she leads also in horses with 1,157,015; ranks in the fifth place for sheep with 2,543,917, and in the third for swine with 2,684.987. Iowa is second in cattle with 3,410,000 head, and first in swine with 3,408, 281 hogs. Montana has but 996,492 head of cattle, but ranks first in sheep with 3,377,547. Missouri has 2,133,832 head of cattle, but is second on the list with swine, having 2,949,818 porkers. In 1898 we exported 439,255 head of cattle, or in dollars our exports of cattle, horses, sheep, and all other domestic animals amounted to $46,243,406. While we are discussing figures we may as well glance at a few relating to the slaughtering, the by-products, and the other rather dry but valuable statistical data upon the subject. Added to our export of cattle we also ship away 37, 109, 570 pounds of canned beef, 274,768,074 pounds of fresh beef, and 44,314,479 pounds of salted beef; or a total in value, including cattle and beef meat, of $66,442, 182, representing, all told, about 900,000 head. These are the figures for 1898, and during the same year we exported 51,150 horses, 199,690 sheep, 12, 224, 285 pounds of fresh pork, 88,155,078 pounds of pickled pork, 81,744,809 pounds of tallow, 709, 344,045 pounds of lard, 650, 108,953 pounds of bacon, 200, 185,861 ooo more than during any previous year. The latest data, compiled in 1896 by the Department of Agriculture, develop, from authoritative sources, the fact that in all the known world there were 73,308,950 horses, 8,952,984 mules, 318,988,667 cattle, 532,239, 165 sheep, 104, 156, 447 hogs, 32, 268,821 goats. Of that total under "cattle," Canada had 4,291,845; Cuba, 2,485.766; Argentine Republic, 22,869,585; United States, 48,222,995; Brazil, 17,000,000; Austria-Hungary, 15,085,760; Italy, 5,000,000; France, 12,879, 240; Germany, 17.555.694: United Kingdom, 10,753,314; in the two Russias, 39,000,000; British India, 65,721,144; or, by continents, North America, 56,413,443; South America, 55,675,635; Europe, 110, 238, 202; Asia, 77,290.532; Africa, 5,913,797: Australasia, 13, 325, 264; Oceanica, 131,796. Our slaughtering and packing industry is enormous. Our next census will show that there are over 1,000 establishments in the country, employing nearly 60,000 people and a capital of $160,000,000, turning out a product of certainly over $620,000,000 Worth a year. The Chicago packing-houses alone employ nearly 25,ooo people and have a capital of $25,000, A CHAMPION SHORTHORN BULL child of our 74,530,000 people. If each one of us consumed one pound of beef a day we would simply exterminate our stock of cattle in a year's time. So that we are working upon what may be called a "factor of safety" of only eight. In early times stock was raised in the settlements of Connecticut, Ohio, and New York for meat purposes, the markets of New York and Philadelphia creating the demand; then some herds were driven as far west even as Illinois, and the railroads soon after offered such opportunities for distribution and increased sales that prime cattle were carried by them to greater distances still. The Texas cattle were not a great factor in the problem, nor could the Western cattle (the natural increase of the stock driven overland and up from Mexico in the long ago, or carried around by water by the early settlers to California, Utah, and Oregon) be so considered either. Then came the war of the Rebellion; the long-horned Spanish-Texan cattle were practically confined to their own territory, none being driven north, and few indeed finding their way even into southeastern markets. Left free to roam their native plains they increased enormously. Soon after the war it became necessary to find "pastures new," and, the Union Pacific Railway being under construction, it seemed to Texan owners that along that line they would find a market for their surplus beef. Great herds were driven north. An owner would start out with from 2,000 to 4,000 head, tended by ten men or so. These men led a nomadic life. The cattle made their own broad trails leading north and west. There was no particular objective point, simply a seeking of fresh pastures and a market wherever either could be found. This exodus of surplus stock was also effective in taking out of the country many surplus men. The early herdsman in many cases left his native heath for the good of that heath. Then was the time of outlawry, cattle-stealing, and the acme of Western toughness generally. Who has not read stories of the "Texas trail," buffalo hunting, and cattle-men yarns? It was found that these cattle throve upon the tough grasses of the semi-arid country bordering the Union Pacific Railway and extending north to the Canadian line. They did better than in Texas and wintered better, though it was so much colder, and without other feed than their grazing they put on flesh. Then it was that this stock became a factor in the market. The owners of cattle in Oregon and Montana, where stocks had also largely increased, noting the success of the Texans, began to drive their herds into the same country, seeking the same market. These two currents met in Wyoming and Idaho, and the result was a tremendous production in the Territories that reached its very zenith in 1886. In Texas the grass is succulent, and there is moisture enough to keep it green the year around, but when "norther» winds and frosts nip it the succeeding rains and heat rot it. Then the climate and the pestiferous insects, added to poor winter feeding, keep the cattle thin, longlegged, bony, and producers of a comparatively poor quality of meat. Those early herders found that the dry, bracing climate and freedom from insects throughout the well-named semi-arid regions helped their stock, and that the grasses-less succulent, it is true, but less woody and of curtailed growth, owing to lack of rain-dried down and were cured on the stem, forming the best of hay and producing a first-class quality of nutritious fodder, little affected by frost or snow (that was generally swept off great patches by the prevailing high winter winds), and sufficient in quality and quantity for the long winters until the green grasses sprouted forth again. Cattle-men, from shipping steers only, soon began scientific