LET US GO AFIELD 



trail depended on the buffalo; indeed, every wagon 

 or pack train which crossed the Plains relied upon 

 the buffalo as a sure source of food en route. White 

 and red man alike depended upon this great animal 

 whose numbers ran everywhere in uncounted thou- 

 sands. With the white man the buffalo was 

 a convenience; with the Indian it was a necessity. 

 Not even in the scientifically conducted pack- 

 ing industries of today is the last by-product of an 

 animal utilized as it was by the Plains Indians. To 

 them the buffalo gave everything : food, fuel, arms, 

 utensils, clothing, dwelling, ornaments and luxuries 

 even, at last, surplus currency for the aboriginal 

 bank account. Indeed, the modern packer has all 

 the worst of it in comparison with the Indian. The 

 latter had nothing at all to pay for his cattle, whereas 

 the Beef Trust, amiable and well-meaning as may 

 be its intentions to sweep clear the Western plains 

 at no cost to itself, is 'still obliged to pay something 

 for its cattle. What an opportunity was lost to the 

 Beef Trust in those old buffalo days! If only it 

 could have run its plants on cattle absolutely free ! 



As to this last, however, it might have been 

 almost as well for the American people had the 

 Packing Trust been organized earlier. It would 

 have saved millions of tons of good food which went 

 absolutely to waste a food so abundant and univer- 



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