CHAPTER XIV 



CATTLE WEIGHT COMPARISONS; TICKS 



I AM asked to make a comparison of the weights 

 of the Longhorn and his more modern brother, 

 raised under improved breeding. This is a task 

 which I fear can not be satisfactorily performed; 

 first, because the comparative ages of marketing 

 varies too widely, and, second, because the data of 

 early-day weights are meager. I have found in my 

 reading only one definite reference to weights (this 

 was in about 1870), and that was unaccompanied 

 by any data as to age or sex. It recorded a drove of 

 1,200 head, original Longhorns, cut from 3,700 

 head, and showing at the market 1,125 pounds. The 

 probability is that they were steers, and cut for 

 weights and from general data they were presumably 

 from four to six years old. I could perhaps get data 

 from some old-timers, but they are scarce, and would 

 require to work largely from memory. I shall there- 

 fore work from another angle. 



In my own memory the ages at which cattle are 

 marketed have shown drastic changes. When the 

 International Tive Stock Exposition in Chicago be- 

 gan twenty years ago, three-year-old steers were in 

 the favored class; export buyers were taking what 



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