San Marcos free press. [volume] (San Marcos, Tex.) 1877-1892, 1881-10-06
Texas Cattle.

The great drain on inc cattio oCOoA Va
Southwest Texas to furnish cattle for
the drive to Kansas and other North
ern States is beginning to be felt in
the beef markets. The one and two
year-old steers have been gathered go
close for number of years, so few
have been left at home, that to-day
there is great shortage in the beef
supply. Another year the cities OF
New Orleans and Havana will have to
look elsewhere for their supply OF beef.
Those who now own two and three
year-old steers should bear in mind this
fact, and hold them for the beef mark
ct. They will get home market Tor
every beef they have and at prices that
will pay better than to drive them
North. Beeves have brought a good
price this year and there has been a
good demand; there was mo expense
account for driving them; the buyers
came right to our homes after them,
and this demand will increase every
year, as the country settles up. The
cities of New Orleans and Havana rely
for their supply of beef cattle on this
country; our home markets are large
ones and must get their supply from
here.
Southwest Texas is now furnishing
one hundred and twenty-five thousand
head of beef cattle per annum to these
markets but it cannot keep up the
supply if the young cattle continue to
be sold as close as they have heretofore
been. The advance in the price OF
cattle this year will tempt many stock
men to sell off all their steer cattle;
the profit will be DIVIDED between this
State and Kansas, Colorado, or Nebras.
ka, whereas the whole profit should be
kept in this State. The beef supply
of the entire grazing regions is short
of the demand and will continue to
grow shorter year by year as the area
of grazing country is reduced by the
inroads Of farmers. Every year sees
the eastern boundry Of the stock
country pushed farther west, until TO-
day, like the Indian, the stockman is
at the end Of the log and can move no
farther. The stockman. and feeders OF
the Northwest States have grown rich
by buying our cattle and holding them
until they were ready for the beef
market; their profits have been larger
than the profits of the breeders. The
range in Southwest Texas is fully as
good now as it is in the Northwest, and
there is no reason why our stock own
ers should continue to divide their pro-
fits with these other States. Increased
railroad facilities will bring BUYERS
here to buy our beeves and enable our
stock raisers to secure the profit which
has heretofore been made by Northern
stockmen.
An examination into the beef supply
of each county in Southwest Texas will
convince any one that the steer cattle
in the country will not furnish more
than one-half of the amount of beef
needed by the markets which rely on
this region for their meat supply. Keep
your cattle at home, and rely on it you
will have moro money than the man
who drives his young cattle to Northern
markets. The great overstock of cattle
which existed few years ago, is
thing of the past. Southwest Texas
is to-day shorter of cattle than Kan
sas, Colorado, or Nebraska; her range
is fresh and as good as any new coun-
try, and can support at least five times
as many cattle as it is now doing.