418 
D. E. SALMON. 
owing to the conflicting testimony, the Court was not able to ap¬ 
preciate the full extent of the damage to the live stock from the 
chronic but non-fatal poisoning. All of the farmers interviewed 
by the writer were reducing their stock of animals and asserted 
that it would be better for them (the owners) if a considerable 
proportion of their animals died, as living they were of no value, 
but, nevertheless, must be given extra attention and extra feed. 
Then, there was the great difficulty of producing young stock, 
of which practically all of the farmers complained. The inser¬ 
tion of a few of the notes made at the time the farmers were inter¬ 
viewed, generally on theft* ranches, will give an idea of this source 
of loss. 
Matthew Smith said: “ When the new stack went into' opera¬ 
tion, I had about 40 head of horses and 12 milch cows. Have 
lost since then 8 horses and 7 cows. I have now 1 cow (bought 
last fall) and 7 horses. The remainder of the cows were sold 
because they did not become pregnant or did not raise their calves, 
I have had about 5 mares all the time and have bred them every 
year, but have not raised a colt since the big stack has been in use. 
Some of the mares failed to get with foal, others dropped dead 
foals, and in some cases a living foal was born but died in a few 
weeks. There are six of the horses now with sore noses. It is 
impossible to raise stock successfully. I am unable to raise 
enough colts to keep in work stock and what I have are worthless. 
The ranch is 11 miles northeast of Anaconda.” 
N. A. Liffring said: “ At the time the big stack went into 
operation, I had about 100 head of cattle and 22 horses. Have 
lost only 4 or 5 grown cattle, but went out of the cattle business 
because they would not breed and I could not make good beef of 
the animals that I had. I now have 11 head of horses altogether, 
including 5 mares which were bred last year and which produced 
only one colt. Some of the mares were bred as high as fifteen 
times without becoming pregnant. In 1905 I had 5 mares and 
raised 1 colt. Have onlv lost one grown mare c *^ce the stack has 
been in operation, but it is necessary to give more care to the 
horses than formerly, to keep them in corrales and feed them. 
