The sun. [volume] (Newberry, S.C.) 1937-1972, June 21, 1940, Image 3
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THE SUN. NEWBERRY. S. C, FRIDAY, JUNE 21, 1940
U. S. Officials Say We Should Add to
Our List of "Vanishing Americans"
The Name of the Famed Texas Longhorn
A TYPICAL TEXAS LONGHORN (Photo, courtesy of the United
By ELMO SCOTT WATSON
(Released by Western Newspaper Union.)
ADD to the list of “Vanish-
ZA ing Americans” the
famed Texas longhorn!
At least, that’s what a re
port of the biological survey
indicates, for it says that this
animal, which once loomed
large in the history of the
West, is on the verge of ex
tinction. Once there were
nearly 10,000,000 of these
rangy beasts. Now out of that
vast number there are only
250 pure-strain longhorns left.
They are fewer than the buf
falo which they succeeded on
the Great Plains and once ri
valed in numbers.
Unlike the buffalo, however,
the longhorn was not decimated
to the point of near-extinction by
ruthless slaughter. He is being
bred out of existence. In his veins
now flows the blood of the Short
horn and the Hereford which re
duced the length of his horns, put
meat on his lanky sides and
cooled his wild spirits.
It’s all due to economics—or,
more specifically, to the economic
law of supply and demand. Back
in the days which followed the
Civil war, when Texans began
gathering up the oversupply of
cattle running wild over her broad
prairies and trailing them north
to the Kansas “cow towns” where
eastern buyers met them, Amer
ica became more of a beef-eating
nation than it had ever been be
fore.
The Texas longhorn was the
chief source of supply and he con
tinued to be thus for more than
two decades. Then American
meat-eaters began demanding a
better quality meat. So the stock-
men in the West used the hardy,
half-wild longhorn as the founda
tion for crossing with superior
beef breeds. And that revolu
tionized the cattle industry and
the whole economy of the West.
The longhorn was a picturesque
feature of the western landscape
but he was also an “economically
wasteful” feature. So he was
doomed to go.
By the middle 1920s it was ap
parent that the typical old-time
longhorn, except for a few speci
mens in Wild West shows, or
rodeo exhibition companies and
a few running wild in various
parts of the Lone Star state, was
rapidly approaching the point of
extinction. Then a few Texans,
remembering that this animal
had been one of the chief founda
tion stones upon which the pros
perity of their commonwealth
had been built, declared that it
would be something of a tragedy
to let him be wiped out of exist
ence and decided to do something
about it. Among the leaders was
J. Frank Dobie, professor of Eng
lish at the University of Texas
and a noted author of western
books.
A Move to Save the Longhorn.
At a meeting of the Old Trail
Drivers association in San An
tonio, he proposed that a long
horn preserve be established in
the ranch region of south Texas
and a resolution was adopted in
dorsing the plan. Next, the Texas
Folklore society passed a resolu
tion recommending that the legis
lature appropriate sufficient funds
and provide adequate means "to
preserve in its purity for future
generations the Texas longhorn
breed—the most historic breed of
cattle the world has ever known.”
In the meantime the United
States Department of Agriculture
had become interested in the plan
to preserve the longhorn. For
several years it had tried to se
cure an appropriation from con
gress for that purpose but to no
avail. Finally in 1927, through
the efforts of Senator J. B. Hend
rick of Wyoming, a small sum
was granted for the purchase of
a few cows and some bulls and it
was decided to place them on a
preserve in the Wichita national
forest in Oklahoma. To Will C.
Barnes, a veteran cowman con
nected with the forest service in
the department of agriculture,
and another forestry official was
given the task of finding the nec
essary animals. The story of
their quest is told by Mr. Barnes
as follows:
“At Fort Worth, San Antonio
and other points the general feel
ing was that their quest would
be unsuccessful. ‘A few old cows
might be found,’ they were told,
‘away "down in the prickly pear
country of the lower Rio Grande
or in the dense mesquite thickets
of the plains.’ But bulls! Well,
that was something else again.
