Homesteading 



they can get a purchaser. These unoccupied 

 spaces of open prairie are a source of trouble 

 and anxiety to the genuine settler as breeding 

 places for the destructive gopher, and from the 

 danger of fire ; on the other hand, they provide 

 hay and keep for almost any amount of stock 

 he can manage to get together, so it is only 

 natural that with poor crop returns he should 

 turn his attention in the direction of horses, cattle, 

 and hogs. Some reader may say, " Why not 

 sheep ? " and, in truth, there would not seem 

 to be any very good reason against them, and 

 many in favour of keeping them, and I met one 

 man who was trying them with considerable 

 success, he said. Their help in keeping down 

 weeds might be very great, but there are still 

 many coyotes about in most districts, and it 

 is to be feared that many of the dogs partake 

 of the same nature as the prairie wolf, as far 

 as sheep are concerned ; at any rate, the fact 

 remains that there are very few sheep kept. 



From the foregoing remarks it will be apparent 

 that, at least in the district referred to, there 

 is but little mixed farming in the British sense 

 of the word. Here and there bachelors like Tom 

 and myself milk a cow and make a little butter 

 for themselves, or a man blessed with a wife may 

 have two or three, and exchange the butter they 



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