Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1875-12-02
A GR IC i T i RAL,
PREPARE FOB WINTER,

PREPARE FOB WINTER.
One year ago, when winter swooped down
upon us about the first Of December, find
Ing us carelessly pursuing our daily avoca-
fons without any preparation, we promised
ourselyes-yes, every farmer promised him
self-that ere winter should come again he
would be better prepared for it, But win
ter dragged its slow length along spring was
late, fall correspondingly late, and, consol-
Ing ourselves that two hard winters never
came in succession or believing that it would
be late setting in, we find ourselves lust
where we We're twelve months ago, follow
ing in the same old path no nearer ready
for cold weather than then. Like the re-
nowned citizen Of Arkansas, we do not
feel the necessity for preparation during the
long period Of delightful Indian summer
thatlasts until along in November, and when
winter is upon us, we persuade ourselves
it is too cold. Because stock winters unon
our foot hills and valleys, i great many think
there is nothing to do for winter. They
DO not seem to realize that shelter is of any
benefit to stock. In early days our stock
found shelter in the willow thickets and tall
rye grass along our creeks, but now, when
the grass is eaten down in the summer and
the willow brush thined out, our stock have
nothing to break the cold north wind, save
to hide behind some knoll or in some deep
cooley, where they hump themselves up
with rumps to the storm, and suffer. Every
one knows that stock must have plenty to
CHI oil ,>1oo TO
thrive in winter. Now if the grass is all
eaten off in summer, and the natural shelter
destroyed, we cannot reasonably expect our
stock to come out looking even well in
the spring. Why not, then, make some
provision. All surplus stock should be
driven to the mountains in early spring, as
the grass is much better, and kept there
until late in the tall, thus reserving the val
ley range for the time when the mountains
are deeply buried in snow. At present,
however, this is not a necessity. There are
hundreds of square miles on our eastern
border where domestic animal has never
trod-that are still in their primitive grand
eur-and stock will thrive and come out fat
In the spring. Our farmers could make it
profitable to drive to those localities to win
ter. Those who have but few head should
prepare shelter. The mode of treatment
practiced by many of our farmers is simply
brutal. The idea of milking cows all the
season, then turning them out at the first
blast of wiuter with no other show for a
living than to forage upon the same range
where they have subsisted during the sum-
mer, with nothing to break the wind off of
them except a fence-post, few willows, or
the trunk of friendly tree, would be revolt
ing to an eastern farmer, whose stock has
good barns and all the feed they can stand
TO. Not only is this true of our loose stock,
but in some cases there is but little OR no
shelter for the stock that labors on the farm.
Preparing for winter not only means to drive
the surplus stock to the frontier or prepare
shelter, but 1t means good stables for horses,
good warm place for the COWS, to which