CHAPTER VI. 



GREAT LANDS IN THE SOUTHWEST. 



Texas Cattle-Kings— "Who They Are and What They Own- 

 Mammoth Ranches — Letters from Cattle-Owners on the 

 Plains — Cattle-Grasses. 



I have often been asked to write something about 

 the great cattle-herds of Texas. As yet we have but 

 few herds in the West, the business being too new. 

 An owner with 10,000 or 12,000 head in Wyoming or 

 Montana would be considered a large grower, but such 

 a person in New Mexico or Texas a few years ago, 

 when I was there, would have been called but a small 

 herder. I do not think the herds South are as large 

 or numerous now as they were five years since, and the 

 business is gradually drawing off North to the Plains, 

 which are the natural homes of the future cattle-kings 

 of America. Texas, in 1867, had 2,000,000 of oxen 

 and other cattle, exclusive of cows. In 1870 it was 

 estimated the number had increased to 3,000,000, ex- 

 clusive of cows, and of these there were 80,000 in the 

 State returned by the county assessors. The enor- 

 mous total of 3,800,000 cattle in one State may well 

 excite our astonishment. Of these, one-fourth were 

 beeves, one-fourth cows, and the other two-fourths 

 yearlings and two-year-olds. The increase each year 

 was 750,000 calves, and of the older cattle there was 

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