THE PASTORAL LANDS OF AMERICA. 303 
and snow fall are small, as in the interior of the other continents where 
there has been winter grazing through the whole historic period. 
WISTORY OF GRAZING ON THE PLAINS. 
From 1833~54, when the first military posts were established west of the 
Missouri River, to the present time, thirty-six years, the animals used in 
freighting supplies.to these posts have been wintered on these great 
plains and in the mountain valleys, with no food but the cured and un- 
cut grasses, and no shelter but that afforded by the bluffs and hill-sides. 
In 1849 the great California emigration commenced, and continued for 
years. Thousands of oxen, horses, and mules, used in this emigration, 
were wintered in the valleys of the Rocky Mountain regions without 
hay or grain. The Mormons had previously moved to Utah in large 
numbers, and had wintered their stock through several seasons on the 
cured uncut grass alone, and with no artificial shelter. In 1857 
General Jobnston moved an army of several thousand men, with the 
usual number of citizen employés and followers, to Utah, and all the 
animals used in carrying supplies for this army were wintered in the val- 
leys by grazing alone. 
In 1859 the Pike’s Peak emigration took place, and here also was 
winter grazing put to the test, and found successful. From that time 
until the building of the Union Pacific Railroad, the freighting to New 
Mexico, Colorado, Utah, Montana, and Idaho employed thousands 
of animals, which were wintered upon the uncut grasses. That winter 
grazing is certain, safe, and profitable, in all this vast Rocky Mountain 
region; that here are perennial pastures, ‘‘ boundless, endless, gateless,” 
where cheap beef and mutton may beraised to feed the millions of labor- 
ers who are to develop the wealth of this continent, and where all grades 
of wool may be produced to supply the great manufacturing industries of 
the nation, is proved by the experience of freighters, stock-men, and 
flock-masters, who have had an experience of a quarter of a century in 
that country. Mr. J. W. iff, of Cheyenne, Wyoming Territory, one of 
the most extensive stock-men of the plains, who is wintering 8,000 head 
of cattle without hay or shelter the present season, writes: 
Ihave been engaged in the stock business in Colorado and Wyoming for the past 
pe years, and consider the summer-cured grasses superior tohay. My catile have not 
only kept in good order on this grass through all the eight winters, but many of them, 
thin in the fall, have become fine beef by spring. During this time, I have owned 
20,000 head of cattle. The percentage of loss is much less than in the States, where 
cattle are stabled and fed on corn and hay. My experience in sheep has not been so 
extensive as in cattle. I think, however, that the short sweet grass and dry climate 
here are especially adapted to sheep-raising. I am confident, from experience, that 
this trans-Missouri country can defy ajl competition in the production of wool, mutton, 
beef, and horses. +i: AWN 
Mr. Alexander Majors, of the freighting firm of Russell, Majors & 
Waddell, writes : 
I have been grazing cattle on the plains and in the valleys and mountains for twenty 
years, and during tliat time have never had less than 500 head of werk cattle, and for 
two winters, those of 1857 and 1858, I wintered 15,000 head of heavy work-oxen on the 
plains each winter. My experience extends from El Paso, on the Rio Grande, to one 
hundred miles north of Fort Benton, in Montana. Our stock is worked during the 
summér, and comes to the winter herding-ground thin. There it grazes without shel- 
ter, hay and grain being unknown. By spring the cattle are in good working order, 
and many of them fat enough for beef. During these twenty years the firm with which 
Ihave been connected has wintered many cattle on hay and corn in Missouri and 
Arkansas, and Iam sure the percentage of loss ef those wintered in this country is 
less than it was in those States with food and shelter. The country west of the Mis- 
souri River is one vast pasture, affording unequaled summer and winter grazing, where 
sheep, horses, and.cattle can be raised with only the cost of herding. 
