The supply of cattle in each of the mountain counties is given in detail in the accompanying statement, as is also the quantity of milk, butter, and cheese sold from each:

Testimony furnished by scores of observing witnesses, living in widely separated parts of the State, and thoroughly acquainted with the natural and the artificial conditions affecting the cattle interests, shows that Tennessee affords many and great advantages to those who breed cattle for beef alone, or who make dairying their occupation. While the climate of the mountains differs from that of the valleys, and that of each of the great valleys is in some degree different from that of the others, the climate of the whole State is comparatively mild and equable. The synclinal axes of the valleys lie almost exactly in the line of the winds which blow, during the major part of the year, from the southwest, bringing warmth and moisture from the Gulf of Mexico, to raise the temperature, make the winters spring-like in their mildness, and prevent the drying of the pastures in summer. The ridges and the mountain ranges rise as barriers to completely shelter the valleys by turning aside the northwest winds, which are the only cold ones that blow over the country west of the Appalachian system of mountain ranges. In nearly every part of the State the mountains are covered by wild. grasses which afford good pasturage, which is in much of the State as yet free to all who choose to drive their herds to the range. The cultivated grasses thrive wherever the ground has been properly prepared. In the valley lands, particularly on the bottom-lands, timothy grows luxuriantly, and yields heavy crops of excellent hay. The clovers and lucerne thrive on land having loose subsoil, and other forage plants furnish an abundance of food for stock, while grain is grown in the valleys to supplement the fodder in feeding fattening cattle and those in the dairy. The water supply is unlimited in quantity, and of a quality that can not be surpassed. Lands and labor are cheap, and the cost of living is not great, therefore the cost of herding stock and of raising grain and forage for cattle is light, while the nearness to market gives to the Tennessee cattleowner very great advantage over the stock-raisers of the remote Southwest, who must, in fact, compete in the markets of the Atlantic coast with the stock-owners of this and other States cast of the Mississippi.

Hay may be made in nearly every valley in Tennessee at small cost; yet in the census of 1880 the State was credited with the production of only 186,698 tons of hay, which was less than a quarter

of a ton for each of the 783,674 cattle of all classes then in the State. In 1870 the hay crop amounted to 116,582 tons, or about 360 pounds per head of cattle at that time in the State; in 1860 the hay crop was 143,499 tons, which was a little less than 270 pounds per head for the cattle in the State. In 1850 less than 200 pounds of hay for each of the cattle then in Tennessee was made, the total yield of hay having then been 74,091 tons; from which it appears that considerable progress has been made in hay production, and that there may be reason for the belief expressed that the time will come when plenty of hay will be made in the State to liberally feed all the cattle through the winters.

Dairying has made considerable progress in Tennessee. Previous to the year 1880 no account was found in the census reports of the General Government of the manufacture of cheese in factories. In the report of 1880, however, it was shown that there was made in the State 3,600 pounds of factory butter, and 9,000 pounds of factory cheese. The growth of the dairy interest is shown by the figures which follow:

The circumstances described above are fully as favorable to the development of dairying as the best known in States that have long held the foremost places in the dairying industry in America, with the one exception that in those States there have been, in the many populous towns they contain, a greater number of active home markets than Tennessee possesses. But Tennessee has several lines of railroad crossing the State, and the Mississippi River on the west to furnish ready means of transportation for her surplus productions. There seems, therefore, to be ample grounds for the belief, confidently held by many Tennesseans, that their State is destined to become widely known as one of the leading butter and cheese producing States of the Union.

Respectfully submitted.

CHICAGO, ILL., January 1, 1887.

EDWARD W. PERRY.

CALF-RAISING ON THE PLAINS.

Hon. NORMAN J. COLMAN,

Commissioner of Agriculture:

SIR: Persons who have never seen the west bank of the Missississippi are nevertheless able to maintain from their own experience and observation that this is a very large country. But there are very few people who really comprehend how large it is. And the first thing which will impress one who makes the range of industry of the United States the subject of investigation will be the immense area over which it is extended and in which it must, for many years at least, be recognized as a leading interest. Drawing a line from Galveston northward to the southwestern corner of Manitoba, and making due allowance for the purely agricultural part of Texas, everything west to the summit of the Sierra Nevadas may be classed as included in the range country. This is an area containing a million and a half square miles, or a thousand million acres, and (not counting Alaska) is about one-half the total area of the United States, and equal in extent to thirty-seven States as large as Ohio.

In different portions of this vast area are presented almost every possible variation of surface and physical features-level plains in one place, mountains in another, great stretches which can be classed properly neither as plain nor mountain, low valleys, and high plateaus. Every variety of soil is also presented, from coarse gravel and shifting sands, in which scarcely any vegetable growth can be maintained, up through every possible grade and shade to the deep alluvium of the valleys and the rich mold on the mountain benches. But there is one common climatic condition which in one respect gives this area a similar character throughout. This is the scant rains in the late summer and autumn, whereby the growth of the native grasses is arrested, and they become dried and cured into natural hay as they stand, constituting a winter feed which is impossible in more humid regions. It is this peculiarity which distinguishes the range country from all others, and which renders the range industry possible. But for this peculiarity it would be impossible for cattle to subsist in the open air more than half the year.

THE NATURAL GRASSES OF THE RANGE COUNTRY.

