The home journal. (Winchester, Tenn.) 1858-188?, 1872-01-04
ABOUT TEXAS,
.g. ... 'TI-F -I-7T
Untold wealth sfthe graders OF Plains.

Texas alone has $500, 900 cattle,
divided into 950,000 beeves, $50, 900
cows, and ! 900, 900 young cattle. The
plains on which these cattle roam con-
tain about l20, ,OO0, 900 acres. The prin-
cipal pasturages are on the Nueces,
Rio Grande, Guadalupe, San Antonio,
Colorado, Leon, Braaos, Trinity, Sa-
bine, and Red rivers. The cattle are
owned by scores of ranchmen, each
one of whom has from 1000 to 5000
head. On the Sante Gertrrdes river
Ia ranch containing 81, l32 acres. 1t
Is owned by one man, Richard King,
and has on 1t 5000 head Of cattle,
10000 horses, 1900 sheep, and 5000
goats. This immense number Of live
stock requires |, 900 saddle horses and
800 Mexicans to attend and herd It.
Ten thousand beeves are annually
sold from the ranch, 1900 young
calves branded. There Is another
ranch on the San Antonio river, near
Goliad, which grazes 10000 head Of
cattle, and brands 1l,000 head of
calves annually. Mr.. O'Connor, the
owner of this ranch, sells $75, 900
worth Of stock each year, and his
herds are constantly increasing. In
1892 he began cattle raising with 500
head, and his present enormous herds
and wealth are the result of natural
increase. On the Gulf, between the
Rio Grande and Nueces, is a ranch
containing 42,S4O arces, and owned
by Mitllin Kennedy. 1t Is OH q penin-
sula, surrounded on the three sides
by water, and To enclose the other
side, has required the building of
thirty-one miles of plank fence.
Every three miles along the fence
are houses for the herders, and enor-
NOUS stables and pens for the stock.
There are grazed in this enclosure
1000 head of beef cattle, besides an
immense number of other stock.
WHAT ONE POOR MAN DID IN TEXAS
IN TEN YEARS, RAISING STOCK,
A ranch on the Brazos river con-
tains SO, 600 head of cattle, 800 horses,
and fifty herders. John Hitson, the
owner, drives 10000 cattle to market
annually. Ten years ago he was q
poor farmer in Tennessee, but selling
his land and going to the Brazos, he
succeeded by dint Of hard labor in
getting together sixty cows and nine
brood mares, when he went to rails
ing stock. He has now $4,000 head
of cattle, worth at least Sl5O,0OO, and
he is still only forty years old. This
man is establishing stock ranch on
the South Platte, in Nebraska, where
he now has 5000 head of cattle and
next spring will bring In 10000 more.
There Is a ranch on COneho river,
Texas, where, am told, one man
owns 20, 900 head Of steers and milch
cows.
BEST GRAZING COUNTIES AND PRE-
SENT BEHF MARKETS.
The best grazing counties In Texas
are those of Throckmorton, Stevens,
Jack, Young, Callahan, Coleman,
Brown, Tarrant, Erath, Comanche,
Palo Pinto, Hill and Johnson. These
counties lie along the Rio Grande,
Nueces, Guadalupe, San Antonio,
Colorado, Leon, Brazos, Trinity Sa-
bine, and Red rivers. The stock
from these counties are driven to the
Gulf in great numbers, where they
are slaughtered, packed in steamers,
or put on alive, and shipped to New
York, Boston, and other northern
markets. A great many cattle are
driven North on foot by way Of Abb
lene, Kansas, and Schuyler, Nebras-
ka. Some follow the Pecos, and pass
into Arizona and California; others
keep along the Arkansas to Bent's
Ford, thence across Colorado over the
Black Hills and into Wyoming,
and on up into Utah, Montana,
Nevada, and Idaho. There are some
drivers whose names / cannot men,
ton, but the whole number Of cattle
brought North overland from Texas
during the year 1870 did not fall short
of 100, 900 head. OF these 10000 went
TO Montana, 5000 to Utah, S,6U TO
Nevada, 5000 to Wyoming, 10000 to
California, IL, 900 to Idaho, and 10000
to Colorado and New Mexico. The
amount of money handled along the
base of the mountains in transferring
this stock was over 81 100000. At
Abilene, the great Kansas cattle
market, over 100000 head Of cattle
were handled. The shipment in sep
tenlbcr reached 10000 head, and in
October nearly 5000 head. This i'm
mcnse trade may be estimated when
| il is stated that it took Ill cars per
llay te transfer the stock, and one
bank in Kansas City handled S3,OOO,-
coo, cattle money. In Nebraska the
cattle trade with the South is just
beginning; yet last year $1,000 head
changed hands in Schuyler, and the
First National Bank of Omaha han
died $500 GOO in consequence Of this
trade. Ii is likely the trade at Schuy-
Ter in 1871 will reach 100000 head of
cattle, and it will require 81 100000 to
carry it on.
no DANGER or OvER-sT0CKINu THE
LIVE STOCK MARKET.
Large as the cattle trade may seem,
il is vet in its infancy, not only in
Texas, New Mexico, Colorado, on the
platte. but throughout the United
States The rapid increase OF our
population both from foreign and do
lnestic sources, demands correspond.
ing increase Of food, and at present
there is no product Of cattle that
il ANYTHING like equal to the demand.
Reef can be raised on plains, and de,
liyered, at six cents per pound, anu
until that is done there need be no
apprehension of crowding the cattle
market. That beef can ever be had
in our day 30 cheap as six cents does
not seem probable, and yet even az
four and a half cents per pound large
fortunes can be made in cattle breed
inv. 1t is only OH the limitless plains,
where land is OF little or no value,
that stock can be raised to great ad-
vantage. But even the plains, b3und-
less as they may seem, are fast dlsap'
nearing before the advancing waves
of population. Texas, the great cat
tle hive of the country, has during
. the past year received s", 600 settlers
and already cattle growers there feel
1 Nat they mist soon look elsewhere
for untrammeled ranges. A few more
vrors like the past, a few Deductions
9ot !, million acres of pasture lands III
n .inrle season, and Texas will he nc
+ more of grazing state than NeW @
York. Pennsylvania, or ONO. fel,
cnnuare these States, ana now na
thayr stand now? New YORK, WIN