Beef Producers of the West 39 



however, especially if the business is conducted in the 

 winter time, requires a quantity of feed of exceptionally 

 good quality. This means either plenty of good alfalfa 

 hay or corn, or preferably both. The steer may be fat- 

 tened on grass in the summer time, providing the grass is 

 sufficiently good. On looking over the western country, 

 we find that the southern part, including particularly 

 Arizona, New INIexico, and western Texas, has a com- 

 paratively mild winter climate, and on that account is 

 well suited to the handling of cows and calves, but on the 

 other hand the grass is often poor and steers mature 

 slowly. The eastern slope of the Rocky INIountains, 

 particularly the eastern parts of Colorado, Wyoming, 

 and Montana and the AA'estern parts of Kansas, Nebraska, 

 and the Dakotas, is a region of much better grass than the 

 Arizona and New Mexico country, but on the other hand 

 subject to much more severe storms. The growing 

 steer, such as the yearling and the two-year-old, does 

 better in this region than farther south. Sometimes the 

 grass is sufficiently good in the summer that the steers 

 may be shipped directly from the range to the slaughtering 

 centers, but often it is necessary to put them through some 

 definite fattening process. This region does not produce 

 very good fattening feeds; consequently the industry of 

 fattening steers is centered largely in the states farther 

 east, that is, in the Corn-Belt. The southern part of 

 the West, i.e., Arizona, New Mexico, and western Texas, 

 is largely devoted to the raising of calves, which are sold 

 at an age of about twelve months to the cattle-men farther 

 north, along the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains. 

 These men keep the cattle for one or two more years, and 

 if they become fat in that time they are sent directly to 

 the markets on the Missouri River or at Chicago, or in 



