert near Denver and was fed upon alfalfa hay and pasture to the exclusion of all other fodders until she was put into training. Daybreak, a Colorado product, the same year, won the $10,000 Lewis & Clark stake race in Portland. The record since then is long and convincing.

LARIMER'S EARLY SHEEP HISTORY

From 1870 to 1878 the sheep industry of Larimer County grew from a few small herds owned by J. S. Maynard, E. W. Whitcomb, William N. Bachelder and Thomas Weldon, to herds totaling 75,000 head. Most of these were in the Big Thompson Valley, at Maynard Flats, Spring Canon and Bachelder Creek. After 1878 the narrowing of the ranges drove many out of the business, but some took their herds into the regions of the cattle barons. The result was the beginning in this region of Colorado of the war between sheep and cattlemen. In 1880 one firm alone shipped more than one hundred thousand pounds of wool out of Larimer County.

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William N. Bachelder, writing in 1900, recalls that he ran for the constitu- tional convention but was defeated because he was a "sheep" man. It was Wil- liam N. Bachelder who brought to Colorado Henry Dewey, brother of Admiral George Dewey, as his associate in the early sheep-raising business. Henry died of tuberculosis a few years later.

In 1870 about forty thousand head of cattle ranged on the hills above the Laramie River. In those days the old-timers say that ranchmen "started their herds from a few milch cows and mavericks, gradually increasing and in ten or twelve years retiring with an ample competence." In the valley were the cattle ranches of Captain Hance, William Mansfield, Oscar and Kelley Martin and Bieler and Hutton's horse ranch.

Isaac Adair was the first permanent white settler on upper Boxelder, start- ing in the stock-raising business in 1875. E. W. Whitcomb and Alma Goodwin had ranged cattle in this section in 1868.

The Larimer County Stock Growers' Association was organized August 20, 1884. Its first president was T. A. Gage, with S. B. Chaffee as secretary. Among the prominent stockmen who joined the organization were J. L. Bristol, F. L. Carter-Colton, F. J. Spencer, C. E. Roberts, Fred Christman and practically all the stockmen who were using the range in the mountains of Larimer County. It was useful in the supervision of branding and in the prosecution of cattle thieves, but as the range stock thinned out the association was allowed to die out. Most of the flock masters had in a few years moved to Wyoming and Montana.

THE LAMB FEEDING INDUSTRY

The bringing in of lambs every fall not only provided an outlet for the alfalfa, but also introduced feeding methods into that section, and was instrumental in teaching Colorado farmers the importance of feeding their forage crops at home. In the beginning the farmers did not realize the great value of the manure from the feed lots, but with the coming of the sugar beet industry they quickly dis- covered that the manure was as valuable as any profit they might make from their feeding operations. When I. W. Bennett and his brother brought that first trainload of starved lambs into the northern Colorado alfalfa fields they in- augurated a new era of prosperity for the Colorado farmers. It was a small beginning, but it has grown to enormous proportions, and during the present year this same section is feeding nearly, if not quite, double the highest number reported in the table given below.

In 1889 E. J. and I. W. Bennett, who many years before had been inter- ested in the range sheep and wool-growing industry and also feeding sheep in Nebraska in the wintertime, bought in southern Colorado about twenty-four hundred grade Mexican lambs with the intention of shipping them to their feed- ing pens in Nebraska and fattening them for the spring markets. They were caught at Walsenburg in a severe snowstorm, which blocked the railroad so that no trains could be moved.

.The storm began at Walsenburg on the night of October 3Ist, following a very warm and perfectly lovely day, continuing for several days and with such severity as to cause some twenty-six herders and stockmen to perish in southern Colorado and northern New Mexico before they could find adequate shelter. A

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prominent stockman of Trinidad by the name of Taylor was caught out in this storm and lost his life, together with several of his cowboys. Here for two weeks the lambs were held without food, except such as was afforded by a few pinon trees cut down for them to browse.

As a last resort the owners decided to ship the lambs to Fort Collins, where alfalfa could be obtained at a reasonable price, and there attempt to fatten them under what they considered at the time as adverse circumstances.

