t 38 deg., nearly
the same as San Francisco. But it is far warmer in summer, much
colder in winter, than that capital. This is in a great measure due
to its being so far inland, and also to the fact that most of the
state is high table-land. Thus in Colorado (the snow seldom lies
there more than three or four days at a time) the cattle are only
sheltered and fed for short periods.

As a rule they calve in the spring. If it is required to increase the
stock, only the male two and three years old and any worn out old
cows are sold yearly. There is always a market for them; in fact, in
spring and summer dealers travel round to the ranches and buy. If the
above plan of keeping all the young female stock is followed out, and
the mishaps are few, the cattle on a ranch double themselves in three
or four years. When the limit a run will carry is attained, all the
increase can yearly be sold.

Great numbers of horses are bred on ranches, and it is a question
whether these or cattle are the more profitable. Horses are hardier
than cattle, stand both heat and cold better. They consequently
require less shelter, and also less food in winter, for horses will
paw up the snow and find food when cattle cannot do so. They "rustle"
better for themselves, as the Americans forcibly express it.

There are no natural enclosures in ranch countries like hedges,
though I see not why, in time, there should not be such. In vast
plains, such as are found in Texas, I believe ranches are not fenced
in at all, and the cattle wander where they will. But in countries
like Colorado, where pretty well every acre has an owner, fences are
a necessity. The usual one is a barbed wire-fence. This is thus
constructed: at distances of 30 or 40 feet, sometimes more, strong
poles, 3 feet in the ground, and say 5 feet above it, are set up.
Three wires, the lowest say 18 inches from the ground, the second and
third, a like distance from the first and second, run from pole to
pole, and are attached thereto by iron cleets. This alone, however,
would not suffice to keep cattle in the enclosures, for they often
charge the fences in great numbers at a time, and would thus easily
break through. But the wires are studded at every 18 inches with
sharp spikes, which soon teach the cattle that they cannot run
against them with impunity. This is why it is called a "barbed
wire-fence," and it is a very efficacious one.

On the ranch I had purchased (I called it the Water