WEST OF THE, MISSISSIPPI RIVER. 751 



to range upon public domain within 5 miles of other established head- 

 quarters for sheep. Owners of sheep have the right to stop and exam- 

 ine flocks driven within 5 miles of their headquarters. Severe penal- 

 tics are inflicted for spreading infection. The sheep-owner is required 

 to dip scabby sheep on his own premises. The sheep inspector may 

 prescribe what dip or other remedies shall be applied and specify the 

 manner of treatment. The sheep inspector is allowed $5 per day while 

 necessarily employed. 



Wolf bounty. The county commissioners of each county in the State 

 of Xorth Dakota shall, upon the petition of twenty-five stock-raisers, 

 oifer a bounty not to exceed $3 and not less than $1 for each and every 

 wolf or coyote killed within the limits of their county. 



Prevention of prairie fires. This law empowers the county commis- 

 sioners to provide fire-breaks, divide the county into districts, and require 

 a good bond of the road overseers as fire wardens. The road supervisors 

 shall be made to call on all persons liable for poll tax to work upon fire- 

 breaks at least two days in each year. A legal fire-break is a strip of 

 plowing or burning, or partly plowed or partly burned, not less than 66 

 feet wide. A person refusing to respond to the summons of the fire 

 warden is subject to a fine, and any person or corporation setting on fire 

 the prairie is liable to fine and imprisonment. 



There are other enactments that are beneficial to the industry, such 

 as the law relating to mixed shipment of stock, the law regarding brands 

 and earmarks, and the law encouraging the construction of artesian wells 

 and to promote irrigation. 



SOUTH DAKOTA. 



The sheep industry is yet new to the young State of South Dakota 

 This in a measure accounts for the prevailing enthusiasm regarding 

 sheep-raising in the State. The rapid growth of sheep husbandry there 

 has been the most sensational event of the industry of recent years. 

 Yet it is a natural growth and the legitimate outcome of a period of 

 depression which existed in the agricultural States of the great North- 

 west. It marks a new era in the inevitable development of that coun- 

 try. This industry is not fully developed, yet there is no question as 

 to its future and its value as an aid in securing a greater diversity in 

 agricultural and live-stock pursuits. The farmers of South Dakota 

 have been, to a certain extent, deluded by the wheat craze which first 

 attracted settlers to the Territory. They were drawn there by the 

 glowing representations as to the possibilities of the country for wheat, 

 set forth by the enterprising emigration and railroad agents. They 

 proceeded at once to raise wheat and stuck to it almost exclusively, 

 until low prices, adverse seasons, high-priced machinery, and higher 

 interest rates nearly bankrupted many. This compelled the farmers 

 to study the natural possibilities of the country, and they naturally 

 took to sheep-raising as the most available way out. Those who were 



