726 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



breeds, and has made repeated experiments to de- 

 termine which would give the best results on the 

 range. He has not only used the Shorthorn at all 

 times, but has tried the Aberdeen-Angus. In his 

 early experience he accumulated on the Sun River 

 Eange one of the best herds of non-pedigree Short- 

 horns in the west. These were descended from 

 good cattle that had been picked up originally in 

 the early days along the old California and Oregon 

 Trail. They were maintained in the Deer Lodge 

 Valley. When the pastures got short in Deer 

 Lodge, he was obliged to move them into the Sun 

 Eiver country. As early as 1879 he branded 4,900 

 calves on the Sun River Ranch. 



The Hereford bulls bought from Swan and Mor- 

 gan were sent into this herd and the best bull calves 

 produced were kept for breeding purposes. The 

 steers from the first cross gave great satisfaction. 

 In the early days, when cattle were few in Mon- 

 tana and grass abundant, Mr. Kohrs preferred the 

 Shorthorns among these crosses because he found 

 that they would weigh more at four years old than 

 the Herefords. But in those days there were no rail- 

 roads and the cattle had to be driven a great dis- 

 tance to Laramie City or Cheyenne on the Union 

 Pacific ; this put them in bad condition and they 

 never brought a satisfactory price in Chicago, be- 

 cause they were too large for feeders and not fat 

 enough for good beef. When the Northern Pacific 

 was built Mr. Kohrs moved a lot of cattle to Tongue 

 River, about 150 miles south of Miles City, and his 



