34 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



Cheyenne, Wyo., was for several years a great point 

 for the unloading of southern steers northward-bound, 

 and later on Orin Junction, through the extension of the 

 tracks, became the center of this business. Here the 

 steers, thin in flesh and sore from their rough usage in 

 the cars, were unloaded. After being decorated with 

 their new owner's brand some were branded in the 

 Denver yards as they passed that point they were 

 started out on the trail for their destination. As the 

 shipments were generally timed to bring them there with 

 the early spring grass, they grazed their way, picking 

 up in flesh from the day they started, so that by the 

 time they reached their owners' ranges they were "on 

 the mend" and gaining weight rapidly. 



Steers thus brought up were generally kept on the 

 range for one winter and two summers, being marketed 

 the second fall. Many of them, however, were "double- 

 wintered" and not shipped until the third summer. If 

 the season had been a good one this class of steers was 

 eagerly snapped up by the exporters for foreign trade, 

 being considered without any further finishing equal in 

 every way to corn-fed cattle. Many of the "single-win- 

 tered" steers were also taken for this trade, but the 

 larger part of them went to the feedlots of the cornbelt 

 states like Illinois, Iowa, Indiana and Ohio. Here with 

 a short season of corn they come back onto the market 

 a truly finished product. 



Southern Steers in the North. At the beginning of 

 the business the shipments were about equally divided 

 between yearlings and two-year-olds. A few winters' ex- 

 perience, however, satisfied the steermen that yearlings 

 were not able to stand the first winter so well as two- 

 year-olds, and eventually the majority of the shipments 



