CATTLE RAISING ON THE PLAINS. 15 
in an open lot during a wind storm, and it is very hard to feed 
grain even in troughs in the open during the progress of a storm. 
But as a rule those who have 110 further preparation for shelter 
than a corral made of barbed wire seldom have to face the problem 
of feeding their cattle there during a storm. Usually their cattle 
are scattered over the range sometimes as much as fifty miles from 
their home corrals. Such cattle are lucky if they range in a hilly 
country as they can then find some shelter in the gullies and be¬ 
side bluffs along the creeks. I11 rough country the snow does not 
usually cover all the grass as there are so many varieties that grow 
comparatively tall in such locations, instead of being limited to a 
few inches in height as are the grasses which grow on the level 
lands. 
Diseases. During the time of high prices, cattle were 
shipped into eastern Colorado from many places and nearly every 
man there bought cattle to the limit of his credit. With these 
cattle were imported a few undesirable diseases. Diseases like 
opthalmia could be seen, and the man who bought cattle affected 
with those could blame himself. But itch or mange was not in 
evidence among the cattle during the summer so as to enable a 
man to see it on wild cattle. Neither was contagious abortion 
visible when the cattle were shipped into the country. But the 
next winter after the cattle came in, itch developed in a large pro¬ 
portion of some importations, and some herds of fine looking 
heifers, which were sold at high prices, were found to be infected 
with contagious abortion to the extent of ninety per cent in some 
cases. The contagion spread to the sound cows which were in 
the herd before the purchase of the strange cattle. The remedies 
for these diseases were simple, but extremely expensive. The 
mange on the cattle had to be destroyed by dipping the cattle, and 
the corrals and all scratching places disinfected. If these meas¬ 
ures were thoroughly carried out all over the country, the mange 
would be stamped out in a season. 
There are various remedies suggested for contagious abortion, 
but the most effective one is to send the whole herd to the 
slaughter house and stock the range with calves, or with cattle 
from a range where the disease does not exist. Afterwards when 
one sees a fine-looking lot of young cows offered for sale, he had 
better leave them alone until he knows their history or the condi¬ 
tion of the herd from which they came. 
There is one neighborhood where I have never heard of a 
case of contagious abortion and practically no mange. In that 
neighborhood no cattle have been sold by the speculators. Those 
people started several yenrs ago with only a cow or two apiece and 
have bought no cattle except bulls since. 
