INVESTIGATION OF THE GREAT PLAINS. 
FIELD NOTES 
—FROM— 
TRIPS IN EASTERN COLORADO. 
By J. E. PAYNE, M. S. 
Superintendent of the Plains Substation . 
This work was done by traveling about the country in 
a spring wagon. Over thirteen hundred miles were traveled 
during the progress of the work. Settlers were interviewed, 
and their evidence recorded. The investigation was con¬ 
fined mainly to Kit Carson county and the eastern half of 
Arapahoe county. 
Contrary to my rule, I have recorded my opinions and 
impressions in this report. These opinions are based upon 
a mass of evidence which is almost too extensive to record. 
With the exception of small areas near Idalia, and Ver¬ 
non, stock raising is the principal business of the people. 
Those having small herds usually raise some rough feed for 
use during storms. The Vernon settlement seems to be the 
only one which has held its own and held to the idea of grain 
raising exclusively. Many near Vernon believe in stock 
raising, but the country is occupied so fully that there is no 
range for stock. At Vernon, and near Lansing, Idalia and 
Friend, sentiment has made a local herd law which persuades 
each man to fence or herd his stock during the growing 
season. In all other communities, crops must be fenced to 
protect the cattle, but in those neighborhoods, the saying has 
become Droverbial that, “No one has ever known a wheat 
X 
field to chase cattle to their, injury.” So if a man keeps stock, 
he must keep it away from his neighbor’s crops. These people, 
living from one hundred and thirty to one hundred and fifty 
miles from their county seat, do not often feel the force or 
effect of ordinary State laws; so they have been forced to 
allow a few customs suited to their conditions to crystallize 
into laws, so far as it is possible in the time they have lived 
in these communities. 
Depopulation —Almost the whole of Eastern Colorado 
was settled quite thickly during the years from 1886 to 1889 . 
Lansing, Idalia, Friend, Cope, Arickaree City, Thurman, 
