198 MONTANA IGU 



summer feed. Today we could feed much more live stock on the ranches and farms 

 'iuring tlie winter than could be successfully run on the o^pen range during the sum- 

 mer months. Where Montana used to ship all of her beef during the 

 Getting' the ^^^1 months, she now holds a great many and after being fattened 

 Most Out luring the winter they are sold in the spring. This industry has 

 become very important in the western part of the state and in the 

 of the Yellowstone valley. The ranchmen have found it the only practical 



Livestock. way of marketing their hay. 



"With proper regulations pertaining to grazing lands and the 

 present facilities for winter feeding, the state of Montana could treble its live stock 

 holdings and probably not have enough." 



In addition to the development of its beef and dairy herds, the raising 

 of sheep, horses and hog-s is also of prime importance in Montana. Due to 

 the restrictions of the public range, Ithe sheep and wool industry is, like the 



beef industry, in a period of transition, and practically all ot 

 Taking the large flocks are being cut down. On the other hand, the 



Bands of number of flocks in the State is actually on the increase. In 

 Sheep on accordance with the general plan of good farming now being 

 Shares. carried on in this .State it is realized that a few shepp are an 



economic necessity on every well established farm, and some 

 of the larger growers, who find their range passing away, are making 

 arrangements for a large number of farmers to carry a small band of sheep 

 — ^^as many as they can economically care for — on shares, a plan which 

 alread}' gives every indication of being mutually profitable. These smaller 

 herds, together wnth the larger bands which may be run on the national 

 forests, insure the continuing importance of Montana's sheep and wool 

 industry. 



The growing of hogs on a commercial scale has recently been suc- 

 cessfully undertaken in practically every section of the State, and is rapidly 

 being extended. For some time this Avas regarded as a somewhat hazardous 



business owing to the fear of cholera, btrt excellent work on 

 Hogs Thrive the part of the state veterinarian's department in innoculating 

 and Bring brood stock has almbst entirely removed this danger and it 

 Big Prices, is authoritatively stated that there is no trouble with hog 



cholera in ?\Iontana at the present time. ]\Iany [NTontana swine 

 are consumed in the larger markets of the state, and the surplus finds ready 

 sale at both eastern and western primary'- markets. Montana farmers who 

 have taken up hog-raising are shov^nng a marked partiality to good blooded 

 stock, and some excellent registered herds are to be found in the State. 



Horse raising is a very important industry in this State, and in this 

 line, too, the old order has rapidly changed. The range horse — the "cayuse" 

 of the olden days — has given way to a large extent to graded and full 



blooded stock, with a preponderance of heavy draft animals. A 

 Montana's few years ago the United States war department established at 

 Horse Miles City, on the site of old Fort Keough, the largest remount 



Market Is station in the United States, and here are purchased a large 

 Famous. number of remounts used in the cavalry and field artillery 



branches of the service. Coincident with this remount station, 

 there has been developed at ^[iles City the largest primary horse market 

 in the world, and here very successful sales are held every month, and 

 practically every kind of high class horse flesh, from the full blooded running 

 and trotting animals, to the heaviest of draft horses, are bought for ship- 

 ment to every section of this country and abroad. 



— One-third of all the copper in the United States comes from Montana. 



