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ever the cause of the demand, it must be supplied from the best and cheapest source. Increasing sales of Western horses every year indicate that the demand will be largely supplied from the West. Recognizing the profit to be made in supplying this demand, Western stockmen have imported largely and bred to Percherons, Clydesdales, Cleveland bays, French coachers, Belgians, Hambletonians, Arabs, Morgans, Canadians, and every strain of pure-bred horses, not even slighting the Shetland, Iceland, and other pony breeds. To such general extent has this grading up been brought that the horsebreeding establishments of the West are now prepared to sell any class of horses desired, from the smallest pony for ladies' and children's use to the heaviest draft-horse for city trucks, stylish coachers, carriage horses, saddlers, serviceable, heavy, "all-round" horses for farm use, and thoroughbred racing stock. It is not the prophecy of an enthusiast, but a fact readily established by personal inspection, that the finest horses of the world are to come from our Western plains and mountain valleys.

One of the reasons of the superiority of Western horses is attributable to the dry, exhilarating, pure air, and an equable climate. The admitted superior constitution and endurance of Western range-bred horses is due largely to the fact that the colt, being born in mountains or valleys, frequently miles from water, is compelled to travel with its mother, before twenty-four hours old, on her journey for a drink, and this is thenceforward a part of its daily exercise. The horse is in many respects like a man. To be useful he must possess will power, and the roaming life on the plains imparts this characteristic to both.

Eastern horses have been bred in bondage generation after generation, while the range horse has known only the freedom and exercise of the range. The result is that the range-bred horse has "lungs of leather, hoofs of iron, and sinews of steel." Western horses are very much like the people-made up of all nations and in many instances better than those they came from.

When the Western stockman first recognized the increasing demand for horses his impulse was to improve his stock of natives by importing and breeding to the best thoroughbred stallions obtainable from the East, Canada, and Europe. While this has been so far productive of fine classes of grades and undeniable improvement and enhanced usefulness and value, there are certain qualities in both our native horses and native cattle which can not be bred away without losing some essentially good characteristics. We refer to their rustling qualities, reproductiveness, rapid breeding, and to the care and success of the mothers in raising their young, and to their ability for long-continued service and rough usage. It seems these well-known qualities of the original rough, range-bred native pony stock-the Mustangs, Marsh Tackeys, Cherokees, Sioux, and Cayuses-have something in them worth preserving, if possible.

In the general improvement and breeding-up, it may be well not to breed our range-horses too fine, or, as with cattle, it may be found that they will lose to a great degree their qualities of reproductiveness and ability to endure rough usage.

It will be seen, then, that this branch of animal industry, employing millions of dollars of capital, with brightest promises of producing millions more, merits the encouraging and protecting care of our Government. The East, with her great industrial centers, must look to the Wast to supply her with the draft-horses of commerce.

The farmers of the East have failed to so do in sufficient numbers, and they never can raise and supply a horse as cheaply as the West, because our range-bred horses are never fed until they are taken off the range at three and four years of age and put to work.

Peace is a thing devoutly to be prayed for, but it is a condition. that has never existed continually in the history of any government. Therefore in time of peace it is wise to be prepared for war. In the event of war our Government would have of necessity to rely on the West to mount her cavalry, as the West is the only section today prepared to furnish horses in any quantity at all suitable for cavalry use; and while Western horses may not at this date fill the entire requirements of the present army standard for cavalry horses, there are hundreds of thousands of Western range-bred horses whose hardiness and endurance would be especially valuable for irregulars like the Cossacks of Russia, the Uhlans of Germany, and for mounted infantry.

It is said that France expends $3,000,000 annually in the improvement of her horses. Some encouragement from our Government, with a few years more of judicious breeding up to a proper standard, would enable our Western horse-raisers to supply an unlimited number of superb horses, entirely suitable to the standard and requirements for cavalry horses. Looking to the future of the horse business of the West, there are a few simple things that will continue to render the industry profitable for long years to come; first, freedom from disease; second, favorable climatic conditions; third, ability of horses to feed far back from water where grass is untouched and best; and fourth, the ability of horses to thrive where cattle can scarcely live.

