LOSSES FROM SNOW STORMS 421 







Management on the summer range consists chiefly in keeping 

 the sheep and lambs on good feed and in protecting them from 

 predatory animals. It requires faithful and skillful herding to keep 

 ewes and their lambs on good feed in the mountains because they 

 are run on definite allotments and it is hard regularly to locate 

 camp so that feed is always easily accessible. Then, too, the fact 

 that the mountains are rough makes it hard to protect sheep, for 

 there are numerous canyons and draws in which they can become 

 lost and exposed to the attacks of their enemies. 



The outcome of the sheep business as regards profit and loss 

 depends in large measure upon how the lambs develop on the sum- 

 mer range. In certain regions there is no hope of their becoming 

 fat enough or heavy enough to go direct from the range to the 

 markets as mutton. Owner?, in such regions, must dispose of 

 their lambs as feeders and manage on a smaller return per head 

 than those who can grow them to marketable condition and weight. 



It is now rather common for lambs to be marketed before the 

 summer season closes.' In order to get them to market in good con- 

 dition it is necessary to drive the ewes along with them to the point 

 of shipment and to have a feeding ground nearby so that the lambs 

 will have a supply of feed and milk up to the time they are loaded 

 on cars. While the shipment is a long one, lambs from the National 

 Forests in Washington reach the Chicago market in very good con- 

 dition and sell as choice and prime lambs (Fig. 232). 



Problems in Both Winter and Summer Management. The 

 report of the Tariff Board, 1911, has an excellent discussion of 

 losses, which is as follows : 



" Losses. The question of losses is one which haunts the west- 

 ern sheepman day and night. When the sheep are on the winter 

 ranges, he dreads the possibility of a deep snow, which will cover up 

 the feed and make moving the sheep difficult, if not impossible. 

 This is particularly true in the Northwest, where, in the winter of 

 1910, for example, many sheepmen found their flocks snow-bound 

 miles away from feed of any kind. 



" Losses From Snow Storms. In many cases the owners were 

 forced to buy hay at unusually high prices, have it baled and shipped 

 to the nearest railroad point, then "moved out in wagons or packed 

 on horses and mules to where the sheep were, the snow being so deep 

 and the road so difficult that wagons could not always be used. 



" Others hired teams, and with snowplows a trail was broken 



