460 A HISTORY OF HEREFORD CATTLE 



For a dozen years or more prior to the formation 

 of the partnership with Moses Fowler, he had been 

 buying and shipping cattle to the eastern markets, 

 chiefly to Buffalo and New York. That was of course 

 a wearisome business then, compared with now. 

 There were long drives to loading chutes, and once 

 on the rails the service was not always of the ex- 

 press sort. "However," Mr. VanNatta once said, 

 "we always got there some how and usually found 

 good entertainment and comfortable accommoda- 

 tions while the business of selling was in progress. 

 The methods in vogue then would probably seem 

 somewhat crude nowadays, but we nevertheless 

 found markets that enabled us to turn many an 

 Indiana pasture and cornfield into cash at a good 

 profit, via the live stock route." 



During this period the only improved cattle of 

 which there was any trace throughout the country 

 generally were the Shorthorns and their grades. 

 These, Mr. VanNatta testified, "made good cattle 

 when matured, but they were at that time inclined 

 to be leggy and matured slowly, having to be kept 

 until they were three or four years old before they 

 were in a condition to market." 



In the fall of 1876 Mr. VanNatta went to New 

 Mexico and bought 1,500 steers to place in the big 

 Benton county pastures, and in the spring of 1877 

 he took up his residence in the town of Fowler. His 

 attention was directed to the new breed of "white 

 faces" and they struck him as being of a type that 

 would be inclined to make more beef off grass and 



