Unirrigated Uands of Eastern Colorado. 
13 
Kit Carson county, north of the Rock Island railroad, was 
quite thickly settled in the eastern half of the county. The settlers 
who still live there are from one to five miles apart. At Yale post- 
office there is a small district which is settled solidly. Crop fail¬ 
ures in 1893 and 1894 thinned the settlement. In some neighbor¬ 
hoods, the depopulation was made permanent by uncertain water 
supply. The settlers now in Kit Carson county have settled down to 
stock raising with farming as a side issue. There are still a few 
men who say that they cannot afford to raise feed for their cattle 
any more than enough to carry them through the storms. 
Arapahoe county on the Idalia divide as far west as Kirk 
postoffice was all filed upon. Settlement thinned in 1893-95 on 
account of crop failures, but people are still too close together to 
keep their cattle at home during the summer. It is the custom 
to send the cattle to the thinly settled districts for pasture. On 
this divide wells are plentiful, but they are from 100 to 260 feet 
deep. 
The Vernon divide lost much of its population in 1894 and 
1895, but has regained it since. Practically all of the land on this 
divide is in private hands, and unimproved land is selling at 
$1,000 per quarter section. Except upon a small area of about 
twelve square miles south and southeast of Vernon, wells are sure 
on this divide. Water is found at from 90 to 100 feet. 
Eindon and Harrisburg lost all population except a few fam¬ 
ilies. Within the last two years some good wells have been 
found in the neighborhood, and a few ranchmen have quite a num¬ 
ber of cattle in the neighborhood now. 
Near Akron and Yuma, and along the B. & M. railroad, 
where nearly all the land was once filed upon, settlers are from 
two to eight miles apart now. But there is a tendency for new 
settlers to crowd in there again. 
THE LIVE STOCK INDUSTRY. 
From the nature of the conditions the live stock industry 
must always be the main business on the plains. The problem 
before those who would use the country is: How much stock can 
be kept on a specified area? 
The methods of handling stock are changing gradually from 
the range system with no feed, to feeding with winter shelter. As 
the ranges become more crowded, more feed is used during winter. 
Evidence now seems to show that much of the country will at 
some time be used as a summer range only, and the cattle will be 
fed during the winter in adjoining districts where crops of forage 
are raised. 
There is a growing feeling among the wealthier cattlemen 
that it pays best to use their ranges for the summer only, and bu 
