ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IV. 153 



In nearly every part of Honduras the land is suitable for the raising 

 of livestock in a limited way. Cattle are found in the valleys and on 

 the slopes of the mountain ranges. Although some livestock is found 

 in all sections of the country, there are two provinces where three- 

 fourths of the stoqk of the country is raised. During the rainy season 

 the pasture is abundant in all parts of the country. There are many 

 streams that furnish water; most of it coming from the mountains is 

 cool and pure. But in the dry season the cattle find scant feeding away 

 from the larger rivers, and at this season leave the parched valleys for 

 the mountains, where they manage to exist until the rains come and 

 bring out the grass in the valleys. As nothing is known of hay-making 

 or the curing of fodder, the cattle are overfed during part of the year 

 and half starved the other half. All of the cattle in the country are in- 

 fested with ticks, the same kind as the Texas fever cattle tick. The cattle 

 spider is also an ever present source of anxiety to cattlemen. The spider 

 seeks the hair of the fetlock for the lining of its nest, and as the animal 

 moves at feeling the loss of hair, the spider becomes enraged and bites 

 the flesh just above the hoof on the pastern, and creates an inflamed 

 condition of the skin, which usually results in the loss of the hoof. 

 An animal bitten by a spider is usually out of commission for a period of 

 nine months. 



No care is given the animals by the herders to relieve them of any 

 distemper resulting from the constant attack of myriads of insects. The 

 sanitary care of cattle is wholly unknown, and it is fortunate that no ser- 

 ious diseases have ever found their way into the country, for there is 

 not a veterinarian to be had, and there would be no way of stamping 

 out an epidemic once it had started. 



But little attention is given to the scientific breeding of cattle, or 

 care in the raising of stock. From the birth of the calf or heifer, it is 

 left to care for itself. As a result, the breed has deteriorated year after 

 year, and no effort seems to have been made to advance the quality of 

 the stock by the introduction of new blood or the segregation of the 

 herds. 



The strongest and best bulls of the herd are usually selected for 

 slaughter, and calves suckle their dams during a longer period than is 

 the custom in the United States. 



Cattle reach maturity at a late age. As a rule, heifers are three 

 years old before they produce their first calf, and bulls are three to six 

 years old when slaughtered. Butchering consists in the hacking up of 

 the carcass into haggled meat and bone. The division into shapes and 

 joints as in our own butcher shops, and properly cut steaks and roasts 

 are unknown. 



The number of cattle in Honduras can only be estimated, in the ab- 

 sence of statistics, at about 500,000. In order to engage in the business 

 profitably it would be necessary to depart very radically from the 

 primitive methods in effect at the present time. But a foreigner could 

 not profitably enter the stock-raising business under the conditions of 

 the country as they now exist. The frequency with which revolutions ap- 



