WESTERN LAMB FEEDING. 235 



downs. In the winter of 1898-1899 the feeders 

 lost nearly all the hay they put into the lamhs, 

 getting hack only the manure and pay for the 

 com hought in Nebraska. In other years they 

 have made very large profits. At intervals they 

 have tried feeding other things — calves, weth- 

 ers, ewes to lamb — ^in the feed lot. The wethers 

 and calves are mostly eliminated now and 

 lambs are fed on an ever-increasing scale. It 

 is a settled industry, not without its risks yet 

 as certain of profit as any feeding business can 

 well be. 



Colorado lambs are the product of Colorado 

 alfalfa and Kansas and Nebraska com. There 

 is sometimes a little locally-grown wheat or 

 barley fed, when it is cheap enough, but ^helled 

 com and alfalfa form probably 95 per cent of 

 the foods fed. 



In early days the Colorado feeders depended 

 almost altogether upon the lambs of New Mex- 

 ico and southem Colorado for a supply of 

 feeders. The reputation of Fort Collins' lambs 

 was made first with these Mexicans. In more 

 recent years lambs have come there from other 

 regions, notably from Utah and Wyoming. The 

 process of feeding lambs in Colorado is admir- 

 ably simple. There are yards built of six-inch 

 boards, with cracks between them wide enough 

 to permit the lambs to thrust their heads m 

 and eat between them. Hay is then piled along 

 these fences right on the gromid (which is usu- 

 ally dry in that sunny clime) and the lambs eat 

 it standing with their necks through the fence. 

 Two or three times a day men go along and 



