l8 RANCH LIFE AND THE HUNTING-TRAIL 



and when found on the round-up are either branded by the owner of the 

 range on which they are, or else are sold for the benefit of the association. 

 At every shipping point, as well as where the beef cattle are received, there 

 are stock inspectors who jealously examine all the brands on the live ani- 

 mals or on the hides of the slaughtered ones, so as to detect any foul 

 pla\-, which is immediately reported to the association. It becomes sec- 

 ond nature with a cowboy to inspect and note the brands of every bunch 

 of animals he comes across. 



Perhaps the thing that seems strangest to the traveler who for the first 

 time crosses the bleak plains of this Upper Missouri grazing country is 

 the small number of cattle seen. He can hardly believe he is in the great 

 stock region, where for miles upon miles he will not see a single head, 

 and will then come only upon a straggling herd of a few score. As a 

 matter of fact, where there is no artificial food put up for winter use cattle 

 always need a good deal of ground per head ; and this is peculiarly the 

 case with us in the North-west, where much of the ground is bare of 

 vegetation and where what pasture there is is both short and sparse. It 

 is a matter of absolute necessity, where beasts are left to shift for them- 

 selves in the open during the bitter winter weather, that they then should 

 have grass that they have not cropped too far down ; and to insure this it 

 is necessary with us to allow on the average about twenty- five acres of 

 ground to each animal. This means that a range of country ten miles 

 square will keep between two and three thousand head of stock only, and 

 if more are put on, it is at the risk of seeing a severe winter kill off half 

 or three-quarters of the whole number. So a range may be in reality 

 overstocked when to an Eastern and unpracticed eye it seems hardly to 

 have on it a number worth taking into account. 



Overstocking is the great danger threatening the stock-raising indus- 

 try on the plains. This industry has only risen to be of more than local 

 consequence during the past score of years, as before that time it was 

 confined to Texas and California; but during these two decades of its 

 existence the stockmen in different localities have again and again suffered 

 the most ruinous losses, usually with overstocking as the ultimate cause. 

 In the south the drought, and in the north the deep snows, and everywhere 

 unusually bad winters, do immense damage ; still, if the land is fitted tor 

 stock at all, they will, averaging one year with another, do very well so 

 long as the feed is not cropped down too close. 



But, of course, no amount of feed will make some countries worth any- 

 thing for cattle that are not housed during the winter ; and stockmen in 

 choosing new ranges for their herds pay almost as much attention to the 



