696 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



prise in the placing of good bulls on the open range, 

 Mr. Miller added : 



"One of the great drawbacks to a more rapid 

 trade has been the difficulty of holding the bulls for 

 use in the owners ' herds. The practice being to run 

 their herds on a common range, the cattle of several 

 owners intermingle. Jones, buying thoroughbred 

 bulls, and his herd and Smith's running together, 

 Smith gets the use of Jones ' bulls. Very few of the 

 cattlemen have fenced at all. Very few have thought 

 they could herd their cattle, although this is entirely 

 practicable. The introduction of barbed wire has 

 made fencing practicable, and many are finding that 

 herding is practicable. 



"The Messrs. Thatcher Bros. & Co. and the 

 Messrs. Swan both intend to select cows upon which 

 to use these bulls, and herd them during the coupling 

 season, and then place their bulls, until the coupling 

 season returns, in pasture prepared for them. 



"The late Mr. Iliff had enclosed some ten or 

 twelve pastures, containing from 1,000 to 3,000 acres 

 in each, for use of cows during coupling season, and 

 out of coupling seasons for the bulls. There are 

 many who have adopted this practice, and the num- 

 ber is increasing. The difficulty in introducing fine 

 stock has been, first, the cost, and secondly, the 

 difficulty of getting the use of them. ' ' 



Whereas Mr. Miller had in the first instance been 

 obliged to "force" the western market by shipping 

 small consignments at large expense, and offering 

 them for sale on their arrival in Colorado, the re- 

 turns soon began to come in so favorably from all 

 quarters that sales were easily made and at ad- 

 vancing figures. Beecher continued . for several 

 years to be the main source of supply. In 1878 Mr. 



