The Leon reporter. (Leon, Iowa) 1887-1930, 1916-05-25
Wyoming Letter.
Wheatland, Wyomin

individually.
We have had a very nice winter,
but some Of the time it was pretty
cold, registering around 20 below OF
nights for several weeks, but no bad
storms, which is very fortunate for
cattle men in this locality.
l have always heard of cattle run
ming on the range out west all winter
without being fed or shelter, and
wondered why it could not be done in
Iowa just as we'll, but after spending
a winter in the west it is easily eX-
planned.
| arrived here the forepart Of No.
vember, got excited right away about
feed for our cattle. l was afraid
there might come a snow storm and
cover up the grass so the cattle
would starve to death. Well, the
winter has passed, and if l owned all
the cattle that lived through the
winter under my own observation IN
this locality without feed or shelter
except what they found among the
hills, l would not be scratching my
head wondering where the next meal
was coming from.
The snow storms came all right,
several of them, but the longest any
one snow laid on the ground was
about two or three days, and very
seldom that long, so the ground is
practically bare all the time-the
snow just simply bows away.
Even when the weather was ~ to
"a below zero for weeks at a time
the water was running unfrozen in
the canyons, so the cattle and horses
could drink whenever they pleased.
water, wind and fuel are few
of the things that are plentiful. A
good part of the mountains are COW
cred with pitch pine, and if anyone
doesn't know what kind Of fuel 1T
makes just send me the postage and
I will mail you a chunk OF It, we
have trees so long it will make
man hungry to walk from one end OF
a log to the other. We have rocks
here in size from ")rty acres up. Ii
any fool does not believe it, send me
a few stamps and l will send you
sample.
One advantage of cattle raising
here is that it seldom if ever rains in
winter. From the first OF November
to the present time, May 16, 1916, 1t
has not rained enough to wet through
a cows hair. This means several
points in favor of the cattle business,
to-wit:
LIST, the grass that grows during
the summer is Just as good the next
spring as it was in the fall.
End, the cattle do not stand around
with icicles as long as your arm hang
ing down each side.
3rd, they nearly always have dry
place to lie down.
We did not commence feeding our
COWS till the middle of February,
when it was thought best to keep
tnem up lest coyotes might OCCASION
ally feast on newly arrived calf. We
turned them out in the morning tor
water, and if it were not for the
cows that had young calves leading
the herd home we would almost in
variable have to hunt them up and
drive them back to the feed at night.
We have a few horses that run out
all winter. When there come a snow
we thought the horses would surely
come home for feed but they very
seldom did. Sometimes we would
have to hunt them up, turn them into
the feed yard for day or two, then
turn them out and not see them again
only at a distance for week or tWo'
once when they had not been up lor
quite a spell we were bringing a load
of hay home and passed where the
horses were Wanting to get them
1p and feed them we stopped and let
them eat some hay, thinking TO TOTE
them home and feed them, but the
horses would not follow the load OF
hay to the corral, and we have only
had them in the feed yard one nlShl
since ~t'i IT A
For the interest Of trappers | Will
say there are several varieties Oh lur
bearing animals, coyotes being more
numerous than anything else. There
are a few bob cats, some deer, TWO
or three kinds of wolves, once IN a
while bear, a few musk rats ana
skunks, and along the stream can be
seen the WORK Of beavers, cutting
down trees and dragging the branches
in the creek to help make dams. The
laws are pretty strict against trap
ping the latter. You can only get
permit to trap them by showing that
they are doing you damage by their
dams changing the water course SO
as to interfere with irriSating your
lands.
There are quite a number OF small
streams in this locality more or less
inhabited by mountain trout and 9th
er fish.
l cannot say anything definite
about this country as to fruit grow
ing only that I see quite number OF
orchards with trees large enough to
bear fruit and those who have them
are setting out more young fruit
trees, as are others, which looks like
they have faith in fruit growing.
There are a few varieties OF wild
fruit trees and berry vines along the
streams.
Our neighbors started to make gar
den a month or so ago, showing that
they either had some faith in rails
ing vegetables or believe in the old
saying: Nothing ventured, nothing
gained,' and we are doing some
thing in that line also, by way of ex-
pertinent, and our radishes, lettuce,
onions, ETC., have been up a few
weeks.
l suppose there is more grass and
ba, or1,fIipcr al lnnp