4 — 
tie have made but little headway in the State, the cattlemen 
preferring to stick to the Hereford and Shorthorn breeds 
and dehorn their stock. 
RANGING AND WINTER FEEDING. 
All the cattle of Colorado are ranged through the 
summer, and the greater part are also wintered on the range. 
But the free, open range in this State is a thing of the past. 
I here was a time, but a few years ago, when the whole San 
Luis Valley, as large as a New England state, was one vast 
winter range for cattle. As many as 250,000 head have been 
driven from their summer ranges on the mountains to spend 
the winter in this valley. 
But agriculture is superior to grazing, not only in this 
valley, but in all the valleys that can be irrigated east of the 
mountains. The cattle have been driven out by the plow. 
The cattle of the San Luis valley have shrunk to 60 , 000 , 
though this decrease is partly due to the sheep overrunning 
some of the ranges formerly used by cattle. 
With the advent of permanent settlers, a great change 
has come over the methods of ranging. Formerly, by 
mutual agreement of the cattlemen, certain favorable por¬ 
tions were set aside for winter range. But these favorable 
spots are the ones that would first be taken up by the settler, 
compelling each cattleman to look out for his own winter 
range. Fences have come in to keep cattle on the land 
where it is desired they should remain, or still more com¬ 
monly, to keep them and other cattle out of the lands that 
are to be reserved for winter use. Drinking water is a nec¬ 
essity on all ranges. Temporary summer streams are 
common in the hills and on the plains, but permanent 
streams are scarce anywhere in Colorado. It did not take 
the cattlemen long to learn that if they controlled the water 
they held the key to the neighboring range. This is usually 
done by buying or leasing the sections or quarter-sections 
that include the permanent running streams and fencing 
them against all cattle but their own. -This gives them free 
use of the range on both sides to the next water-shed. 
Five miles of stream can usually be controlled by leasing 
and buying not more than 1,500 acres of land, and give the 
cattleman the use, without cost, of an extra 10,000 to 20,000 
acres. Often the owning or controlling of four quarter- 
sections at the mouth of a valley virtually controls the 
range of the whole valley. These conditions necessitate 
much smaller herds and a larger number of cattle owners 
than under the former system of the open, free ranges. 