So great is the confidence in the future continued profit of the Western horse business that one company, operating in Idaho and Oregon, "runs" 8,000 native mares on the range. The grades of these, bred principally from Percheron and Hambletonian stallions, when broken, are sold readily in eastern markets for street-cars, trucks, deliverywagons, and carriages. From the stock of this one firm alone may be obtained well-broken and serviceable horses of any class for commercial and family use, and wherever tested their good lungs, powers of endurance, and sound feet have proved them especially valueable for service on the stone-paved streets of cities. In California the large amount invested in thoroughbreds in the Palo Alto stables implies confidence that the racing stock bred there will continue to maintain their reputation for producing horses that make fast time.

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A further reason for the continuance of the range horse business is the ability of horses to feed far out from water. Horses will "use" dry stretches of range which could not be utilized for other live stock without the expenditure of large sums of money in affording artificial supplies of water. Owing to this fact horses can be run on the same range with cattle without detriment to the latter, and a large amount of grass thus economized that otherwise would rot on the ground and be wasted.

To realize the largest profits from Western horses breeders must put them on the market broken and gentled. Eastern buyers have neither the inclination nor the horse-taming experience to handle unbroke and range-bred horses. They desire to buy well-broken animals, ready for immediate service.

With the rapid development of the semi-arid lands on the border of the range country, and the consequently largely increased number

of horses coming in from all parts of the East, the danger of disease among horses is largely increased. It is well known that glanders and other contagious equine diseases are widely scattered in eastern portions of the United States, and the utmost vigilance should be used to keep diseased horses from the range country. The importance of the range-horse industry entitles it to all the protection that the Government and local live-stock sanitary authorities can give it.

THE SHEEP INDUSTRY.

There has always been more or less trouble on the range between the cattle growers and sheep men. This grows out of the fact that wherever sheep graze the cattle will not remain. Range cattle dislike the smell of sheep, and will not stay in the same neighborhood with a flock of them. Again, sheep travel as they eat, and bite the grass so close to the ground that cattle could not stay on the range where sheep had been if they wanted to, for the reason that there is absolutely nothing left behind for other stock to eat.

The fact remains, however, that there are millions of sheep in the range country, and as they are domestic animals our Department should give them attention. The general health of the flocks all over the arid region is good and the increase satisfactory. Scab prevails to a large extent from Texas to Montana, but, latterly, owing to the very general practice of dipping, no serious loss has occurred, save in a few small districts.

The very considerable advance in the price of wool the past year has given a new impetus to this branch of the stock business, and the flocks are likely to be rapidly increased in numbers. And for this reason, I fear, the friction between herd owners and flock masters will increase.

Under the head of "Range Tenure," I made some suggestions to the effect that ownership of water rights should govern the question of grazing privileges on the plains. Owners of sheep have as many and the same rights upon the public domain as have the owners of cattle; but they have no more or greater right.

The trouble generally is that the sheep owners do not keep their flocks in a given area. They may own a water right, but the rule seems to be to start the flock off in the spring, and keep it moving all summer, passing over a dozen or more cattle ranges. They travel but a few miles a day, and leave the country over which they pass as bare of grass as a house floor. In this way they ruin the range, and literally drive the cattle before them. Western Wyoming and Western Colorado suffer universally from these "loafer" flocks. Utah is full of sheep, and hundreds of thousands are started every spring to the eastward, following up the sides of the Wasach Mountains, as the snow disappears, and then spreading out over the range in all directions like a swarm of Egyptian locusts. In the past they have generally returned in the late autumn to the Utah deserts to winter on the brush. But last fall many of the flocks remained in the low valleys where the cattle have been wont to winter, and a serious loss of cattle is likely to result. These loafer flocks rarely pay tax anywhere, managing to dodge the assessor, or claiming to have paid their tax in some other State or Territory.

