( die of themselves on the open range with no extra winter 
ieed scarcely fifty per cent, will reach one year old. Durino- 
the severe winter of 1894-95, four times the ordinary 
amount of hay was eaten by some herds, and others that 
were left on the range lost sixty per cent, of the whole 
herd. 
Such losses, both in calves and older stock, used to be 
expected every four or live years by the cattlemen of Colo¬ 
rado horn 1875 to 1885, and the business was so profitable 
that it could stand an average annual lossof twenty per cent. 
1 he margin oi profits is now too small to take any chances, 
and by winter feeding the losses have been reduced to from 
live to ten per cent. 
\\ hat will there be for sale each year from a mixed 
herd numbering 300 head ? On the basis of there being 
eighty pei cent, of calves dropped and an average of five 
per. cent, of losses, a herd of 300 head will consist in the 
spring of : 
Cows. 
Three-y ear-old heifers 
Two-year-old heifers. 
One-year-old heifers.. 
Three-year-old steers. 
Two-year-old steers.. 
One-year-old steers. .. 
Bulls. 
09 
O/ 
39 
42 
39 
4i 
43 
4 
AWLtU . 300 
About forty per cent, of the two-year-old heifers would 
diop their first calves during the summer and these, with 
the calves from eighty per cent, of the three-year-old 
heifeis and the same proportion of the older cows, will give 
a total of ninety calves, one-half of which would be steers 
and one-half heifer calves. As five per cent, of these would 
>e lost, there would be on hand the next spring forty-two 
> catling heifers and the same number of yearling steers to 
take the place of those of the year before and keep the 
number good. 
1 here would be the thirty-nine three-year-old steers for 
sale in the fall and some of the cows. How many cows 
should be sold would depend on the object of the breeder. 
f he wishes to enlarge his herd he would sell as few as pos¬ 
sible. 11 he wishes to keep the herd constant at three hun¬ 
dred head, he would sell enough of the cows so that in the 
spring he would have the same number as the year before, 
n the average this would be about twenty-five. 
