Mr. W. N. Byers, who has lived for many years in Colorado, lately contributed the following valuable article to the Rocky Mountain News, treating more particularly of the western half of the plains:
"After the mining interest, which must always take rank as the first productive industry in the mountain territories of the West, stock-raising will doubtless continue next in importance. The peculiarities of climate and soil adapt the grass-covered country west of the ninety-eighth degree of longitude especially to the growth and highest perfection of horses, cattle, and sheep. The earliest civilized explorers found the plains densely populated with buffalo, elk, deer, and antelope, their numbers exceeding computation. Great nations of Indians subsisted almost entirely by the fruits of the chase, but, with the rude weapons used, were incapable of diminishing their numbers. With the advent of the white man and the introduction of fire-arms, and to supply the demands of commerce, these wild cattle have been slaughtered by the million, until their range, once six hundred miles wide from east to west, and extending more than two thousand miles north and south, over which they moved in solid columns, darkening the plains, has been diminished to an irregular belt, a hundred and fifty miles wide, in which only scattering herds can be found, and they seldom numbering ten thousand animals.
"There is no reason why domestic cattle may not take their place. The climate, soil, and vegetation are as well adapted to the tame as to the wild. The latter lived and thrived the year round all the way up to latitude fifty degrees north. Twenty years' experience proves that the former do equally well upon the same range, and with the same lack of care. Time, the settlement of the country, the growing wants of agriculture, the encroachment of tilled fields, will gradually narrow the range, as did semi-civilization that of the buffalo—first from the Mississippi Valley westward, where that process is already seen, and then from the Rocky Mountains toward the east; but as yet the range is practically unlimited, and for many years to come there will be room to fatten beeves to feed the world.
"This great pasture land covers Western Texas, Indian Territory, Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota, Eastern New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, and extends far into British America. The southerly and south-easterly portions produce the largest growth of grass, but it lacks the nutritious qualities of that covering the higher and drier lands farther north and west. Rank-growing and bottom-land grasses contain mostly water: they remain green until killed by frost, when their substance flows back to the root, or is destroyed by the action of the elements. The dwarf grass of the higher plains makes but a small growth, but makes that very quickly in the early spring, and then, as the rains diminish and the summer heat increases, it dies and cures into hay where it stands; the seed even, in which it is very prolific, remains upon the stalk, and, though very minute, is exceedingly nutritious.
"In so far as the relative advantages of different portions of this wide region may be thought by many to preponderate over one another, we do not appreciate them at all, but would as soon risk a herd in the valley of the Upper Missouri, the Yellowstone, or the Saskachewan, as along the Arkansas, the Canadian, or Red River. If any difference, the grass is better north than south. One year the winter may be more severe in the extreme north; the next it may be equally so in the south; and the third it may be most inclement midway between the two extremes; or, what is more common, the severe storms and heavy snows may follow irregular streaks across the country at various points. There are local causes and effects to be considered, such as permanently affect certain localities favorably or the contrary. For instance, nearer the western border of the plains there is less high wind, because the lofty mountain ranges form a shelter or wind breaker. Of local advantages, detached ranges of mountains, hills, or broken land, timber, brush, and deep ravines or stream-beds are the most important in furnishing shelter, and, as a general thing, better and always more varied pasture ground.
"There is never rain upon the middle and northern plains during the winter months. When snow comes it is always dry, and never freezes to stock. The reverse is the case in the Northern and Middle States, where winter storms often begin with rain, which is followed by snow, and conclude with piercing wind and exceeding cold. Stock men can readily appreciate the effect of such weather upon stock exposed to its influence.
"The soil of the plains is very much the same every-where. To a casual observer it looks sterile and unpromising, but, when turned by the plow or spade, is found very fertile. Near the mountains it is filled with coarse rock particles, and under the action of the elements these become disproportionately prominent on the surface. Receding from the mountains, it becomes gradually finer, until gravel and bits of broken stone are no longer seen. Being made up from the wash and wearing away of the mountains, alkaline earths enter largely into its composition, supplying inexhaustible quantities of those properties which the eastern farmer can secure only by the application of plaster, lime, and like manures. These make the rich, nutritious grasses upon which cattle thrive so remarkably, and to the constant wonder of new-comers, who can not reconcile the idea of such comparatively bare and barren-looking plains with the fat cattle that roam over them.
"Besides the plains, there is a vast extent of pasture-lands in the mountains. Wherever there is soil enough to support vegetation, grass is found in abundance, to a line far above the limit of timber growth, and almost to the crest of the snowy range. These high pastures, however, are suitable only for summer and autumn range; but in portions of the great parks and large valleys, most parts of which lie below eight thousand feet altitude above the sea, cattle, horses, and sheep live and thrive the year round. The cost of raising a steer to the age of five years, when he is at a prime age for market, is believed to be about seven dollars and a half, or one dollar and a half per year. A number of estimates given us by stock men, running through several years, place the average at about that figure. That contemplates a herd of four hundred or more. Smaller lots of cattle will generally cost relatively more. The items of expense are herding, branding, and salt—nothing for feed."
THE CATTLE-HIVE OF NORTH AMERICA.
In this connection we may very properly quote from the same writer the following paragraph in regard to the source from whence all the cattle are now brought—that great natural breeding ground, the prairie land of Texas.