FARM MANAGEMENT IN" THE PROVO AREA. 31 
in the mountains, wintering them on their farms. As a result of 
agricultural settlement, however, the area of the range has been 
slowly decreasing all over the State. A striking instance of this was 
the reclamation of a large part of Provo Bench subsequent to 1900. 
Until then this land was largely a cheat-grass and sage-brush desert 
used mostly for sheep pasture. Now it is preponderantly orchard 
land. The more recent encroachments on the range are in the 
mountain valleys, where the land is dry farmed and to some extent 
devoted to irrigated farming for general crops, with cattle or horses 
as an important enterprise. At present the National Forests in Utah 
are stocked to their full capacity, being more intensively grazed than 
those of any other State. Their carrying capacity shows a steady in- 
crease under the system of management in force, but this, of course, 
is a matter of slow growth. Many stockmen own considerable areas 
of range land, which is stated to be stocked to its capacity in most in- 
stances, as is the case with other privately-owned range. Most of the 
grazing land owned by the State lies within the National Forests and 
is fully stocked. 
DETAILS OF THE EANGE-CATTLE ENTERPRISE. 
The Utah farmers who at present make live stock (principally 
cattle) an important side line in the farm business run the stock on 
the range for 5.5 to 7 months, depending on the season and the 
locality. In the northern part of the State the range season usually 
lasts 5.5 to 6 months. The stock is driven into the mountains be- 
tween April 1 and May 1 in most years, and the animals start for 
the valleys from early September until the middle of November, 
when in the majority of cases practically all that are wintered on the 
farms are off the range. Relatively few men who have cattle as a 
farm enterprise intentionally keep any of the stock on the range the 
year round. 
When the animals reach the bottoms in the fall, good yearlings 
(16 to 18 months old) weight from TOO to 800 pounds per head, some- 
times more. The 2-year-olds usually weigh from 850 or 900 to 1,000 
pounds, and the 3-year-olds from 950 to 1,100 pounds per head. 
The stock cows weigh from 900 to 1,100 pounds though some come 
out quite fat at 1,200. They are sold practically always by the ninth 
year, and in general any cow coming out fat not having had a calf, 
is disposed of at once. Most men reckon on disposing of 6 to 7 
mature animals a year (2.5 to 3.5 years old) for every 10 stock cows. 
Most of the animals are Shorthorn and Hereford grades; though there 
is some Devon, in a few cases Jersey blood, and occasionally evidence 
of Holstein, though these breeds are comparatively rare with range 
stock. The smaller stockmen do not supply bulls, depending on 
those of the larger owners to serve their cows. Most men make 
