-6 - 
wintered in this way will gain m weight, but it is a rather 
cheap way of carrying stock through the winter. 
in whatever way stock are wintered, there are few feed- 
eis in the State that do not make some arrangement tor 
giving then stock extra feed in cases of unusually severe 
stoims. they thus reduce the risk of running cattle, and 
in the course of years greatly reduce the winter losses. 
W hen cattle were allowed to rustle for themselves, there 
was a profit in the business, on the average, because beef 
was high and summer feed cost nothing. But when the 
severe storms did come many a herd was almost wiped out 
ot . existence, and the owners ruined financially. Stock 
raising under such a system was gambling on the weather 
of the next winter. As the price of beef fell, the business 
could not stand such a heavy drain on its profits and the 
cattlemen either went out of the business or made provision 
fora more certain winter feed. The most trying time of 
the year for stock is the months of March, April, and May, 
when the stock, already weakened by wintering on scant 
rations, are turned off the stubble fields onto the summer 
ranges. 1 he new grass is not yet sufficient to supply their 
wants, and late storms often do enormous damage. A stack 
or two of hay carried over until this time is often the most 
profitable crop of the year. Many farmers carry hay to the 
range, and the cattle soon learn where to go for fodder dur¬ 
ing storms. 
1 he most economical winter feeding is that where the 
summer range is near the winter range, so that the cattle 
can be left as long as possible on the summer range and, 
when brought to the winter range, they are then near the 
place where the hay was cut. Under these conditions they 
can gather their own living, except in case of storms or 
deep snows. Hay is then fed without moving them from 
the range. I he usual amount is ten pounds of hay per 
head per day. They may need to be fed but a couple of 
days, before the weather moderates, or this feeding may in 
extreme cases last continuously for months, as it did in the 
winter of 1894-95 on some ranges. The hay is fed scattered 
on the giound, cattlemen having found bv experience that 
but little is thus wasted and there is a saving of the cost of 
racks and the considerable danger of accidents that come 
from the crowding and pushing of rack-fed cattle. 
Straw can be profitably used as a large part of the food 
ror cattle that are being fed through the winter. West of 
the main range in Colorado, where the number of cattle is 
large as compared with the land sown to grain, nearly all 