There is an almost endless variety of native grasses growing in different localities. At the New Orleans Exposition there was a display of about 200 different grasses found in the State of Texas, and an equally large collection has been made of the grasses native to Colorado. Even of the principal grasses there are of each several varieties. Many of these grasses, however, from their limited growth and narrow range, are of little importance in a grazing

S. MIS. 156-12

sense. One of the principal grasses is the gama-grass (commonly known as the mesquite or buffalo), the Bouteloua oligostachya of the botanists. Another is the buffalo or false mesquite, the Buchla dactyloides of the botanists. Another prominent grass is blue-stem or blue-joint (Agropyrum glaucum). Then there are the so-called bunch-grasses in great variety, of which Ericoma cuspidatata is the principal and most widely disseminated, growing from California to the British Possessions, and eastward through the interior to the Missouri River. Rye-grasses also flourish in some localities.

All of the grasses named are of slight growth, but highly nutritious. Their quantity can be largely increased by the application of water where conveniences exist for irrigation, but not to such an extent it is thought as to give as good returns for the expense and labor as can be afforded by tame grasses. The blue-stem especially responds most liberally to the application of water, but it has been noticed that its quality suffers greatly, and that it is reduced in nutritive value below that of timothy hay-whereas grown upon non-irrigated land it ranked much higher. As it constitutes the main winter feed, a season favorable to a luxuriant growth will in some measure impair the excellence of feed on the range during the succeeding winter months.

A VAST AREA MUST BE PERMANENTLY DEVOTED TO GRAZING.

Much of the great area of land embraced in the range country is of course capable of cultivation. There are numerous fertile valleys in the more mountainous portion and vast stretches upon the plains which by irrigation can be made suitable for successful agriculture. But deducting these there remains a vast area-the major part of the whole-which can not be farmed; at any rate until through increasing population the rewards of agriculture become so much greater than at present as to justify new methods and much greater expense being put upon the land to render it productive, than would be considered practicable in the light of present experience and conditions. This great area must either remain idle and unproductive or be given over to grazing for a period of time sufficiently great as to justify this being regarded as their permanent use. That they will not be permitted to remain unproductive in this practical age, when men are everywhere seeking avenues for the employment of both capital and labor, is quite certain. In fact, these lands are practically pretty well stocked already, possibly excepting restricted focalities here and there. Some few Indian reservations, seemingly large when considered by themselves, but insignificant in area when compared with the whole grazing country, remain to be covered with herds as the Indian question is again adjusted to meet the fresh requirements of the white man. But, aside from these, there is nowhere room which some one does not claim and consider very well stocked.

There may be, as has been suggested by some writers on this subject, considerable changes to come over the range industry as time progresses. But it will always remain a range industry, and necessity in one way and another will bring about an increase in its production. If the larger owners give way to those of smaller pretensions, the land will likely be more closely utilized than at present, and more cattle raised to a given area. If, on the other hand, the large owners absorb the holdings of the smaller, it will be through an acquisition of the actual

title of such land as will secure absolute control of the ranges. The increased investment will not only stimulate but fairly compel improvement in methods and greater care to secure the highest possible product. And the result will be the same-more cattle.

THE SUSTAINING CAPACITY OF THE RANGE.

In estimating the carrying capacity of the range, it is generally calculated that 40 acres should be allowed to a steer. But the calculation is a very rough one, and there is nothing certain about it, although it is likely much too high. There are locations on the high "divides," so remote from water, that while affording excellent grass but little of it can be utilized, and is not sought by cattle except in seasons of great scarcity. Then there are great plains of disintegrated rock and loose, shifting materials, which produce little useful vegetation. There are plains where the soil and water are impregnated to a damaging degree with alkalies. There are great ranges of abrupt mountains, where the country is so broken and much of it is so steep and high as to be practically useless, and where the grazing areas are practically confined to the valleys or parks on occasionally favorable slopes. As a rule, there are few stock ranges in which at some point there is not more or less, and often a great deal, of comparatively unproductive land. So no one knows just how much it does take to graze a steer, and whether it be 40 acres in one place and less than 40 in another will depend upon the local conditions and the season. The Texas State Land Board is said to have calculated 10 acres to be sufficient in the case of lands belonging to that State, but the cattle men claim 30. Possibly there is a medium between the two which more nearly represents the true point.

There are now not far from 10,000,000 cattle maintained upon the range. With one to each 40 acres, the range is capable of sustaining 25,000,000 head. And if it should be demonstrated that it has a higher average maintaining capacity than one steer to each 40 acres, the range stock can be correspondingly increased. The difference of a single acre would permit of an increase of a million head in the aggregate number of cattle. However, in considering these totals and the possibilities they suggest, a large deduction must be made for the millions of sheep and horses also maintained upon the range, and which, in proportion to their numbers, limit the number of cattle maintained in their vicinity. But whether 40 acres are required or less than 40 acres, one thing is quite certain, that it takes a great deal more than any one who has never been upon the range would suppose. The native grasses are not strong and luxuriant growers, and even if moisture and all the conditions of soil and surface were favorable would not produce heavily. And as their period of growth is confined mainly to the spring and early summer, when they are stimulated by an occasional rain they produce very little in point of weight and bulk, and their admirable quality is not sufficient to compensate for their lack of quantity. These matters controlling the sustaining capacity of the range are important in forming any correct estimate of the business; for whether a person has one steer or a thousand, he must have room on a scale to which the sober agricultural experience of older and in many respects more favored regions is quite a stranger.