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 Mexico, 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 Mountains, 
particularly the eastern parts of Colorado, Wyoming, 
and Montana and the western 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, z.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 
