, 1904-02-19
STATION
WORK BEING CARRIED ON BY THE
AGRICULTURAL DEPARTMENT
OF UNIVERSITY.
Wantland's Ranch News Whites En-
tertainingIy of the Subject, Giving
Facts and Fisures-Splendid Breed
of Cattle Developed-value Of the
Live Stock Of State Of Wyoming.

Nv " " q - "JS''''''S'
Fine stock breeding has been one of
the features Of the work at the Wyo-
ming experiment station al Laramie.
Wyo., says Ranch News for February.
There is kept on the farm a small herd
of Herefords and Shorthorn cattle and
to this has been added a fine specimen
of the POlled Hereford. a are hornless
breed which cattlemen ana breeders
are expecting great results from.
Ii is the aim of the station at Lar
annie TO encourage the farmers of the
state to improve their herds. demon
strating from their experiments h
it pays to keep fine stock ald does not
cost any more.
Already much has been one along
these lines. But, in a great cattle
state like Wyoming. where enormous
numbers of cattle have run wild for
years on its ranges, the work of intro
ducing the finest and most profitable
strains. now that the herds are becom-
ing smaller, still has a large. untouched
territory for its energies. This is just
as important to the small farmers as
the large cattle II
Wyoming has minted gold in the
sheep industry. Thousands of herds
are today pastured IN its ranges. But
from this industry the speculative feat
ures are rapidly being eliminated and
cattlemen and farmers are receiving
invaluable assistance from the expert
ments conducted at the station. Now
the all-important II and the care of
stock through the unfavorable periods
of the winter season has been fully
realized as necessary to insure sue
cess, feeding will be watched with in
terest.
Another result of the elimination of
chance in the sheep industry and the
evolving a different system of treat.
ment is that better breeds will be the
rule and the herds will be smaller. 1t
has already been found that the new
system is profitable and returns
are much more satisfactory to cattle.
men and farmers.
In 1903 Wyoming raised 2S.7 zoe. 600
pounds of wool, valued at $500. 16O,
which was less than 81, O0O, 900 realized
the previous year. 1t is estimated that
there were 1900. 900 sheep. valued at
s11 ,6S5 900, in the. state at the close
of the year; 974,97S cattle. valued at
$780, 900. and 1850 horses, valued
at $6.101. sos.
There is now at the Laramie sta.
ton a herd Of 800 lambs undergoing a
feeding experiment in lots of sixty
each. One lot is being pastured on
field peas, which may be raised in
great abundance in Wyoming. Anoth.
err lot on alfalfa and corn; a third on
turnips and oil meal. The oil meal is
cottonseed meal after the oil has been
almost all extracted. A fourth and
fifth lot of sixty each is fed-one on
alfalfa, corn, turnips and meal, the 9th
er on alfalfa and wheat alternating
every ten days with alfalfa and barley.
Former experiments have been con
Quoted with native hay and corn and
alfalfa and corn, the latter proving
the most satisfactory. The present ex.
periments have been too recently in.
a%ugurated to give the results.
In it's experiments in forage grasses
the station has found that all native
wheat grasses have responded wonder
fully to cultivation and ranchmen con
slider the species of Agropyron the
most nutritious.
Bromus inermis has been found to
do better in the mountains than on
the plains. The short awned native
bronze grasses and western bromes
have done especially well. Red top,
meadow and red fescue have been sue
cessfully grown on the experiment
farm and an effort made to demon
strate their value to the farmer. 1t
has been found undesirable to flood
the meadows where the western wheat
grasses and the Colorado blue stem
thrive.
In a recent bulletin issued by the ag.
ricultural college of Wyoming, Prof.
Aven Nelson of the biological depart
ment says:
TT may seem at first sight. as if the
enclosing of most of the irrigable lands
is simply thus to withdraw from the
available pasture lands those OF great
est worth. Let it be remembered, how
ever, that irrigation increases the pro-
ductiveness of these lands many fold
and the increased product is, in most