NEAT CATTLE. 263 



CATTLE IN TIME OF WAR. 



This discussion properly ends in the year 1860, inasmuch as the distribution 

 to this point had proceeded solely from the wants and interests of the people in 

 time of peace and quiet. But when the public peace is disturbed, and property 

 becomes insecure or valueless in certain sections, when the yeomanry of the 

 country are called by millions from the plough to the sword, from the arts of 

 •eace to the arts of war, when so vast a standing army is to derive its food, to 

 a great extent, from the cattle of the country, it is evident that this element of 

 national food and strength will be foimd acting under new laws, to be found in 

 or derived from a sense of security of property and the public necessity, rather 

 than as heretofore in individual interest. We must therefore discuss the dis- 

 tribution and movement of cattle since 1860, as presented in the loyal and 

 disloyal States. 



CATTLE IN THE LOYAL STATES. 



In this discussion we can only consider those States loyal which have not had 

 an organized rebel force formed within its limits. With this restriction the loyal 

 States are those States lying north and east of the State of Missouri, the Ohio 

 and Potomac rivers, and the Chesapeake bay. The cattle north of this line 

 have not been disturbed by any extraordinary causes, except in a few counties 

 during the short invasion of Pennsylvania by Lee. 



Prosperity, as in times of peace, has reigned. Nothing has occurred from 

 which we can predict any sudden or unexpected movement of neat cattle. The 

 consumption of cattle is gradually gaining on production ; but the general ten- 

 dency of the last decade was to increase the ratio of cattle in the west, on the 

 eastern as well as on the western side of the Mississippi river. From the fact 

 that cattle could no longer be obtained from the rebel States, we infer that 

 there must have been a large increase in the production of neat cattle in the 

 .oyal west in the past three years. In the eastern section of the loyal States 

 there cannot have been much change. 



The loyal States, at the commencement of the rebellion, were wholly cut off 

 from the great southwestern herds of cattle. There remained to them but few 

 States which had sufficient numbers for their own demands. 



By reference to Tables VI and VII we find that there are but 951,894 neat 

 cattle in those States which had an excess for exportation, while at the same 

 time there was an aggregate deficiency in the remaining States of 2,669,264, 

 leaving a net deficit of 1,517,370 neat cattle. Other modifying causes, as the 

 exportation of beef, must increase rather than diminish this deficiency. The 

 raising of cattle became at once an important question, and doubtless it will be seen 

 that in those States there is now a larger supply of young cattle than ever before 

 known. This young stock cannot immediately supply beef, butter, cheese, and 

 milk for the increasing demands of the eastern sections, and consequently these 

 articles of food must bear still higher prices. 



At no time in the United States has the value of neat cattle been so important. 

 The great deficiencies existing in the eastern sections, the extensive facilities 

 for production in the western, together with the existing ample means for trans- 

 portation, must inseparably connect these sections by the strongest' of com- 

 mercial ties. 



As the war progresses, and the government gi'adually regains possession of 

 ebel territory and opens communication with the north, those sections formerly 

 inhabited by great herds of cattle will be found to be depopulated. What have 

 not been consumed by the rebels will have been driven off by them for safety. 

 There will be left to us only the west, in our own parallels, from which to make 

 up any deficiency that may exist. 



