Rocky Mountain husbandman. [volume] (Diamond City, Mont.) 1875-1943, 1877-05-17

it more palatable. When we have late sum-
mer rains, and the grass remains green until
fall, should trost come early it is injured.
and stock do not seem to keep ia good con
ditlon during the winter as when it dries up
early, as is generally tie case. During the
winter the low lands and sharp foot hills are
for the most part tree from snow. Usually
the snow is chased away blythe wind, ex-
cept that which is driven into the thick clus-
ters OF grass and lies bedaed among the old
dead blades Of other years. In grazing, the
stock gather up more or less snow. which
serves IN great measure as a substitute for
water. When the snow departs in the spring
stock go to the foot hills, following up the
recedng snow; lie grass which lies covered
all winter is relislied best; besides the young
crop starts first ard grows fastest among
the sharp bills. In the States, green grass
in carly spring appears to have a weakening
effect upon stock, but here it comes forth
among the old crop, and is so we'll mixed
hat there is scarcely any difference between
it and dry feed.
Bunch grass will not yield an acreage
equal to ether grasses, but it does not re-
quire near the quantity Of this to sustain
stock and keep them in a llOurishing condi-
ton us is required OF coarse and less nutr-
lious food it approaches nearer to grain
tlan anything Of which we have any knowl-
edge. A poor horse turned out here, seems
to thrive and get III seryceable condition
quicker than if cosa fed in tie stables
III all that has ever been said or written OF
Montana, everyone has praised her bunch
grass, though many have been SO short
sighted us to claim that it would not stand
pasturage, and that i'll a few years our pla-
teaus and mountain slopes would present a
bare, bleak appearance, rs Go the red hills
of California. But experience and practical
test have proved the fallacy OF such conclu-
sions. 1t is a perennial, yet when the root
becomes killed the seeds are SO generally
distributed by the wind that a barren tract
adapted to its growth soon becomes covered.
In 1865 the hills around Virginia City
were grazed off perfectly pare for distance
of six or seven miles in every direction, and
many asserted that in a few Years it would
be Il barren waste. To-day those lill sides
support as luXllriant a growth Of seed as
they did previous to tie habtation Of the
country by the whites. In 1866 there was
no place within a radius Of eight miles of
Helena where one could turn out an OK
train to Craze. The grass was eaten off
smooth to the ground. To-day the feed in
this section is good, Notwithstanding its con-
slant pasurage in consequence of its being
in such close proximity to the city, and the
thiclly-settled valley.
Some inexperienced and ignorant would
be advisers have said that the hoof Of sheep
was poison to bunch grass, and that in a few
years our luXuriant natural meadows would
be numbered among the things that We're.
Here practical tests come to our relief again
and we are able to assert that as long as the
range is grazcd with half the discretion that
is used in pasturing blue grass. clover or
mesquite, to prevent Their becoming killed
out, our ranges will retain their primitive
| luXuriance. and remain, as they are to-day,
to the stock and wool grower paradise.
In 1872 C. w. Cook & Bro. moved to their
present location, on Smith river valley, n
beautiful high land, seven miles in exten'.
Here they have kept their tlocks, and the
grass has improved instead of deteriorating,
and excepting within a few hundred yards
of the corral. where the ground is continu-
ally tramped, ed is good. We might men
tiou numbers of such cases, if need be, to
/ establish our statement. Several of our best
valleys have been too closely graZed, but