304 AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 
Mr. Edward Creighton, of Omaha, Nebraska, writes: 
For eleven winters I have grazed more or less stock, including horses, eattle, and 
sheep, in Colorado, Wyoming, Utah, and Montana. Large work-cattle winter in the 
valleys and on the plains exceedingly well. We have no shelter but the bluffs and 
hills, and no feed but the wild grasses of the country. The last four winters I have 
been raising stock, and have wintered about 8,000 head. They have done remarkably 
well. We have had 3,000 sheep the past winter, and they are in the best order. I 
have been interested in stock-raising in the States for a number of years, where we 
had tame grass hay and fenced fields, and good shelter for the stock, and good Ameri- 
can and blooded cattle, and an experienced stock-raiser to attend them, and after a fall 
trial I have found that, with the disadvantage of the vastly inferior Texas cattle, and 
no hay, no grain, no shelter, nothing but the wild grass, there is three times the profit 
in grazing on the plains. 
Mr. J. A. Moore, of Cheyenne, formerly a sheep-raiser in Ohio, writes: 
I have been familiar with grazing on the plains for eleven years; have had experience 
with horses, cattle, and sheep, and have found no difficulty in wintering stock without - 
shelter, except what is afforded by the cafions and the blufis. My loss in winter has 
been less than during my experience in stock-raising in Ohio. I have now 8,000 sheep 
which have wintered well on the native grasses. Since bringing them to this cool and 
elevated country, they have increased in the quantity as well as in the quality of 
wool. I know of no disease which prevails among sheep in this country. Out of these 
8,000 sheep I have lost enly two by wolves. This region is peculiarly the home of 
the sheep. I can raise wool here for less than one-half its cost in Ohio or other East- 
ern States. 
General L. P. Bradley, United States Army, who has been on duty at 
various posts in that country, says: ° 
The value of this country for grazing may be estimated from the fact that good, fine 
grasses grow evenly all over the country ; that the air is so fine that the grasses cure 
on the ground without losing any of their nutriment; and that the climate is so mild 
and genial that stock can range and feed all the winter, and keep in excellent condi- 
tion without artificial shelter or fodder. The fact of grasses curing on the ground is a 
well-known peculiarity of all the high country on the eastern slope of the mountains, 
and in this consists the great value of this immense range for grazing purposes. I be- 
lieve that all the flocks and herds in the world could find ample pasturage on these 
unoccupied plains and the mountain slopes beyond; and the time is not far distant 
when the largest fiocks and herds in the world will be found here, where the grass 
grows and ripens untouched from year to year. 
The following is from the message of Governor Campbell, of Wy- 
oming: 
In the chosen home of the buffalo and other graminivorous animals which have for 
unnumbered years roamed over our plains, and subsisted on the succulent and nutri- 
tious grasses, if would seem superfiuous to say anything in relation to our advantages 
as a stock-growing country. In a climate so mild that horses, cattle, sheep, and goats 
can live in the open air through all the winter months, and fatten on the dry and ap- 
parently withered grasses of the soil, there would appear to be scarcely a limit to the 
number that could be raised. ' 
This testimony is conclusive upon the point of the practicability and 
reliability of the winter grazing of a country greater-in extent than all 
the States east of the Mississippi River. l 
The year 1870 is the first in which the people of this region have 
been able to ship beef cattle to eastern markets. The Union Pa- 
cific Rawroad the past season has been shipping cattle from the Rocky 
Mountains to the Chicago market, a distance of over a thousand miles, 
for $6 to$8 per head. i*rom carefully prepared estimates, the following 
numbers of cattle have been taken into the Territories the past season: 
To Colorado, 36,000; to Montana, 20,000; to Idaho, 9,000; to Nevada, 
12,000 ; to Utah, 10,000; to Wyoming, 11,006. These cattle are mostly 
trom Northwestern Texas, and are stock cattle to be used in breeding by 
crossing with Shert-horn and Devon stock. Grass-fed beef raised here, 
and very fat, is sold for $3 per hundred, live weight, and such rates are 
proving to be very profitable to the raiser. 
