178 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



Their colors are red, dun, yellow, black, brindle, and blue 

 roan, all mixed more or less with patches and strips of white. 



As an economical animal to a farmer of the Northern, Middle, 

 or Western States, they can be of little value, as the cows give 

 no more milk than will raise a calf till it is old enough to graze. 

 The bullocks are too light for heavy work, although sufficiently 

 active; and for beef, where a choice article is in demand, their 

 value must be low. Some of the improved breeds may be 

 crossed upon them to advantage, no doubt, but it would take 

 several generations to breed their coarseness and wild nature out. 

 It is a question whether it would not be cheaper to introduce our 

 better natives, even into their own country, with which to com- 

 mence a profitable herd. The common run of Texan cattle 

 must be doomed to extinction, ultimately, before the better breeds. 



"We only mention them here, because in their own ranges, and 

 over an extensive territory, they are the prevailing cattle, and 

 many of them there must be of better quality than we have 

 described. A few short-horns, from Kentucky, have, years ago, 

 been taken to Texas, with an effort to improve the native Mexi- 

 can stock, but we hear of no results worth noting; nor can 

 there be much improvement, so long as they retain their wild 

 and vagrant habits. These cattle, in addition to Texas and New 

 Mexico, are extensively kept by the natives in the Mexican ter- 

 ritory of Lower California, the adjoining Provinces, and to a 

 considerable extent in our own State of California itself. 



There should be a sanitary law, if nothing else, to regulate 

 the introduction of these cattle into the States north of Texas or 

 New Mexico, as they have either brought with them, or origi- 

 nated within themselves on the way, deadly diseases, which have 

 spread from them while in our "Western States, into which they 

 were driven for market, and large numbers of valuable cattle 

 have died from their contagion. We give an extract from one 

 of our agricultural periodicals, touching the disease we have 

 alluded to: 



