The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1883-05-02
waalth h Cattle.

1t is estimated that the annual cattle
sales in the United States amount 10
| about $500, 600, GOO. This wealth has
been greatly increased by the large aug
| mentation of thoroughbred cattle. The
american d-Bookp has been cx-
| tended to % volu stcs. These volumes
are occupied with the record and pedi-
| gree of 10000 COWS, 1900 bulls, and all
| of one class, viz; Duriians or short
| horns. The best beef which finds its
| way TO market is that OF graded Dur
| ham cattle. TIE 4q9tcafuraf ReUieu'
makes this comment: One not init
mate with the subject might suppose
| that, with such All ARRAY in numbers Of
| our short-hofns. tie prices of them
| noald gradually diminish ut both the
I public and private sales, now SO fire.
quent and IN snch large numbers in oul
States Such however, is not the fact;
average sales are now made at prices at
which they have ever been During the
last five years the public sales have an
nually averaged 5000 animals-bulls,
cows and heifers. at an average price of
1852 per head, while probably an equal
number have been sold at private sales,
and at somewhat higher prices. Many
of them have sold for 81 900. and up to
even go coo each, so esteemed for ped
ioree and quality are they by our enter
prisin9 breeders Much higher prices.
indeed, have been obtained in some past
years, even as high as $50, 900 and up
ward for single animals from eminent
English breeders, who have come here
after them; but that was in time OF
high excitement in short-horn rivalry,
and need be noted only as one of the ex-
traoIdinary fluctuations in their pro-
gress. The unfamiliar reader may ask,
Where is the great demand for these cat
tie? Where is the market for the sew
eral thousand bulls annually produced?
The question'is readily answered. I'm
told herds of cattle by hundreds OF
thousands roam over the broad ranches
of Texas, New Mexico, Colorado and
California, of the descendants of the
original Spanish importations into Mex
leo from Spain in. the sixteenth century.
Ranging over the vast Plains and pam
pas of that wild climate, they increased
simultaneously. Texas became full of
them, New Mexico also; and since the
incorporation of these countries with
ours, uncouth and ragged as they were
in their wild condition, those cattle have
been. brought under the subsection OF
civilized stockmen, arranged into herds,
branded with the marks of their own
ers. and, at marketable age, driven
through the Indian Territory into Kan
sas, and thence to Missouri and Chicago
markets. either for immediate slaughter
as their condition would afford, or sold
to the graziers and feeders for q better
market Eastward. These wild cattle
are unfit for choice beef, but the cows,
crossed on their ranches by short-horn
bulls, produce tolerably good steers,
partaking strongly of the blood and
forms of their sires, and become mar
ketable animals, with good pasturage
and grain topping-off in the hands OF
the corn-growing grazicrs who pur-
chased them.
The graniing-up of cattle in the West
and Southwest has been going on rapid
" within the last ten years. 1t would
be difficult to decide whether Illinois OF
Kentucky is the center of the short-horn
breeding interest in this country. The
center, wherever it may be, is movable
one. The Texan steer, that is, the orig
inal long-horned, half-wild animal, is
rapidly disappearing. Droves of these
cattle are now rarely seen. They haye
been displaced by better ones. -NeW
York Shipping Last