Everybody doubted the possibil
ity of finding them.
“The forest officers first plunged
into the prickly pear country be
tween Laredo and Brownsville on
the Rio Grande and Corpus Christi
on the gulf. Every nook and cor
ner of this region was hunted out,
using every imaginable kind of
traB spor tation.
States Department of Agriculture).
“In two weeks they had spotted
ten cows and one bull in that cor
ner of Texas as meeting their re
quirements, picking one here, one
there. They hired a cattleman
who knew the country to gather
them at a central point of ship
ping, and having exhausted this
end of Texas, they moved up into
the great coastal plains region be
tween Houston and Beaumont.
Here was an entirely different
country, one of the great range
cattle sections of the state. The
region was combed thoroughly
and ten excellent longhorn cows
and two good bulls were gathered.
“Inasmuch as the steers are the
ones that developed the extremely
long horns, three glorious ani
mals with good-sized horns were
brought to be kept as an exhibit
of what a longhorn should be.
They are all young and their
horns will probably grow at least
18 inches more in a few years.
Branded “U. S.”
“The two shipments were con
centrated at Fort Worth and
dipped three times at seven-day
intervals to free them of the dead
ly Texas fever tick and tested for
tuberculosis. Then the whole
bunch were put through a brand
ing chute and branded ‘U. S.’ on
the left hip.
“The longhorns were shipped
from Fort Worth to the Wichita
national forest. It was like old
times to sit in the caboose of a
long freight train with a car of
cattle ahead and crawl over the
top of the train in the dark to
make sure the cows were all
“OLD ALAMO”
This famous longhorn steer was
crippled in a stampede during the
filming of Emerson Hough’s
“North of ’36” and had to be
destroyed.
there. Cache and the Wichita
forest were eventually reached
and the cattle placed in the pas
ture provided for them. Swarms
of people came out from sur
rounding cities to look them
over, and the old-time cowmen
of the region all agreed that the
bunch which had been collected
were really fine specimens of the
old longhorns—perfect types with
which to build up a modest herd
of 250 or 300 head and thus pre
serve the breed for future genera
tions of Americans to study and
admire.”
By 1929 the original herd of 24
longhorns in the Wichita national
forest had increased to 40 and
since then there has been a small
increase each year. But the re
cent statement made by biologi
cal survey officials that there are
now only 250 pure-strain long
horns, including no doubt the
herd in Oklahoma and scattered
numbers in other parts of the
West, indicates that this animal
is nearing the “end of the trail”
and it is not inconceivable that an
epidemic or sickness or some oth
er unforeseen circumstance might
easily wipe the breed out of exist
ence.
Origin of the Longhorn.
It has been a “long trail,” in
more than one sense, that the
longhorn has traveled. His his
tory traces back to the days of
Cortez. The Spanish conquista-
dores brought the first cattle to
North America from the hills of
Andalusia, in southern Spain.
Two centuries before any cattle
were sent to Texas the Spaniards
were successfully raising good
ones in Mexico. The first herds
crossed the Rio Grande into Tex
as when the missions were built.
Around each mission the padres
kept good-sized herds of beef and
milch cattle, and oxen for trans
porting heavy loads.
As the years passed numbers
of these cattle escaped and be
came wild, running as free on
the endless prairies as the bison
and the antelope. Inbreeding
caused deterioration and settlers
arriving from the states east of
the Mississippi late in the Eight
eenth and early in the Nineteenth
centuries found herds of scrawny
wild cattle everywhere, with
horns out of all proportion to the
animal's size. They were fleet,
tough creatures, as well adapted
to the arid region as the antelope
and deer or the buffalo herds that
were growing less numerous.
In the years before the railroad
came to Texas, without a rod of
fence anywhere between the Rio
Grande and Kansas, the longhorn
roamed at will over the vast
range. There became so many in
Texas then that often they were
killed for their hides alone. Oc
casionally herds were driven to
New Orleans, which is 650 miles
from San Antonio, and to Mobile
and Vicksburg. They rarely sold
for more than $5 a head and the
demand was not very brisk.
