94 Western Live-stock Management 
necessary in the range countries to provide cover for the 
feed-racks or for the hay. 
Natural shelter is in many places as satisfactory as 
barns, as places protected from prevailing winds and storms 
by hills, timber or brush and on well-drained ground where 
there will be little mud. Cattle sheds are rare in the range 
country even among the best cattle-men, but we find the 
good managers all very carefully picking out the most 
sheltered spots for their winter feeding. In much of the 
semi-arid country, cattle will do better in a place well 
protected by nature but without sheds than in an exposed 
position fortified with a number of expensive buildings. 
In the rainy district of the Pacific Northwest, real 
barns are required and they must not only shelter the 
cattle but the hay and feed-racks. The popular barn 
throughout all this region has the hay extending from the 
ridge pole down to the ground and with racks and cattle 
sheds around two or three sides of the central portion or 
hay barn. The hay is forked directly from the mow to 
the feed-racks. Dehorned cattle require about three 
feet of rack room and fifty to sixty square feet of floor 
space for each mature animal. Horned cattle require 
more room and are a nuisance in a barn regardless of the , 
amount of space allowed. 
FENCING 
Without question the best fence for cattle is a good 
woven-wire type, about forty-two inches high with a barb 
wire on top about six inches above the top of the woven 
wire, but such fences are usually too expensive for com- 
mercial cattle so that as a matter of economy one is obliged 
to resort to the old-time barb wire. Three barb wires 
