702 SHEEP INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES 



New Mexico, etc., is much of it 5,000 feet above the ocean; but very 

 little of the range country of Montana is over 4,000 feet, while very 

 much, if not the major part, is less than 3,000 feet in altitude. Through 

 this comparatively low section of the Kocky Mountain system, a warm 

 wind from the Pacific blows for long periods, its temperature in winter 

 often being 49 to 50 F. This wind, however, may be suddenly chopped 

 off by an Arctic wave, and the thermometer sink 80 or 90 in a day or 

 two. It is this very disagreeable freak of the weather which, though 

 it does not happen very often, "makes life a burden" to the stockmen 

 when it does come, and renders special precautions necessary. As a 

 rule, upon the ranges of Monana, it is either too warm or too cold to 

 snow. 



In northern Montana, according to the records of the War Depart- 

 ment signal station, at Fort Ben ton, for fifteen years, from 1870 to 

 1886, the average rainfall in autumn was 2.51,- winter, 1.93; spring, 

 4.15, and summer, 4.75, or a total average of 12.65 inches for the year. 

 The records of the signal office at Helena, in western Montana, for the 

 years 18SO-'89, inclusive, show the average annual rainfall for this 

 period to have been a trifle in excess of 11.5 inches. 



Regarding the physical features, etc., which give to Montana such 

 natural adaptability for sheep husbandry, the following extracts from 

 a descriptive pamphlet, " Montana," by the passenger department of 

 the Union Pacific Company describe it well : 



Montana extends 550 miles from east to west, and nearly 300 north to south a total 

 area of about 150,000 square miles, or nearly 100,000,000 acres. We can more fully 

 appreciate the meaning of these figures when we remember that the six New England 

 States and the great State of New York would not cover this area; that Minnesota 

 and Iowa could be turned over upon it and a margin left for Connecticut to rest upon, 

 or that England and Wales, Ireland, and Scotland combined, do not near equal it in 

 size. 



This magnificent empire of the Northwest contains 30,000,000 acres of fertile farm 

 lands, a more extensive area than is covered by an entire average Eastern State. It 

 contains 38,000,000 acres of unexcelled grazing lands, a pasture field alone larger 

 than the great prairie State of Illinois. 



One-fifth of the area of this vast Territory, or about 20,000,000 acres, is mountain- 

 ous. While a few of the ranges are broken and grandly rugged, the majority con- 

 sist of beautiful swells of 110 extreme height, presenting acclivities so gentle that 

 natural roads run over them by easy grades at many points. Valley, bench, and 

 mountain often blend so evenly that it is difficult to tell just where the one ends 

 andthe other begins. The mountains are jeweled at all altitudes with copious springs, 

 "clear and cold as crystal ice." Even the passes over the highest ranges in Montana 

 usually have an altitude of only about 6,000 feet above sea level no greater than 

 the elevation of the plains at Cheyenne, Wyo., and less than 1,000 feet greater than 

 Denver, Colo., a city surrounded by highly productive farms. Nearly all the arable 

 mountain valleys average from 500 to 2,000 feet lower than the most fertile ones of 

 Colorado or Utah. Montana's highest peak would hardly reach timber-line in Colo- 

 rado, and her average mountains only reach heights which in the Centennial State 

 are made to blossom as the rose. It is a land of gentle acclivities, over which you 

 often pass without knowing when you are upon the summit. 



The main range of the Rockies, the Bitter Boot and Cuiur d' Alene in the western 