breeding operations as well as merely holding for supply, crossing the Texan with the Oregon stocks, and the result was as good a quality of meat as was produced anywhere in the country. This experimenting was begun in Colorado and Wyoming; then later the stockmen of Montana, Utah, Idaho, and Nevada took it up and produced from that northern country as good meat as the average beef-making stock of Iowa, Missouri, or even of Illinois did. Cattle-raising on the ranges was a new art, however, and much was to be learned. It was found that cows, after the long march northward, and generally reaching pretty far north too, by winter were in rather poor condition to stand the hardships of that season together with the cares of maternity, so they began shipping them by rail, and the great droves were made up almost exclusively of steers. Later still it was deemed more economical and better even to ship these by rail to the western ranges. As stated before, cattle-ranching was at first a very nomadic existence; the stock was rounded up only for branding or to select beef for shipping to market. The men merely camped here or there, but later home ranches were established, some hay was put away for the horses, gardens were cultivated, and the stock was kept as near "home" as the range feeding permitted. Nearer still to our own day enough feed was raised and stored to provide for the weaker members of the herd, which were fed for short periods during the winter. The main body, however, continued as before, and as it still does, to graze summer and winter, on the open range, Uncle Sam's domain. The cattle-men have learned many lessons and have had much to contend with. Among their tribulations not the least has been the sheep-men. The latter, finding that their sheep did fairly well upon the open range in Oregon, and being awake to the advantages enjoyed by the cattleman in his new territory, began invading the borders of the latter, then encroached further and increased his flocks. It was a great invasion, and the cattle, ever shy of man and dog, and fretting in the presence of the fleecy intruders, penetrated further and further into the country and into an ever-decreasing radius of territory. It was not that the sheep ate all the grass about, but merely passing over it spoiled it for their rather finnicky horned co-tenants. As the cattle sought distance from settlements and sheep, both followed them, pressing rather closely, and, assisted by severe winters, fencing in of water, overstocking, and other agents, have well nigh succeeded in closing the history of the great herds that, a few years ago, ranged over those semiarid plains in uncounted numbers where, again but a few years before, their cous ins, the bison, roamed in countless millions. To-day the herds are small and widely scattered, and we have but reminiscences of the halcyon days of the range cattle. We have said that there were other contributory causes to the falling off of range cattle than the sheep. They are many. The wolf followed the buffalo and preyed upon the young and weak: when the buffalo was exterminated, the wolf turned his attention to the cattle. A merciless war was waged against him, and he too was almost cleaned off the plains by the hunter and poisoner. His lessened numbers giving less trouble to the settler, and his hide being worth but little, the war was relaxed. He increased quickly in numbers and in wariness, and has been long and is now a most serious element of danger and loss to our range cattle. Angelic settlers are found mostly in heaven. Among those who drifted to the plains there were some who were not angelic and who could not or would not distinguish 'twixt meum and tuum. The temptations were certainly strong. With great herds of cattle at large, only seen by their owners or herders at rare intervals, the identification of the young was almost impossible, and some of these found their way into the possession of the innocent settler, who frequently thus founded considerable herds of his own. Later, when Indians or other depredators thinned out his herds, there was a cry for "law and order," and short shrift was given the new thief when caught. It was not an unfre quent occurrence that the cow was killed to prevent any possible identification of the calf. Then, too, there was the "meat-eater," -the small settler who, with limited stock of his own, yet fond of beef, found it cheaper to kill from the great man's herd than from his own few. Both these methods of poaching proved serious sources of loss. But the great decimator was the severe winters. In the summer of 1886 meat-raising on the plains reached the topmost notch. There had been losses before, but the winter was one of unprecedented severity and cold. There were terrific gales, blizzards, and heavy snowfalls. Whole herds were wiped out of existence and every man lost heavily. It was the turning-point, and range-cattle-raising has never since been what it was before. Many went out of business, and the commerce assumed new features. Since that year there has been an absolute decrease in cattle production in that region. Producing them in Texas, maturing them north, finishing and fattening them in the corn country, additional and skilled care and winter feeding upon comparatively valuable land have not only added wonderfully to the quality of the meat but have also added as wonderfully to the cost of it, and the era of cheap beef is but a memory. While the range cattle of the semi-arid belt never represented a majority of the supply, their decrease was a sufficient factor forever to affect the market. We are hardly confronted with any such dire possibilities of a deficit in cattle as has been prophesied for wheat, but the supplying of a moderately cheap meat is enough of a serious problem to keep many wise men thinking. We still ship enormous quantities of beef, and are actually eating less of it than formerly - we consume proportionately three times as much mutton to-day as we did ten years ago, and from a beef-eating people have degenerated to a muttonconsuming one,- but our prices are ever mounting higher and higher. True, there had been an over-production, but to-day, with our own consumption