The Manitowoc pilot. [volume] (Manitowoc, Wis.) 1859-1932, 1883-05-10
Wealth in Cattle,

1t is estimated that the annual cattle
sales in the United States amount to
about $500, 900, 00o This wealth ha.,
been greatly increased by the large aug
mentation Of thoroughbred cattle. The
American Herd Book has been ex-
tended to % volumes. These volumes
are occupied with the record and pedi-
gree of 10000 cows, Al, 200 bulls, and ali
of one class, viz: Durhams or short
horns. The best beef which finds its
way to market is that of graded Dur
ham cattle. The AgriculturdE ReUieD
makes this comment: lone not inti-
mate with the subject might suppose
that, with such an array in numbers of
our short-horns, the prices of them
would gradually diminish at both the
public and private sales, now so fire.
quent and in such large numbers in our
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 $4,000 each, so esteemed for ped
igree and quality are they by our enter
prising breeders. Much higher prices.
indeed, have been obtained in some past
years, even as high as S25, 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-
trao1 dinary fluctuations in their pro-
gress. The unfamiliar reader may AK,
Where is the great demand for these cat
tleP Where is the market for the sew
eral thousand bulls annually produced?
The question is readily answered. In
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
multitudinously. Texas became full of
them, Nes 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 subjection 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 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 pasturare
and grain topping-off in the hands of
the corn-growing graziers who pur-
chased them.
The grading-up of cattle in the West
and Southwest has been going on rapid
ly within the last ten years. It 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 a movable
one. The Texan steer, that is, the orlp-
inal long-horned, half-wild animal, is
rapidly disappearing. Droves of these
cattle are now rarely seen. They have
been displaced by better ones.-Nea0
York Shipping List.