438 GRASSES AND HOW TO GROW THEM. 



and which bring much suffering to the herds and 

 flocks, which frequently ends in great financial losses. 

 In some instances, these blizzards come quite late in 

 spring, as late as May in Montana. At such times, 

 sheep and lambs sometimes perish in large numbers. 

 The temperature of the range country is considerably 

 milder in winter, than corresponding latitudes east- 

 ward, owing doubtless to the influence of the Pacific. 

 With sufficiently plentiful surplus of grass, horses and 

 cattle could winter safely on the pastures in all the 

 range country, were it not for two influences, which, 

 when they act in conjunction, make the wintering of 

 stock, more or less hazardous. These are snow-fall, 

 partially melted with '^chinook winds," and then sud- 

 denly coated with a crust of ice, caused by rapidly 

 falling and low temperatures. These "chinooks" are 

 warm winds, which blow at irregular and not infre- 

 quent intervals. Were it not for these, no live stock 

 could graze north in winter. The pastures are thus 

 rendered inaccessible, insomuch that if low tempera- 

 tures prevail for any considerable period of time, the 

 animals cannot graze and so literally starve. When 

 the weather immediately following is of unusual se- 

 verity, as sometimes happens, particularly in ranges 

 northward, they perish in great numbers. Driven be- 

 fore the winds, they seek the shelter of willows and 

 other bushes by the streams and die slowly from cold 

 and hunger. The sufferings of live stock, thus ex- 

 posed and left to die a lingering and cruel death, forms 

 one of the darkest chapters in the industrial history 

 of this country. These cold winters only come occa- 



