FLOCK HUSBANDRY IN WESTERN STATES 227 



over-pasturing. It will indeed be a happy day for 

 all this region when the land is divided up, owned 

 or leased by the cattle and sheep owners and the era 

 of destruction of that beautiful land ends and re- 

 construction begins again. It is a short-sighted pol- 

 icy of our National Government that permits ranges 

 to be devastated and refuses leases that would tend 

 to preserve them and thus enrich all the community. 



MONTANA, WYOMING AND THE DAKOTAS. 



These regions possess a distinct character and 

 have a type of sheep husbandry of their own. They 

 are characterized by very wide, well-grassed pla- 

 teaus or plains, somewhat destitute of trees or brush 

 and sometimes devoid of hills, canyons or natural 

 shelter. The climate is much milder than it would be 

 in a similar latitude in the eastern states, and while 

 very low temperatures are often reached in winter, 

 sometimes with occasional blizzards, yet there are 

 seldom deep or long-lying snows, and the abundance 

 of grass renders it easy for the flocks to find sub- 

 sistence. The grasses on these plains seem not so 

 fattening as upon the mountains of Utah and Idaho, 

 but are more abundant than those of regions to the 

 southward and produce a fine class of sheep. In 

 this region are found the larger types of Merinos, 

 with often an infusion of Cotswold or Lincoln or 

 Leicester blood, while mutton-bred rams of all types 

 are used to produce market lambs. Sheep do not 

 permanently injure the grasses of this region, and 

 indeed when grazed with judgment, not to over- 



