[Matplotlib-users] overlapping ticks in x axis

Hello,

I have attached the histogram that I generated. When specifying large 
numbers like 1000 or more, the xticks tend to overlap and it gives a 
clumsy impression. Is there a way to avoid this?. What can be done to 
give gaps between the ticks?. Say in my case just show 3 to 4 ticks in x 
axis rather than specifying all the ticks. The following is my code:

def plotHistogram(veh_no, value, vehicle_no, fig_no):

     font = {'family' : 'serif',
         'weight' : 'normal',
         'size'   : 10}
     rc('font', **font)
     count = 1
     legends = []
     print veh_no
     plt.figure(num=fig_no,dpi=105)
     for i in range(len(value)):
         ax = plt.subplot(2,2,i+1)
         n, bins, patches = plt.hist(value[i],100,label=veh_no[i])
         plt.ylabel('frequency',position=(0.5,0.5))
         plt.xlabel('x valuels')
         plt.grid()
         min_val = int(round(min(value[i]),0))
         max_val = int(round(max(value[i]),0))
         ax.set_xlim(min_val-2,max_val+2)
         locs,labels = plt.xticks()
         plt.xticks(locs, map(lambda x: "%g" % x, locs))
     plt.savefig('figurename.eps',dpi=70)
     count += 1

Thank You
Vineeth