Int. on value of range, $2,000 @ 6 per cent. .$120 co 
Int. on value of cattle, $4,500 at 6 percent. . 270 00 
Total.$390 00 
The interest account is therefore about $1.25 per head, 
raising the total cost of ranging to $3 per head per year. 
O11 the plains where the cattle can be run in larger 
herds, some of the items above would be lowered. But the 
extra expenses of the general round-up would be enough to 
bring the total cost to fully as much as the above estimate. 
GROWTH AND LOSSES. 
One of the first questions asked by a prospective cattle¬ 
man is, What will there be for sale each year from the 
herd? This depends on two things, first, the percent, of 
calves, and second, the per cent, of loss in the calves and in 
the older stock. 
The number of calves dropped varies with the number 
and vigor of the bulls used, and the care taken by the herds¬ 
man to insure service. It is customary to keep one bull for 
each twenty-five cows. A larger per cent, of calves will be 
dropped if the bulls run in the herd all the time, but in this 
case so many calves come in the winter and die from 
exposure that more and stronger calves are raised by keep¬ 
ing the bulls away from the cows until summer, so that most 
of the calves will be dropped in the late spring. It is best 
that the heifers should not calve for the first time until they 
are fully three years old. If the bulls are kept away from 
the herd except in the fall about forty per cent, of the heif¬ 
ers will drop their first calves when two years old and the 
rest of them not until the next year. Under good condi¬ 
tions, there should be eighty calves dropped from each hun¬ 
dred cows in the herd, but the number of these that will be 
alive next spring is very variable. When the cattle are well 
cared for in the winter, and the herdsman is on duty all the 
year around, the herds in the foothills and parks ought not 
to lose more than five per cent, of their number each year. 
On the plains, it is customary to allow ten per cent, to cover 
losses. These losses occur through stealing, starvation, 
lightning, miring in bogs, spring colds, and accidents. Cat¬ 
tle are very apt to get mired in the spring bv going on the 
swampy land after the first green grass, and they have so 
little strength at this season that they cannot release them¬ 
selves. Much higher losses than the above sometimes 
occur. When the cows and their calves are left to take 
