When the Hay Ran Out, the Neighbours Around Brewster Signed Their Names Together
An Okanogan County fodder famine had stockmen facing the loss of whole herds they had no money to feed — until country people who owed them nothing co-signed a note to buy the hay.
It is a common saying that men of a city or town who work together to promote the best interests of that city or town are public spirited and may be depended on to come to the rescue of their town in a pinch of any kind. These men are everywhere, but in reading of them we hear only that they live in such and such a town. What of the country? Is it to be inferred that the farming communities are devoid of men of such caliber? So it would appear from the way the newspapers speak of them, but it is by no means the rule.
There recently came under our notice a case in point from Okanogan county. This county has a stock association, but, like most other organizations of a similar nature, it was apathetic and evidently oblivious to the dire straits in which some of the stockmen were placed by reason of a lack of hay. Fodder had to be brought in to save the cattle, but the owners could not pay the price; they had not the money. At this point the people around Brewster came forward, signed a joint note to get the money, and purchased large quantities of forage to be shipped in for distribution among those who needed it. This action on the part of a number of country people saved the animals and also saved much money to the owners. The stockmen appreciate their public spirited action — but are wondering what use there is of having a stock association that does not do anything for its members.
“Fodder had to be brought in to save the cattle, but the owners could not pay the price; they had not the money. At this point the people around Brewster came forward, signed a joint note to get the money.”
Agricultural credit still runs on co-signatures and neighbourly risk — when a Western herd runs short of feed today, it is often a feed bank, a co-op or a note signed at the elevator that carries it through the winter. The Ranch's sharper point is aimed at the county stock association that existed on paper but did nothing when its own members were in trouble, a question every trade group still has to answer. Rural mutual aid remains the quiet infrastructure of the American West.
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