CATTLE RAISING ON THE PLAINS. II 
the grass on these ranges is extremely good, but when the soil is 
soaked with water, cattle cannot travel far enough on it to get 
enough grass to sustain themselves without gathering great balls 
of mud on their feet which wear the animals out completely. 
These factors change the conditions so much that we cannot com¬ 
pare the eastern Colorado of today with the eastern Colorado of 
1885 and treat it as a cattle range. 
Today cattle are raised mainly by what might better be call¬ 
ed “stock-farming’' than cattle raising pure and simple, that is, 
crop production in some form usually goes with the stock raising. 
Comparatively few men now attempt to raise cattle entirely 
without feed. 
Buffalo Once Ranging- Over the Same Territory . The 
buffalo was a range animal—pure and simple. Natural laws 
would govern its numbers. When the buffaloes became too 
numerous the feed would be so scarce that the extra number 
would starve and this would give the range a chance to recuper¬ 
ate. Old-timers have often told me that there were more buf¬ 
faloes in the country in the earlv davs than there are cattle in the 
same region now. Travelers told of “traveling all day through a 
herd of buffalo.’' Suppose that they did “travel all day through a 
herd of buffalo" how manv would it take to make the show 
J 
spoken of? The buffalo is preeminently a gregarious animal and 
it might be more than one hundred miles from one herd to 
another. I have seen 3,000 head of cattle scattered over a range 
three by five miles, and at a little distance one on horse-back, or 
in a wagon would consider them as covering the country as far as 
he could see. Then 6,000 would have covered the space for the 
same distance on each side. This would make 6,000 cattle 011 the 
range for every five miles. 250,000 cattle spread in that way 
would make the same show along the Kansas Pacific Railroad 
from the Kansas line to Denver. Travelers could travel for days 
and weeks without seeing buffalo. Also the buffalo were limited 
in their grazing: to within a reasonable distance from water. 
1 his would compel them to congregate along streams just as the 
cattle do along the Big Sandy now. If there were as many buf- 
falo watering at the Big Sandy now as there are cattle watering 
there, it would excite the imagination of the hunter so that he 
would think he saw a half million where there might be 50,000. 
Pastures vs. Open Range. Only a few have tried keeping 
their cattle in fenced pastures. Those who have kept their cattle 
in such a way find it more a question of water supply convenient 
and sufficient than of range. Without doubt if the whole range 
was divided into numerous small pastures with plenty of good 
water conveniently located in each, so that no animal had to walk 
more than one or two miles for water, the country could support 