While I desire to accord the same rights to all classes of stockmen, I can not see why the rules of equity should not require sheep owners to hold their flocks on the range adjacent to their water rights, the

same as cattle men do. Most sheep herders load their mess-wagon in the spring and follow the flock all summer, never camping more than two nights in one place, thus putting them in the attitude of willing trespassers upon the range rights of their neighbors. This is the main cause of so much ill feeling toward them throughout the West. Should the question of range tenure ever be settled by Government rules, sheep and cattle men should be held to the same line of action-kept on their allotted area. This industry, being second in importance to cattle in the range country, demands from the Government its fostering care. The arid region possesses many advantages for successful sheep husbandry. The dryness of the atmosphere and the light dry soil prevents the appearance of the destructive disease so prevalent in the lower and damper countries.

The greatest obstacle in the way of success to the sheep men of the arid region has been their inability to realize from their muttons. The railroad rates for transporting sheep has been nearly if not quite as much for a single deck load as for a car of cattle, notwithstanding the fact that it is impossible to load to exceed 10,000 pounds on one floor, when 20,000 pounds would be permitted. The use of stationary double decks were so objectionable to the railroad companies that by common agreement some months ago they were prohibited. Stock cars thus equipped could not be utilized for carrying merchandise on return trips, and to remove and restore their temporary floors was expensive and injurious to the cars. This decision of the railroads was equivalent to an absolute prohibition to the traffic in fat sheep. from remote points. The railroads, however, expressed a willingness to permit the use of double decks if an adjustable floor could be devised that would overcome the objections stated. This stimulated inventive genius, and the Missouri Pacific system is now using a deck invented by Olney Newell, of Denver, Colo., which is at once simple, durable, and cheap. The officers of the road express entire satisfaction with it, and I think its general adoption, or something equally good, will greatly benefit the sheep growers of the country.

FEEDING IN THE ARID REGION.

Under the old system of range production, feed for winter was only thought of in connection with the cow ponies kept up for every day use. Grass being everywhere abundant there was no apparent necessity for feeding, and the mortality was light. But with the rapid increase of the herds has come a shortage in grass and an increased mortality. This has caused an investigation into the subject of preparing feed for winter as a means of security. Years of experience among the farmers who have settled along the streams that here and there penetrate the arid region has fully demonstrated the richness of the soil and the wonderful hay -producing capacity of the land when once put into cultivation under irrigating ditches. Five tons of alfalta can be raised from every acre that can be thoroughly irrigated, and heavy crops of almost every other known variety of grass. All kinds of hay cure so perfectly in this arid country that their nutritive and fattening qualities are something wonderful. Well-authenticated experiments at several points in the range country have established the fact that alfalta, wild and tame clover, and our mountain bluestem grass, if fed under reasonably fair conditions in winter, will put on flesh at an average of

two pounds gross per day for a period of three or five months. This without grain of any kind to mix with the hay.

These facts being generally known, there is a growing tendency to utilize all of the available lands for irrigation and the production of forage crops. Probably not more than one acre in two hundred of the entire arid belt is susceptible of being brought under ditch with the hope of getting an ample water supply. But the increased quantity of feed this small area is capable of producing would be sufficient to winter-feed one-fourth or more of all the cattle now grazing on the great plains. In time a system of water storage may be developed so as to save the vast volume that now runs to waste in winter (when not wanted), which will double the available supply. When this time arrives the risks of winter will have departed. Meantime each coming year will see more and more of the valley lands converted into meadows, and the hay crop so increased that thousands of beef steers may be fattened during the winter, or all of the weak members of the herd taken up and properly cared for. This will involve a very considerable outlay of money and labor, but as compensation it will give immunity from winter losses and a continuous growth from calfhood up, thus adding largely to the matured weight of each animal in the herd. Limited real-estate investments in connection with the herds, if made for hay lands, will give both permanency and security to the general investment.

CONCLUSION.

There are many other topics of which I might profitably treat, but to do so would render my report of unreasonable length. I Ι have submitted my views upon subjects which seemed to me of greatest importance, with the hope that these suggestions may serve to promote the welfare of the live-stock industry.

I have traveled almost constantly over the range country since the date of my last report, and have co-operated with live-stock sanitary authorities and officers of associations in protecting the range-stock interests from disease.

H. M. TAYLOR, Agent U. S. Bureau of Animal Industry.

DENVER, COLO., February 22, 1887.

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