GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF THE TERRITORIES. 249 



It is therefore a fact conceded that the great bulk of our beef-cattle 

 must be raised upon the grazing fields of the States and Territories west 

 of the Mississippi. 



As this report would be incomplete without some remarks upon this 

 subject, and as experience in the Territories is requisite to an accurate 

 knowledge of it, I give the following remarks taken principally from the 

 article of Dr. Latham of Laramie, and published in the Omaha Herald, 

 prefacing fchem with some judicious remarks from the pen of Mr. Byers 

 in the liocky Mountain News : 



After the mining interest, which must always take rank as the first productive 

 industry in the mountain territories of the West, stock-raising will doubtless con- 

 tinue next in importance. The peculiarities of climate and soil adapt the grass-covered 

 country west of the ninety-eighth degree of longitude especially to the growth and 

 highest perfection of horses, cattle, and sheep. The earliest civilized explorers found 

 the plains densely populated with buffalo, elk, deer, and antelope, their numbers 

 exceeding computation. Great nations of Indians subsisted almost entirely by the 

 fruits of the chase, but with the rude weapons used were incapable of diminishing 

 their numbers. With the advent of the white man and the introduction of fire-arms, 

 and to supply the demands of commerce, these wild cattle have been slaughtered by 

 the million, until their range, once six hundred miles wide from east to west, and 

 extending more than two thousand miles north and south, over which they moved in 

 solid columns, darkening the plains, has been diminished to an irregular belt, a hun- 

 dred and fifty miles wide, in which only scattering herds can be found, and they seldom 

 numbering ten thousand animals. There is no reason why domestic cattle may not take 

 their place. The climate, soil, and vegetation, are as well adapted to the tame !ts to 

 the wild. The latter lived and thrived the year round all the way up to latitude fifty 

 degrees north. Twenty years' experience proves that the former do equally well upon 

 the same range, and with the same lack of care. Time, the settlement of the couutry, 

 the growing wants of agriculture, the encroachment of tilled fields, will gradually nar- 

 row the range, as did semi-civilization that of the buffalo ; first from the Mississippi 

 Valley westward, where that process is already seen, and then from the Rocky Moun- 

 tains toward the east ; but as yet the range is juactically unlimited, and for many years 

 to come there will be room to fatten beeves to feed the world. 



This great pasture land covers Western Texas, Indian Territory, Kansas, Nebraska, 

 and Dakota, Eastern New Mexico, Colorado, Wyoming, and Montana, and extends far 

 into British America. The southerly and southeasterly portions produce the largest 

 growth of grass, but it lacks the nutritious qualities of that covering the higher and 

 drier lands farther north and west. Rank-growing and bottom-land grasses contain 

 mostly water; they remain green until killed by frost, wheu their substance flows back 

 to the root, or is destroyed by the action of the elements. The dwarf grass of the 

 higher plains makes but a small growth, but makes that very quickly in the early 

 spring, and then, as the rains diminish and the summer heat increases, it dies and cures 

 into hay where it stands ; the seed even, in which it is very prolific, remains upon the 

 stalk, and, though very minute, is exceedingly nutritious. 



In so far as the relative advantages of different portions of this wide region may be 

 thought by many to preponderate over one another, we do not appreciate them at all, 

 but would as soon risk a herd in the valley of the Upper Missouri, the Yellowstone, or 

 the Saskatchewan, as along the Arkansas, the Canadian, or Red River. If any differ- 

 ence, the grass is better north than south. One year the winter may be more severe 

 in the extreme north ; the next it may be equally so in the south, and the third it may 

 be most inclement midway between the two extremes ; or, what is . more common, the 

 severe storms and heavy snows inay follow irregular streaks across the country at vari- 

 ous points. There are local causes and effects to be considered, such as permanently 

 affect certain localities favorably or the contrary. For instance, nearer the western 

 border of the plains there is less high wind, because the lofty mountain ranges form a 

 shelter or wind-breaker. Of local advantages, detached ranges of mountains, hills or 

 broken land, timber, brush, and deep ravines or stream-beds are the most important, 

 in furnishing shelter, and, as a general thing, better and always more varied pasture 

 ground. 



There is never rain upon the middle and northern plains during the winter months. 

 When snow comes it is always dry, and never freezes to stock. The reverse is the case 

 in the Northern and Middle States, where winter storms often begin with rain, which 

 is followed by snow, and conclude with piercing wind and exceeding cold. Stock-men 

 can readily appreciate the effect of such weather upon stock exposed to its influence. 



The soil of the plains is very much the same everywhere. To a casual observer it 

 looks sterile and unpromising, but when turned by the plow or spade is found very fer- 

 tile. Near the mountains it is filled with coarse rock particles, and under the action of 



