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The range of estimates for the cost of production, it will be noticed, is 
somewhat wide. This may be due in part to variation of the margin’ 
between the estimates and the actual cost; but probably is chiefly due 
to a corresponding range in actual cost, owing to different degrees of 
advantage or disadvantage of location or surroundings, and extent of 
losses in severe weather, and especially to different degrees of business 
tact. 
LOssES.—Texas is probably before any other State or Territory in 
advantages for raising cattle without expense for feeding, shelter, or 
inclosure. But even here the risks and liabilities to losses, for the want 
of such conveniences, are so great as to almost force the conclusion that 
smaller herds of better quality, with provision for pasturage, feeding, 
and sheltering as occasion required, would be more profitable. The 
return from Refugio represents that two years ago the number of cat- 
tle in that county, according to accurate estimate, was not less than 
100,000, but deaths from starvation the last two winters will reduce it 
to 50, 000. In Guadalupe, last winter, while the few who provided pas- 
tures saved the most of their cattle, the loss, from cold and starvation, 
was terrible. In Hunt, owing to the severity of the winter ‘‘many of 
the yearlings have died, and many more will” before grass springs up 
anew. 
Bexar : Cattle are dying so fast that no one can tell how many are left, or how many 
are gone. Some say more than one-half are already dead, and others put ‘it still higher. 
One man informs me, that during a trip from the coast up here, one hundred and “fifty 
miles, he was rarely out of sight of dead horses and cattle, and in one place he stood 
and counted eighty mares and colts (dead) within fifty yards. This of course only 
applies to stock “within the line of settlements—farther west where there are very few 
settlements and less stock they do better. Not the least preparation of any kind is 
made to feed cattle, horses, or sheep, except those kept up for use, and the supply of 
grass has become exhausted—eaten and tramped out. 
The returns from Atascosa and Live Oak Counties, represent that the 
severity of last fall and winter has been so fatal to cattle that it is 
impossible to estimate the numbers now living; from Medina, that 
‘‘under the trying circumstances of last winter—no grass, and intensely 
cold weather—nearly one-fourth of all ourcattle perished ; and milch cows 
in a large proportion;” from Grimes, that “my neighbors and my own 
experience is, that out of 300 to 500 head each, our stocks have gone 
down. 50 per cent. in less than six years, without selling or using 25 per 
cent. of the increase ;” from Austin, ‘that, as the large stock-raisers do not 
feed their cattle, and as owing to a four months’ drought in the fall, they 
were reduced at the beginning of winter, they are dying in large num- 
bers, and it is safe to estimate the loss by death, the present disastrous 
winter, at between 25 and 30 per cent.;” from Mercer, that, “ the mor- 
tality of cattle during the winters of 1871 and 1872 has been without a 
parallel—principally among cows and the younger stock. The most 
reliable estimate I can get of calves branded in 1871 was 75,000, and 
in 1872, 60,000. How many of them are now living, I can give you no 
estimate that I would consider reliable. Cattle stocks are generally 
calculated at the rate of 4 to 1—that is, if a stock brands 1,000 calves, 
it is estimated that the stock is 4,000 head—but it rarely ev er gathers 
that number of late years.” 
MILCH-COWS AND WORKING-OXEN.—In the cattle-raising sections of 
Texas, the number of cows and oxen raised and trained for domestic 
uses, whether for home use or to be marketed, is comparatively small. 
According to the report from Refugio, “ not more,than one in a hundred 
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