CHAPTER X. 

 COST OF RUNNING STOCK ON RANGES. 



In the last few years the cost of handling stock on 

 the open ranges has very materially increased, due to 

 many causes. In the palmy days of the business it was 

 estimated that the cost of running between 1,000 and 

 2,000 cattle on the range where the owner himself looked 

 after them was under $1 per head per year. As there 

 was a certain amout of fixed expense no matter whether 

 the number was 1,000 or 10,000, this cost was some- 

 what decreased as the number of stock increased, but 

 commonly $1 was very close to the average. 



When there was plenty of range, and the country 

 was open for the stock in all directions, excepting for 

 the cattle, there was very little investment outside of 

 a good home ranch, the chuck wagon and saddle horses. 

 As settlers came in stockmen were forced to buy water- 

 ing-places along streams to keep the water open, and to 

 fence up pastures for saddle horses and bulls, requiring 

 large outlays for wire and land. The overstocking 

 forced them to make more provision for winter feed- 

 ing, especially in the North, where the winters are 

 more severe than in the Southwest. 



All these things required a greater investment and 

 thus caused an increase in the running expenses. On 

 the open ranges today, on a basis of 1,000 cattle the aver- 

 age annual cost per head is probably more than $2 ; with 

 small bunches much more. 



Cost of Grazing Cattle. In New Mexico and the 



