The Cattleman's Pages of History
We have now started the 104th year of publication of The Cattleman magazine. We thought we would take a few minutes each month to look back in history to find the interests of cattle raisers at the time. We have reprinted the text of these items as they appeared in the issue. Any comments from the editor appear in brackets.
November 1917
On the cover: “One of the outstanding sales of the year was made at Kansas City during the recent American Royal Show, when C. M. Largent & Sons of Merkel, Texas, sold the seven head of prize-winning Herefords pictured above to Ben T. Bartlett of Green Castle, Missouri, for a cash consideration of $18,000. These cattle have been consistent winners at many of the 1917 shows.”
➤ Since 1891, the State of South Australia has erected 29,148 miles of vermin fence, enough to encircle the world and with the remnant build a double line fence along the southern border of the United States. New South Wales has spent more than $27,000,000 for rabbit extermination and has within its borders 98,000 miles of fence. Of late years, says the National Geographic Magazine, the rabbit has been paying his board. He goes to swell the total of food exports from the commonwealth.
➤ Ellis Russell, a young Childress County pig club boy, has received the highest price ever paid in Texas for a senior club pig. Ellis was paid $110.00 for “The Queen of Childress” an eleven-months-old registered Duroc-Jersey brood sow from the pens of O. H. Smith of Childress.
➤ An outstanding feature at the 1917 Texas State Fair was the herd of Ed C. Lasater of Falfurrias. Mr. Lasater captured 14 out of 21 first prizes, including first in all of the herd and group classes and the junior champion female and junior and grand champion bull.
November 1967
The Cattleman cover featured a photograph by Jane Pattie. “The Janss Cattle Industries make it a business of fattening cattle for other people in their two feed lots in California, one in Hawaii and the one shown in the picture above, located at Roswell, N.M., where 16,000 head are being readied for market. The manager of the feedlot at Roswell is Charles Koontz.
➤ Don C. King, secretary-general manager of the Texas and Southwestern Cattle Raisers Association, has announced that another electronic detective is joining the battle against saddle thieves. The saddle-lifting, King says, has become so serious that the TSCRA has developed an electronic system to offer assistance to its 11,000 members and peace officers. The TSCRA has received more than 1,000 reports of stolen saddles.
➤ Joe Heflin Smith contributed a story about Alfred Rowe, a successful and eccentric Englishman who ranched a quarter of a million acres in Donley, Gray and Collingsworth counties in the late 1800s and early 1900s. Mr. Rowe was never seen without his signature accessory, a little black bag, the contents of which were a mystery to all. In addition to his ranching, he apparently had quite the wanderlust and frequently took off on his travels with little or no notice. Planning to return to the U.S. on the magnificent new White Star liner, the Titanic, he went down with the ship and the bag was presumed to go with him, to remain a mystery forever.
➤ The Cattleman received an unusual letter from a man in Australia, outlining an educational trip he and his family planned to take in 1968. The family planned to visit all 50 states and saturate themselves in our culture “to be taught and to teach.” They appealed to readers to send letters of query about Australian culture and customs so they might be “welcome and entertaining” guests during their visit, and promised a reply to all correspondents.
The “Pages of History” is excerpted each month from The Cattleman magazine.