CATTLE-GROWING OUT WEST. 61 



in the spring of 1878 add 100 Texas two-year-old 

 steers, and in the following spring 100 Iowa milch 

 cows. I know what a good, thrifty, industrious soul 

 your wife is, and you may tell her for me if she comes 

 West I will buy her 100 fine cows for a dairy, and she 

 can market all her butter and milk at the railroad, 

 twenty-two miles distant, and get rich on her own 

 account. It is the custom in the West not to put up 

 hay or build shelter for stock in winter, but I do not 

 believe in this. Cattle can generally be grazed out all 

 winter, but there are some winters very severe, and not 

 unfrequently dreadful storms, during which cattle die. 

 Herds slip through two or three years all right, but in 

 the end lose heavily. The loss from one storm would 

 be more than it would cost to cut hay for ten years. 

 Besides, my idea of a ranch is "home for man and 

 beast," and I would rather be at some extra expense 

 than to have the cattle suffer. The heavy timbered 

 bottom will give all the shelter necessary, and the 

 meadows will yield 1500 tons of hay per year, which 

 will be all that we need to insure us against storms and 

 hard winters. Now let us see what we can do with a 

 herd of 400 Texas cows, worth $5000, to begin with. 

 At the end of one year the cows would have 400 calves, 

 each worth $7. I count full yield, for in cross-breeding 

 there is not one cow in a hundred barren, neither is the 

 loss over one per cent, of calves dropped where hay 

 and shelter is provided, and proper care taken. Our 

 first year's profit is 400 calves, $7 each, $2800, divided, 

 $1400 each. 



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