78 WESTERN GRAZING GROUNDS AND FOREST RANGES 



range, chasing little calves and colts until they drop 

 down exhausted, when the mule will perhaps trample 

 them to death. This I have seen happen over and over 

 again on western ranges where the Mexicans and Indians 

 raised a great many mules. The mules unquestionably 

 do this in play, but the effect on the young things is 

 quite as bad as if done with malicious intent. In some 

 regions where owners have persisted in turning out 

 mules to graze on the ranges, owners took the matter 

 into their own hands and the animals were killed as a 

 matter of protection. 



Range for Cattle. In estimating the carrying capac- 

 ity of a range, it is generally agreed that a fair ratio be- 

 tween cattle and sheep is one to five ; that is, a range 

 which will support one cow will support five sheep. 

 In feedlots it is generally admitted that the same 

 amount of feed which will support one cow will take 

 care of eight sheep. This is due of course to a closer 

 cleaning up of the feed by the sheep. 



On many of the desert ranges it will probably require 

 100 acres to the animal to carry cattle the year around, 

 while in the mountain ranges, where feed grows rapidly 

 and there is a great variety of it, probably ten to fifteen 

 acres is sufficient. In Texas on the staked-plains ranges 

 they estimate that one cow or steer will require ten 

 acres for year-around purposes, while on the eastern 

 New Mexico ranges, where the sod is not so good, 

 twenty-five to thirty acres are necessary to keep the 

 range from being overgrazed and damaged. This is of 

 course for year after year. In some seasons, due to un- 

 usual precipitation, the feed grows so fast and there is 

 so much of it that a cow to every five acres will not be- 

 gin to eat it off. 



