NEAT CATTLE. 259 



The great law of tie movement of cattle is here plainly developed. Cattle 

 must be moved eastivard and capital westward to supply the pressing demands 

 of 02ir j^cople. 



A similar computation made for tlie years 1840 and 1850 shows also that tlie 

 net deficit in those States east of Ohio is constantly increasing; and notwith- 

 standing all disturbing causes, the prices o/ beef, butter, cheese, and milk must 

 gradually become greater, and the supplies for the eastern section of the United 

 States be gathered up from the west in constantly increasing quantities. 



WORKING OXEN, MILCH COWS, AND OTHER CATTLE. 



Neat cattle are divided into three classes, viz : Working oxen, milch cows, 

 and other cattle. Thus far we have considered the movement of neat cattle in 

 gross, but as each of these three classes is produced for entirely different pur- 

 poses, it will be necessary to consider them separately, in order to better under- 

 stand the laws which govern their distribution and movement. 



WORKING OXEN. 



Table VIII presents the number of working oxen in each State and Territory 

 in the years 1840, 1850, and 1860, and their ratio in comparison with the inhabit- 

 ants of each State and Territor}^. 



The most obvious law educed by this tabular statement is this : that com- 

 munity demands eight working oxen to every hundred people, irrespective of 

 the number of inhabitants ; whether 15,000,000 or 30,000,000. For the past 

 thirty years this number has not varied a single per cent. During the last 

 decade the number has somewhat diminished, and the causes of this diminution 

 {ire conclusively shown by the table. We find the greatest reduction on the 

 prairie lands of the west. In loAva the number has fallen from twelve to three 

 per cent. ; Illinois, twelve to five ; Kentucky, from nine to three ; and Michigan, 

 from fifteen to nine. These States have, within the past few years, introduced 

 new and important agricultural implements, thereby greatly facilitating the 

 methods of labor, and diminishing the amount offeree derived usually from 

 oxen. Working oxen must, in all prairie lands, soon be supplanted to a great 

 extent by steam, and in those regions we must expect to find, in the present 

 decade, a still greater diminution of their number. 



In other agricultural districts less favorable to the introduction of agricultural 

 machinery, on account of the unevenness of the surface, there is a diminution, 

 but not so marked. It doubtless arises from the same cause. On the other- 

 hand, in those regions among the mountains where the introduction of ma- 

 chinery for agricultural purposes is almost wholly pi'ecluded, working oxen are 

 most abundant. Western Pennsylvania, New Hampshire, and Vermonjt are 

 examples of this condition of things. In these cold, mountainous regions, the 

 Switzerland of America, neat cattle stand in the maximum class, and working 

 oxen are more numerous than in any other locality east of the Mississippi river, 

 Vermont having nineteen and New Hampshire eighteen per cent. As we fol- 

 low this mountainous region southwesterly through the United States, we find 

 the ox supplanted by the horse, as in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsyl- 

 vania ; but further south he is supplanted by the mule. From the geological 

 features of the surface, includiug climate and the physical requirements of these 

 animals, it is inferred that their present distribution cannot be materially 

 hanged in many years. 



In South Carolina, Pennsylvania, New .Jersey, Ohio, Indiana, Florida, Vir- 

 ginia, and Rhode Island, the number of cattle is less than eight per cent., and, 

 in no case has varied two per cent, in thirty years. Of those above eight per- 

 cent., Tennessee, Louisiana, Georgia, Maine, and Alabama have not varied 

 two per cent, in thirty years. New York, Maryland, Kentucky, Delaware, 

 Wisconsin, Mississippi, New Hampshire, and Vermont have lost from six to 



