6 Western Live-stock Management 



ness of the atmosphere tends to counteract to a marked 

 extent the effects of any. unusual temperature; therefore, 

 the cHmate of the West is on the whole much more pleasant 

 to both man and beast than in the central and eastern 

 part of the United States. There are but few localities 

 where cattle or sheep will not do reasonably well in the 

 open range or pasture without shelter of any kind. The 

 absence of extreme wet and sleety storms, such as occur 

 in the eastern states, makes it unnecessary to provide much 

 shelter, even where the temperature becomes very low. As 

 we approach the Pacific Coast, we reach a country in 

 which the climate is modified by the infiuence of the Japan 

 current. The western part of Washington and Oregon 

 has exceedingly mild winters and a rainfall three or four 

 times that in other parts of the West. The dividing line 

 between this humid area and the drier districts is distinct 

 and follows quite accurately the crest of the Cascade 

 Mountains as far south as the Siskiyou Mountains on the 

 Oregon-California boundary, and then follows the crest 

 of the Coast Mountains nearly to San Francisco. Along 

 this boundary a distance of 50 miles east and west will 

 take us from a region of eight or nine months' growing 

 season with a rainfall of 40 to 60 inches and practically 

 no snow in winter to a region of not to exceed 90 days' 

 growing season, and a rainfall of less than 15 inches. 



Midsummer is the dry season in nearly all parts of the 

 West, and the months of July and August have but little 

 rainfall, even in the humid regions of the North Pacific 

 Coast. The exceptions to this are western Texas, Ai-i- 

 zona, and New Mexico. In Arizona and New Mexico most 

 of the precipitation comes in July and August, with a sec- 

 ondary rainy season in midwinter, while in western Texas, 

 there is little regularity as to either rainfall or drouth. 



