Overstocking in America.

Horowhenua Chronicle, 15 April 1910, Page 4

Overstocking in America.

A DIAI3OLICAL PIUC'HCK. In Xew Zealand, where, when the rare occasion demands it, tho State railways carry fodder free lor those animals that happen to be in temporary distress for some- uuforsc'fii inclemency of the weather, itis difficult to pietuio a country where stock-holders absolutely gamlile on tho winter and turn their stock loose with the knowledge that a large proportion of them will never weather tho storms. l'ut according to " Collier's Weekly " this is a common prae^-.'C , upon the praiiies of Montana and North Dakota where- annually, from Decejnlier to April, many thousands of oat lie and millions of glioep arc turned loose upon the unfenced prairie to snatch what scanty mistenaneo they can from tho thin siiiiW-c-overwl grasses. In a mild winter cattlemen expect to lose from five to ton per cent, of their .stock through starvation, but if tho loss becomes fifteen or twenty-five per cent, it is a bad year. Occasionally there is fl.n oven more disastrous year, but on tho whole tli-e seasons average out at a payable figure. But the picture is a desperado one. A Western man thoroughly familiar with the conditions writes: "There is no blacker stain (■•,n the civnilisatio.il of the nation today than tins. Imagine a single animal in December, already gaunt from hunger, cold a.ml thirst, w.ndering about on nn illimitable plain covered with snow, with nothing to eat, except hero and there, buried under the snow, a sparse tuft of scanty moss-like gross; mating snow for days and weeks, _ because there is nothing to drink; by day wandering in the- snow, by night'lying down in it; swept by pitiless winds and icy storms, always gnawed with hunger; always parched with thirst; Always searching for something to eat where there is nothing; always staring with dumb, hopeless eyes, blinded, swollen and festering from the sun's glare on the wastes of snow. Imagine that, and imagine yourself enduring one hour of it. Multiply that period by tho slow-moving days and nights from December to April—if life lasts that long. Multiply tiiat by forty millions and you have ithe record of brute suffering in this one way, for one year and every year in this unspeakable trade." ft is not surprising to learn that humanitarian America is loudly demanding legislation to prevent overstocking and to end. this ghastly form of speculation,