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water can be had for irrigation there is usually little difficulty in rais- 

 ing plenty of alfalfa, and then the need is for a supplementary hay or 

 forage of some sort in order that the alfalfa may be fed to the best 

 advantage. For much the greater portion of the region, however, irri- 

 gation is either impossible or impracticable, and here a drought-resistant 

 grass or forage crop is very much needed. Nearly six hundred farmers 

 and stockmen, representing nearly every county in the States of Colo- 

 rado, Wyoming, and Montana, and many from adjoining States, in 

 answer to the question, what is your present greatest need in the way 

 of forage, place hay and winter forage first, almost without exception. 

 In some localities winter pasturage is deemed more necessary than 

 hay or coarse forage, but with the changes in the methods of handling 

 cattle and the growing tendency toward winter feeding the use of 

 various kinds of hay and fodder crops is yearly becoming more general. 

 This, together with the fact that in many localities the range has 

 been so reduced by drought and overstocking that it is hardly suilicient 

 for summer paturage alone, making winter feeding absolutely neces- 

 sary, renders the demand for hay and fodder crops imperative. Then 

 again, the heavy losses of stock during some of the severe storms of 

 recent years have taught the ranchmen the necessity of providing 

 winter feed as a precautionary measure, if for no other reason. 



Of scarcely less importance than winter feed, and by some ranchmen 

 regarded of even more importance, is the need of early pasturage. There 

 is a period of a month or more, after the breaking up of winter and 

 before the native grasses get started, which is one of the most critical 

 for the ranchmen of this region. Stock is more or less weakened as a 

 result of the winter season, and palatable food is usually exceedingly 

 scarce. The stockmen say that if some grass (iould be introduced that 

 would provide pasturage earlier than the native grasses do, it would be 

 worth many thousands of dollars to them annually. 



Another matter of great importance to the ranchmen of the North- 

 west is the question of autumn forage. The native grasses on the 

 open ranges dry up in the latter part of the summer. Formerly the 

 growth was sufficiently abundant to provide plenty of well cured nutri 

 tious forage, but now the ranges are so baie in many localities at the 

 end of the summer that stock can get practically no autumn grazing 

 outshle of the fenced areas. Near the mountains the custom is to 

 range the stock in the liigher foothills and mountain valleys during the 

 sununer, and upon the appearance of the early snows to take it down 

 into the lower foothills, where it is kept during the autumn, or often 

 the entire winter; but in many places dionglit and overstocking have so 

 depleted these fall and winter grazing lands that they now afford com- 

 paratively little forage and are becoming covered with worthless weeds. 

 In such l(»calities it is necessary to begin feeding the stock long before 

 winter begins in order to keep it in good condition. The rancher 

 regards as his most favorable season one in which there is a heavy 



