204 



four-year-olds generally bring from 1 10 to $12 per head. This class 

 furnishes the staple of tlie40insas trade. Four-year-olds, in good con- 

 dition for shipment to New Orleans, bring $15 per head. Tlie term 

 beeves is applied only to animals lour years old and upward. In good 

 condition, they will net 500 pounds of beef per head. 



The drought of last season caused a failure of the grass-crop in almost 

 every ijortion of the State. It enhanced a growing difficulty in the 

 grazing interest — the gradual failure of the abundant native grasses, 

 which have hitherto constituted the great source of profits of the busi- 

 ness. As the grasses are eaten down, or trampled down, weeds multiply 

 aud scatter their seed by the million. The mesquife brush is thickening 

 upon the old haunts of the cattle. The conviction is forcing itself ui)on 

 the minds of many of the more intelligent cattle-men that the range 

 must be superseded by the stock farm, and that the business must 

 assume a systematic character. The pasture-lauds must be inclosed in 

 order that the grass may gather headway. 



The inclosure system has already been inaugurated in Sonthwestern 

 Texas. Mr. Kennedy, of the Laureles ranch, has run a fence nearly 

 fifty miles across the neck of a peninsula jutting out into the Gnlf, thus 

 inclosing, with fence and water, 109,000 acres. Within this inclosure are 

 kept 50,000 cattle, the management of which demands 2,500 saddle- 

 horses. Another enterprise of this character is reported from Fulton, 

 Eefugio Couuty. The Kockport aud Fulton Pasture Compaui^ proposes 

 to inclose a tract of 115,000 acres with pine-plank fence on one side, the 

 other sides bordering ujjou Nueces, Corpus Christi, Copano, and Puerto 

 Bays and Chittepin Creek. The bodies of water are here so situated 

 that thirteen miles of fencing isolates 200,000 acres. Upon the exterior 

 portion of this area, called Live-Oak Peninsula, are the towns of Kock- 

 port and Fulton, whence are shipped all the cattle and beef west of the 

 Guadaluije. The laud inclosed for pasture is thickly set with the run- 

 ning, or hog-wallow, mesquite grass, the best native fattening grass. 

 It is proposed to subdivide the area into fields, so as to allow grass to 

 grow b}' keeping the stock away from it, and thus to keep a constant 

 supply of fresh grass. The present object of the enterprise is to pur- 

 chase lean cattle and fatten them for market. It is proposed to pay 

 full market prices for range cattle and to rely for profits upon the in- 

 creased value gained by grazing upon the pasture. It is exi^ected that 

 40,000 or 50,000 beeves will be fattened each year. 



It is further proposed to pay attention to the improvement of breeds 

 of cattle and horses, a project entirely impracticable on the open prairie. 

 Dairy farming will be added as soon as arrangements can be made. 

 A refrigerating steamer, the Firefly, constructed according to the " Bray 

 process," has taken several cargoes of fresh beef to New Orleans, and 

 one cargo to Philadelphia. In both cities the beef is said to have given 

 satisfaction. These improvements indicate that beneficial changes have 

 already been inaugurated^n the cattle industry of Texas. 