Then came the Civil war. Texas
couldn’t and wouldn’t send herds
northward, and the Union block
ade of the Mississippi river was
so effective that only one or two
droves got through, swimming
almost under the guns of warships
below Vicksburg. Their numbers
were greatly diminished, the rem
nant finally reaching the Confed
erate army. When the war ended
the cattle industry in Texas was
nearly ruined.
It was during this hour of de
pression that a ranchman con
ceived the idea of driving cattle
to the North. If the buyers
wouldn’t come to Texas for cattle,
he would take his cattle where he
could sell them, or, at least,
where the prospects were good.
He selected Abilene, Kan., end of
rail on the Atchison, Topeka and
Santa Fe. So, in 1867, the first
herd of longhorns “went up trail.”
They arrived at their destination,
were sold at a good profit and the
cattleman went back to Texas
for another herd.
The news of his success spread
like wildfire, and the next year
other herds were driven north
ward, with varying degrees of
success. But Texas cattlemen
were used to hard luck and diffi
culties. Within two or three years
trail driving became an estab
lished business and in one year
three-fourths of a million head
arrived in Kansas. The longhorn
was in the heyday of his glory and
the cattle industry thrived in
Texas.
Disaster on the Range.
It continued to flourish with the
discovery by the cattlemen that by
driving their steers to the north
ern ranges and fattening them
there they could increase their
profits. By 1880 the land was
badly overstocked and under
nourished. Then came the drouth
of 1885 when cattle perished by
the thousands around tanks and
waterholes. This was followed a
few years later by severe winters
which wiped out whole herds.
Other factors which spelled the
doom of the longhorn were the
coming of the barbed wire, which
marked the end of the open range,
and the settling of the West by
homesteaders.
Long before the last great herd
went “up the trail” in 1895, -pro
gressive cattlemen had been in
troducing blooded stock and cross
ing them with the longhorns.
Shorthorns were tried first but the
shorthorn wasn’t so good at
“rustling for his grass.” In the
Hereford the cattlemen found the
animal that, crossed with the long
horn, was ideally adapted to the
Texas ranges.
So the lanky old longhorn was
through as a beef type. He be
came a hybrid and began losing
his individuality in the red-coated
“white-face.” As a pure strain he
exists now only as a curiosity on
a few ranches in Texas, at live
stock shows and in the “reserva
tion” set aside for him in Okla
homa. He is a “Vanishing Amer
ican.”
ELECTRICITY AIDS
FARM OPERATIONS
Power Yields More Work at
Less Cost.
By NORTON IVES
(Extension Agricultural Engineer,
University of Minnesota Farm.)
When you buy electricity you buy
work. The success of the rural elec
trification program should not be
measured in terms of miles of line
or numbers of customers connected.
These only show the amount of
money invested and the amount of
debt incurred, the engineer warns.
The true value of electricity lies in
its ability to do work cheaper and
better than by old-fashioned methods.
Unless put to work at productive
labor or money-saving tasks, the
“juice” is just another expense. |
When feiven a chance, however, it
is the cheapest laborer on the farm. |
A small quarter-horsepower motor
will do the work of one man and
at an energy cost averaging only
one cent per hour.
Feed grinding is accepted as a
money-saving practice on most live
stock farms, and when rates are
moderate, electricity will do the job
cheaper than any other form of
power. At a rate of 2.5 cents per
KWH (kilowatt hour), 25 cents will
grind a ton of oats, 1,100 pounds of
barley or 2,800 pounds of corn to
medium fineness. Overhead bins, \
arranged for automatic self-feeding, j
practically eliminate labor cost and
permit the operator to do other i
chores while the next day’s feed is
being ground.
