88 FARM ANIMALS 



priced cuts, in which the profits lie for the butcher. 

 During the early days of the cattle industry in 

 this country steers were marketed at the age of 

 five or six years, fully matured and only in fair 

 condition as far as the quality of the meat was con- 

 cerned. These animals might be of larger form 

 and in many cases the actual weight more than that 

 of the average beef animal brought to market at 

 the present time. Such cattle, however, were not 

 uniform in size, finish, frame or quality and, more- 

 over, yielded a profit so small that as soon as the 

 prices of feeding stuffs rose to their present standard 

 the further raising of such animals became unprof- 

 itable to the farmer. In those early days the de- 

 velopment of the cattle kings of the West took place. 

 The cattle were hardy and were allowed to run on 

 government land or upon open grass land held under 

 the old Mexican land grants at practically no ex- 

 pense, excepting the salaries of a comparatively 

 lew cowboys and foremen. Under these conditions 

 all chances were taken with the weather, disease, 

 poisonous plants, and other emergencies which 

 might arise. Nevertheless, under favorable con- 

 ditions enormous profits were made. Later as the 

 range became crowded and forage less abundant 

 the cattle went into the winter in a poorer condition 

 and in the case of an unusually severe winter died 

 by the thousands. The losses which occurred in un- 

 favorable winters, particularly in 1884, compelled 

 the cattle men to adopt other tactics, such as in- 

 vesting in better stock, caring for them more atten- 

 tively, feeding in winter, marketing in a better 

 condition and at correspondingly higher prices. 

 The sheep industry gradually claimed more and 

 more attention on account of the large profits made 

 from this business, and from 1885 until the present 