The lambs reached Fort Collins about the middle of November and were placed upon a generous ration of alfalfa. They recovered rapidly from the effects of their long fast and rough journey, and later were fed corn as well as hay. The lambs were shipped to Chicago in March and April, 1890, and sold at prices ranging from $5.05 to $6.40 per hundred pounds, leaving the feeders a fine profit.

This was the beginning of the lamb-feeding industry in Colorado, an industry that put the farmers on their feet and enabled them to pay off their debts, im- prove their farms and build new homes. These figures show the number of lambs fed in the county for the first thirteen years :

Winter of 1889

2,500

Winter of 1890

3,500

Winter of 1891 6,000

Winter of 1892

30,000

Winter of 1893

40,000

Winter of 1894

60,000

Winter of 1895

80,000

Winter of 1896 128,000

Winter of 1897

193,000

Winter of 1898 250,000

Winter of 1899

300,000

Winter of 1900

350,000

Winter of 1901

400,000

THE FOUNDING OF A GREAT INDUSTRY

In 1859 John H. Craig, Jack Johnson and Charles Holmes settled in Happy Cañon, about ten miles north of Castle Rock, and began prospecting for gold, but as a side issue started the cattle-growing industry. In November, 1860, Judge P. P. Wilcox, of Denver, and William Liptrap started a cow ranch about two miles above Frankstown. But between the coming of Craig and his companions and the starting of the Wilcox cow ranch the old chroniclers of Douglas County tell of the arrival of a hundred or more followers, most of whom went into the cattle-raising business on a small scale. The Wilcox herd, however, grew to be one of the largest in the territory, and was finally moved over to Big Sandy, near River Bend. Many of the small herds, too, in time, grew to such proportions that the stock-raising industry of Douglas County became of foremost importance, en- riching its owners without much effort on their part, for feeding was as free as the air. The sheep industry began to develop early. But here, as all over the Plains, the era of settlement of the public domain cut down the range and stock raising was soon confined to smaller areas.

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El Paso County, like Douglas County, profited more in the early days from its range than from its mines. It was in this section that General Palmer recorded the vast cattle-raising possibilities. In 1890 there were in El Paso County 37,573 head of cattle and 58,831 sheep.

. The stock-growing industry of Pueblo County began with the first settlement. By 1873 the industry had grown sufficiently to warrant the founding by Good- night, Cresswell & Co., prominent stockmen, of the Stockgrowers' National Bank. This became the center of the Texas cattle trade in Colorado, distributions being made to northern and Arkansas Valley points. George H. Hobson, who came to Colorado from Missouri in 1869, was one of the Pueblo men heavily interested in the Texas cattle trade. In 1888 there were 50,000 cattle in the county, 10,000 horses and 40,000 sheep.

Huerfano County's cattle-raising industry began with the first settlement by Charles Autobees, of what was known as part of the Las Animas Land Grant, in 1849. In 1858 William Kroenig, of New Mexico, purchased some of the holdings of Autobees and began stock-raising on a large scale. Joseph B. Doyle, William Craig and Samuel Watrous followed, until the business grew to vast proportions. Wealthy stock companies held the range for a long time, and were finally driven out of business by the smaller holders, who greatly improved the herds by importing blooded stock.

The Colorado Company, in 1879, practically monopolized the cattle industry in the Huerfano Valley. This company had bought the famous Craig ranch and gradually absorbed others until in 1881 it had 30,000 head of cattle on its range.

In 1890 there were in use in Jefferson County 132,060 acres of grazing land, showing the growth of the cattle industry even in this "foothill" region.

In 1890 there were 86,000 acres of grazing lands in use by stockmen in Ar- chuleta County, largely in the Piedra and Weeminuche parks. The assessment roll for that year placed the number of cattle feeding upon these lands at 3,509; sheep, 17,840; horses, 1,000.

It was in Baca County at the Sylvanus Johnson ranch on Bear Creek that the Angora goat industry was started in Colorado with 2,000 head.

The grazing lands of the county were long devoted to the raising of Texas longhorns. On the many fine stock farms near Springfield now herds of better breeds are proving exceedingly profitable.

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History of Colorado; Volume I, Part 57

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed Publication date: 1918 Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke Number of Pages: 954

Author: Stone, Wilbur Fiske, 1833-1920, ed
Publication date: 1918
Publisher: Chicago, S. J. Clarke
Number of Pages: 954