CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 89 



the land turns into gold/ and the dry, gravelly soil of 

 our Plains is peculiarly adapted for raising sheep, for 

 while it produces the richest of grasses for their con- 

 sumption, it is of a character that preserves their feet 

 from the diseases most fatal to the flocks. As it is well 

 known that the finer wools are grown at great altitudes, 

 we should be able to supply the world with almost un- 

 limited quantities of the best wool. While it may be' 

 justly deemed a reproach to the country at large that 

 the United States has been for years past an importer 

 of wool to the average amount of 50,000,000 pounds 

 per annum, it is a source of satisfaction to us to know 

 that there is a ready market at our doors, among our 

 own countrymen, for so large an amount of all that we 

 can grow. It is not sheep alone of the wool-bearing 

 animals that can be made so profitable on our Plains. 

 Our mountain ranges are in many respects reduplica- 

 tions of the country in which the most valuable and 

 delicate varieties of the Cashmere and Angora goats are 

 raised, and those flocks which browse on the shrubs 

 growing at high altitudes in the rare high atmosphere 

 of the mountains invariably produce the largest and 

 finest fleece. The importation of these goats into our 

 Territory should be encouraged. Unnumbered cattle 

 must be raised and fattened on our soil, and with the 

 cheap railroad freights which we have a right to expect, 

 the herdsman of our Plains, while advancing his own 

 fortune, will prove a benefactor to the laboring classes 

 of the East, by bringing the price of the best beef within 

 the limit of their means." 



Many other letters and documents from persons 



8* 



