STOCK-RAISING IN THE GREAT WEST. 477 



where. To a casual observer it looks sterile and unpromis- 

 ing, but, when turned by the plow or spade, is found very 

 fertile. Near the mountains it is filled with coarse rock par- 

 ticles, and under the action of the elements these become dis- 

 proportionately prominent on the surface. Receding from the 

 mountains, it becomes gradually finer, until gravel and bits 

 of broken stone are no longer seen. Being made up from the 

 wash and wearing away of the mountains, alkaline earths enter 

 largely into its composition, supplying inexhaustible quanti- 

 ties of those properties which the eastern farmer can secure 

 only by the application of plaster, lime, and like manures. 

 These make the rich, nutritious grasses upon which cattle 

 thrive so remarkably, and to the constant wonder of new- 

 comers, who can not reconcile the idea of such comparatively 

 bare and barren-looking plains with the fat cattle that roam 

 over them. 



" Besides the plains, there is a vast extent of pasture-lands 

 in the mountains. Wherever there is soil enough to support 

 vegetation, grass is found in abundance, to a line far above 

 the limit of timber growth, and almost to the crest of the 

 snowy range. These high pastures, however, are suitable 

 only for summer and autumn range; but in portions of the 

 great parks and large valleys, most parts of which lie below 

 eight thousand feet altitude above the sea, cattle, horses, and 

 sheep live and thrive the year round. The cost of raising a 

 steer to the age of five years, when he is at a prime age for 

 market, is believed to be about seven dollars and a half, or 

 one dollar and a half per year. A number of estimates 

 given us by stock men, running through several years, place 

 the average at about that figure. That contemplates a herd 

 of four hundred or more. Smaller lots of cattle will gener- 