and the average export we have maintained for the past three years, we are approaching dangerously near the line of actual production, resulting in beef at 4 cents a pound gross that used to cost us barely 2 cents. To-day a cow and calf will bring $40 that in '90 and '91 would sell for perhaps $15. A northern range steer will weigh from 1,000 to 1,300 pounds, and will dress to about 50 to 57 pounds of meat to 100 pounds of his weight. A prime steer will His maintenance even go 60 pounds. upon the open range, herding, etc., costs his owner about a dollar a head a year, and his expenses to market, commission to the agent, railway fare, feed in transit, etc., will cost from half a cent to a cent a pound. But, dear reader, you must not figure upon this basis that there is yet an enormous margin of profit; there are losses that must be considered. This year, for instance, in northern and western Texas, New Mexico, and the Indian Territory, winter losses have been as high as twenty per cent; in western Utah twenty five per cent; and in some parts of Wyoming, Colorado, and the Dakotas individual losses have been as high as forty per cent. The country over, the loss last winter averaged four per cent. So says the Department. Cattle-men claim that the average loss is far greater, some putting it at ten per cent. In boom times cattle were sold in bunches at the range; to-day animals are selected for market. The commission man acts as agent for the owner and haggles with the agent of the slaughter-company. This part of the business has developed wonderful astuteness on both sides, and buying and selling are really arts, and the artists receive the highest emoluments. The cattle-man drives his market selection to the railroad, the latter delivers to the packing-house chutes, and there the cattle are weighed out by the yard-man to the purchaser, but until then they are the property of the cattle-man. The great cattle associations and many of the States have inspectors at the yards to look after their interests. These men soon become exceedingly expert in identifying cattle. The owner rarely pays attention to the brands of the cattle he ships. All those that are with his herds, whether of his herd or not, are shipped, depending upon those inspectors to note the stray brands and turn the value of those animals over to the rightful owner, through a sort of clearing-house arrangement. This inspection keeps thieves in check too. Some of these fellows either brand stolen cattle with some unknown brand or not at all, and attempt to sell them. In either case the inspectors confiscate these cattle to the funds of the State from which they were shipped. Large owners help in the work by shipping any strange brands they find among their own, the unregistered being confiscated to the State. The thief being thus unable to sell his stolen stock, there is a discount placed upon the traffic. As before stated, the new methods improved the stock. Perhaps the quickest improving agent ever discovered was the result of the enormous corn crops in Missouri and Kansas from 1895-97. There was no demand for it, and rather than lose it the farmers went into the market, competed with the packers, and bought stock to which they might feed their superfluous corn. The improvement was so rapid and marked that it became a regular system, and a great proportion of range cattle to-day are "finished" in the corn belt, that is, fattened for a while before going to the butcher. In 1897 the farmer actually over-bid the butcher for range stock, and gradually the cattle have been going to the corn-feed yards younger, and maturing into good beef earlier, than heretofore. The cotton-seed oil-cake of the South has of late years been largely used for "finishing" too. It is cheap and a great fattener. Texas is still the breeding State par excellence; whatever stock goes north is simply to mature and in transit to corn and to the market. There the normal increase of stock is nearly ninety per cent of the cows of the herd. These begin producing as yearlings and keep up the good work until they reach even fifteen and sixteen years, while on the range the order of maternity is not high, never extends beyond ten years, is rarely over fifty per cent, and the great percentage of loss is among suckling cows. Our government has done wonders, through its Department of Agriculture, in supplying us with reliable data and other means of intelligently improving stock, and, through its Bureau of Animal Industry, in destroying germs or at least enabling us to control animal diseases. It has inaugurated inspections of cattle, of meat, of killing and packing methods, and of shipping, yet, as in much else governmental, while the regulations and rules are full and excellent, their enforcement is difficult, and, as the results of recent investigations show us, there is a vast difference between the theory, the spirit, and the practice of inspection. With time and more liberal Congressional appropriations the work of this Bureau will beperfect, and still come more better results will follow. The Federal regulations are supplemented with State and municipal ones, under all of which we should have perfect meat. Pleuro-pneumo nia once threatened to ravage our cattle, but by great efforts and the expenditure of nearly $2,000,000 the disease has not only been held in check but has been unknown since 1892. The "Texas fever," another disorder that has played havoc with the herds, is now held pretty well in check. The Gulf Coast and Southern cattle, while perfectly healthy themselves, whenever they came in contact with- or, for that matter, were merely followed in a field or over a trail by other, or northern cattle, conveyed a disease through a species of "tick" that thrived upon them-that was often fatal to the latter. There has been established a line clear across the continent,from Norfolk, across Virginia, North Carolina, and Tennessee, north of Arkansas and the Indian Territory, then down to the Gulf, south of New Mexico and Arizona, then on the line between Nevada and California to the northern border of California, demarking the quarantined section of Southern cattle, across which line they can only be shipped under |