In purchasing an electric feed
grinder, the motor costs far more I
than the grinder, Ives points out, so
provisions should be made to see
that the power unit is made port
able and may be moved from one
job to another. A three-horse-power
electric motor, in addition to grind
ing feed, will saw wood, elevate
grain or corn, run machines in the
farm shop, hoist hay and even shell
com. Vhen put to work, highline
current is the best hired man on
the place. If left in the wires, it will
“eat its head off.”
lilli
■jlllllj
A TEA IN THE TIME OF ROSES
(See Recipes Below)
Household feus
=, 15] /itjManor-
One Out of Four Farms
Served by Power Lines
About 1,700,000 farnts, 25 per cent
of all the farms in the United States,
had high-line electric service at
the beginning of this year, more than
twice the number having service
when the Rural Electrification ad
ministration was established in 1935,
REA announces.
Electric service was extended to
approximately 225,000 farm families ,
and other users or about 1,000,000
persons last year—one for every 30
seconds ticked off from the begin
ning to the end of the year.
Users receiving service from
REA financed systems now total
about 400,000. Of the 688 such sys
tems, 500 are in operation with more
than 180,000 miles of lines ener
gized.
Construction was equivalent to
one average system completed per !
day, averaging about 400 miles of
line per work day. During periods \
of favorable weather, construction j
has averaged more than 500 miles i
per working day, and at times it ex
ceeded 560 miles per working day. [
The 180,000 miles of REA financed
lines now in operation are sufficient !
to span the continent from Wash- i
ington to San Francisco 60 times. ,
An additional 60,000 miles are still 1
under construction.
The average size REA financed
system has an investment of $400,-
000, and serves 1,200 users from 400
miles of lines. Farmers’ co-opera- 1
tives constitute 88.4 per cent of REA I
borrowers.
Cow Now Has ‘Rights’
Under Britain’s Laws
Talk about constitutional rights—
cows in England, at least, can do just
about as they please. No worrying
about stop lights or parking tickets or
being bawled out by traffic cops.
The high court of appeals in Eng
land has held that a cow had the
constitutional right to stand in the
middle of the road and chew her cud,
and let traffic go hang or go around.
At least the court said that cows do not
move in straight lines and no driver
could be expected to make them go
in straight line or stay out of the road.
The decision was made in a case where
a motorist had collided with a cow
and claimed damages to his car.
In announcing hie decision, the lord
justice said that cows have “strayed
about the road for time immemoriaf
and will probably continue to do so.
Agricultural News
In recent experiments, cows pro
duced more milk if given injections
of a pituitary gland extract.
• • •
A motor of Vt horse power is a
hired man that works for the un
usually low figure of about a cent
an hour.
• • •
Good, high-quality roughage has
long been recognized by dairy farm
ers as the cheapest source of feed
for cows.
It’s the custom, in a great many
clubs, to draw the season to a grace
ful close with a charming spring
tea. If you’re chairman of the re
freshment committee for that de
lightful social function of your or
ganization, why not plan to make
“In the Time of Roses” the theme
song for your tea?
Use roses here, there and every
where ... a rose-pink damask
cloth with rose
pattern; rose-
sprigged china; a
great bowl of real
roses for the cen
terpiece, and can
died rose petals
to decorate the
tiny cakes.
When you plan
the refreshments, allow at least
three sandwiches and two little
cakes (or cookies) for each guest,
and a pound of mints or salted nuts
for each 25 guests. If the tea is a
large one, you’ll need two platters
of sandwiches, two of cakes and one
dish each of mints and nuts, on the
table at one time, and make sure
that for each platter on the table
there’s at least one full one in the
kitchen to take its place.
Choose an interesting variety of
dainty sandwiches for your tea.
Oblong brown bread sandwiches
with cream cheese and marmalade
are good, and combine effectively
with round white bread sandwiches,
with a blend of tuna fish and may
onnaise between them. Very thin,
dainty slices of an unusual bread
are excellent for plain bread and
butter sandwiches.
An assortment of dark and light
cookies, and very small cakes pro
vide the sweet touch for your menu.
And tea you must have, of course.
Tea, when properly made, is one
of the most invigorating drinks you
can serve. It is most important,
especially when making tea for a
group, to measure the amount of
tea used and to brew it just long
enough and not too long in order to
insure its best fragrance and tang.
