Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1877-01-04

THERE IS one very lmpOftdlI Ifutu lhdo
our farmers must sooner Or later learn In
regard to raising stock. 1t is this, if they
propose to let them shift for themselves,
they must drive them to the foothills ana
leave them, buff they propose to feed them
through the winter, they must provide e
with good comfortable shelter and plenty OF
feed. Ii stock are fed only half enough,
thew will stand around the corral and hump
themselves up on the lee side of a fe%nce-post
and make no effort to feed upon the range,
and consequently become very poor and not
unfrequently die.
Now it is necessary for every farmer to
keep a few head of stock about he farm IN
winter. He needs a team, a saddle horse or
two and a few milk Gov tor family use, but
these should be well stabbed and fed all they
will eat. The stock that are not used will
do vastly better in the hills on the bunch
grass. But when we survey our farmers
homes how very few do we find who follow
this rule, and how many are there who are
almost totally unprovided with shelter or
facilities for watering. We have stated that
stock on the range, in many instances, do
much better without water than with it,
but this has no reference to stock that are
kept around home and live in the stubble
field and around straw ricks ; on the other
hand, stock treated in this manner require
an unusual amount of water. When the
first snow Of winter flies, many of our val
ley farmers sally forth and gather in all their
cattle and horses, and turn them into the
fields to subsist upon the stubble. When
this is gone, they are turned to the straw
rick, and by the middle Of February or first
Of March, and often earlier, they have de-
molished everything in the shape of feed,
and are poor and weak and in no condition
to go to the hills and shift for themselves.
The farmer who practices this mode does it
to prevent his stock from straying from the
neighborhood, and while it saves him a few
days ride inNNlle spring, costs him many
head Of stocKaT The stock that die in the
spring are not those which live on the grange,
but those that put in the winter in the stub
BILE fields and around straw piles, anAstand-
1AIH AlOuiib ~ AonitS aila N%slii
wistfully over the fence at 4 diminutiye hay
stack.
Now, it does seem that ten years expert
once would certainly have taught this truth.
yet, Notwithstanding IL il made palmer and
palmer every yearto the casual observer
the practice is not changed.
Ii the farmer wants a beef in the spring
he goes to the hills to try to find some stray
head that he failed to get up in the fall
which, If found, never fails to be in better
condition than those that are kept at home
How much longer Will an intelligent people
continue in q practice that every years e.
perience, for ten long years, has condemned
If they will not read agricultural journal
and inform themselves, viii they not prof
by their own experience?
Straw, ever if fed in great abundance, i
not equal to our natural range. But TIL
farmer who has such feed that he desires t
use, should only take up q few head of stock
s. that he can feed them all they will eat
III he will do this, and provide a good wind
break, to shelter them from the storms, h
may hope to have them come through i
passably fair condition. 1t will not do t
feed them on half rations. Either provid
for them well, or let them shift for them
selves altogether.
IHR year just closed has been one fraugll
with anxiety and toll. But our labors hay,
not been without reward. The continued
arrival OF encouraging letters from all part
of the Territory is abundant evidence tina
our efforts to publish a live farm, stock ant
family journal have not been in vain. w