STOCK-RAISING IN THE GREAT WEST. 475 



wide, in which only scattering herds can be found, and they 

 seldom numbering ten thousand animals. 



" There is no reason why domestic cattle may not take their 

 place. The climate, soil, and vegetation are as well adapted 

 to the tame as to the wild. The latter lived and thrived the 

 year round all the way up to latitude fifty degrees north. 

 Twenty years' experience proves that the former do equally 

 w T ell upon the same range, and with the same lack of care. 

 Time, the settlement of the country, the growing wants of 

 agriculture) the encroachment of tilled fields, will gradually 

 narrow the range, as did semi-civilization that of the buffalo 

 first from the Mississippi Valley westward, where that process 

 is already seen, and then from the Rocky Mountains toward 

 the east; but as yet the range is practically unlimited, and for 

 many years to come there will be room to fatten beeves to feed 

 the world. 



" This great pasture land covers Western Texas, Indian 

 Territory, Kansas, Nebraska, and Dakota, Eastern New Mex- 

 ico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, and extends far into 

 British America. The southerly and south-easterly portions 

 produce the largest growth of grass, but it lacks the nutritious 

 qualities of that covering the higher and drier lands farther 

 north and west. Rank-growing and bottom-land grasses con- 

 tain mostly water: they remain green until killed by frost, 

 when their substance flows back to the root, or is destroyed by 

 the action of the elements. The dwarf grass of the higher 

 plains makes but a small growth, but makes that very quickly 

 in the early spring, and then, as the rains diminish and the 

 summer heat increases, it dies and cures into hay where it 

 stands ; the seed even, in which it is very prolific, remains 