(Three to five minutes is generally
conceded to be just about right
brewing time.)
Bishop’s Bread.
(Makes 1 loaf)
3 eggs
1 cup sugar
U4 cups flour
1% teaspoons baking powder
% teaspoon salt
2 cups nut meats (broken)
1 cup dates (sliced)
1 cup Maraschino cherries
Vs pound sweet or semi-sweet
chocolate
Beat eggs until light, and add the
sugar, beating just enough to mix.
Sift flour, baking
powder and salt
and add the nuts,
dates, cherries
and chocolate
which has been
broken into pieces , .
about the size of
a five-cent piece.
Add to the first mixture, and mix
just enough to blend the ingredi
ents. Grease a bread loaf pan thor
oughly and line the bottom with
wax paper. Grease paper and pour
in the batter. Bake in a moderately
slow oven (325 degrees) for about
hours. Cool and slice very thin.
Butter Ovals.
(Makes 30 small cookies)
l h cup butter
3 tablespoons superfine powdered
sugar
1 cup flour
1 cup nut meats (broken)
Cream butter, add powdered
sugar and blend well. Add flour slow
ly and mix thoroughly. Fold in nut
meats. Shape into small crescent
shaped rolls about the size of a
small finger. Place on greased bak
ing sheet and bake in a moderate
oven (350 degrees) for approximate
ly 20 minutes. Roll in powdered
sugar while warm.
Little Swedish Tea Cakes.
1 cup butter
Vs cup sugar
1 egg
2 cups cake flour
V4 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
Cream butter and add sugar slow
ly. Cream well. Add well-beaten
egg and blend. Sift flour once be
fore measuring and then sift again
with salt. Add and blend in flavor
ing. Place a rounded teaspoonful of
batter in very small greased muffin
tins (1% inches in diameter). Press
batter up sides and over bottom so
that there is a hollow in the center.
Fill this hollow with an almrind fill
ing (about 1 teaspoonful).
Almond Filling.
2 eggs
Vs cup sugar
V\ teaspoon salt
Vi pound finely ground almonds
Beat eggs until very light and add
sugar, salt, and ground almonds
which have been put through food
chopper twice. Bake 30 minutes in
a slow moderate oven (325 degrees).
Black Walnut Bread.
(Makes 1 loaf)
1 cup milk
1 cup sugar
1 cup black walnuts (rolled fine)
3 cups flour
3 teaspoons baking powder
Combine milk, sugar and wal
nuts. Sift flour and baking powder
together, and blend with the first
mixture. Pour batter into small,
greased bread pan. Bake in a mod
erate oven (350 degrees) for 60 to
70 minutes.
Dream Bars.
(Serves 6-8)
IVi cups flour
1% cups brown sugar
Vs cup butter
Vs teaspoon baking powder
2 eggs (well beaten)
Vs teaspoon vanilla extract
% cup coconut
Mix 1 cup flour with 2 tablespoons
brown sugar. Cut in butter. Pat into
greased square
pan and bake 10
minutes in a mod
erate oven (350
degrees). Add
baking powder to
remaining V* cup
flour and sift.
Beat eggs and
add the remain
ing 1% cups brown sugar, beating
thoroughly. Then add the flour and
the vanilla extract. Spread this mix
ture over the partially baked butter
and flour mixture. Sprinkle with co
conut, return to oven, and continue
baking approximately 25 minutes
longer.
English Currant Bread.
2 cups bread flour
2 teaspoons baking powder
Vs teaspoon nutmeg
Vs teaspoon salt
Vs cup sugar
2 tablespoons butter
% cup currants
Vs cup pecans or other nut meats
(broken)
1 egg (well beaten)
Vs cup milk
1 teaspoon orange rind (grated)
1 teaspoon orange juice
Sift all dry ingredients together.
Cut in shortening. Add currants and
nut meats. Combine egg and milk
and add to first mixture. Add or
ange juice and rind. Mix well. Place
in well-greased - loaf pan. Bake in
moderately hot oven (400 degrees) 40
to 45 minutes.
Strawberry Jam Gems.
2 cups general purpose flour
Vs teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon baking powder
V\ cup shortening
% cup milk
Strawberry preserves
Sift all dry ingredients and blend
in shortening. Add liquid and knead
lightly for a few seconds. Form
small biscuits with finger tips as for
yeast dough mixtures. Make small
indentation with spoon and put 1
teaspoon strawberry preserves in
each indentation. Stretch dough
over opening and place in greased
muffin tins. Bake in hot oven (450
degrees) until brown. Serve hot
like biscuits.
On the Refreshment Committee?
Let Eleanor Howe’s cook book,
“Easy Entertaining,” help you plan
your parties. In this practical, in
expensive cook book you’ll find a
wealth of suggestions for making
your parties a success—tested reci
pes that are unusual and delicious;
menus for almost every social oc
casion, and general hints for the
hostess, too.
Get your copy of this cook book
now. Just send 10 cents in coin to
“Easy Entertaining,” care Eleanor
Howe, 919 North Michigan Avenue,
Chicago, Illinois.
(Released by Western Newspaper Union.)
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Something Else
“The last time I was in panto
mime, the people could be heard
laughing a mile away.”
“Really! What was going on
there?”
“M”—the beginning of Matri
mony, and the end of freedoM.
Mother’s in Earnest
As she bent her fair head over the
book, her mother watched her fondly;
yet there was a thoughtful look in her
eyes.
“Mother,” said the girl presently, “it
says here that Philip means a lover of
horses and IF alter a conqueror. I won
der what George means?”
“I hope,” replied her mother firmly,
“that George means business!”
. What Love WiU Do!
“Here’s a wonderful thing,”
said Mrs. Browne. “I’ve just
been reading of a man who
reached the age of forty without
learning to read or write. He met
a woman and for her sake he
made a scholar of himself in two
years.”
“That’s nothing,” replied her
husband. “I know a man who
was a profound scholar at forty.
He ^met a woman, and for her
sake he made a fool of himself in
two days.”
“What do yon do with your old
clothes?” asks a newspaper. Take
’em off at night and put ’em on
again in the morning.
OUTSTANDING BLADE VALUE
10 for 10 Cents
cumas co.. sr. louis, mo.
School of Patience
No school is more necessary to
children than patience, because
either the will must be broken in
childhood or the heart in old age.
—Richter.
>^'11 '^HRST CHOICE OF MILLIONS.
^ Bcf THEIR FIRST THOUGHT FOR
— COLDS DISCOMFORTS.
JOSEPH ASPIRIN
Home Happiness
To be happy at home is the ulti
mate result of all ambition.—Sam- •
uel Johnson.
Dr. Hitchcock’s All-Vegetable
Laxative Powder — an intestinal
tonic-laxative—actually tones lazy
bowel muscles. It helps relieve
that sluggish feeling. 15 doses for
only 10 cents. Large family size 25
cents. At all druggists.
Dr. Hitchcock's
LAXATIVE POWDER
YVNU—7 25—40
(
Not on the Surface
He who would search for pearls
must dive below.—Dryden.
Watch Your
Kidneys/
Help Them Cleanse the Blood
of Harmful Body Waste
Your kidneys are constantly filtering
waste matter from the blood stream. But
kidneys sometimes lag in their work—do
not act as Nature intended—fail to re
move impurities that, if retained, may
poison the system and upset the whole
body machinery.
Symptoms may be nagging backache,
persistent headache, attacks of dizziness,
getting up nights, swelling, puffiness
under the eyes—a feeling of nervous
anxiety and loss of pep and strength.
Other signs of kidney or bladder dis
order are sometimes burning, scanty or
too frequent urination.
There should be no doubt that prompt
treatment is wiser than neglect. Uss
Doan’s Pills. Doan*s have been winning
new friends for more than forty years.
They have a nation-wide reputation.
Are recommended by grateful people the
country over. Ask your neighborl
DOANS PILLS