108 THE BEEF BONANZA. 



I have seen cabbages raised on the Cache la Poudre 

 that weighed fifty pounds each ; turnips, twelve pounds ; 

 potatoes, four pounds ; and beets two feet and a half 

 long. I have also seen cattle in January on the St. 

 "Vrain and Big Thompson so fat they could hardly be 

 eaten. At one of our frontier posts is an official record, 

 made in March, complaining of the beef as " too fat for 

 issue to the men," and directing the butcher to select 

 and kill leaner animals. This is the West as a grazing- 

 country ; and if any one doubts let him come and see 

 for himself. He will not only learn the astonishing 

 fact that the natural grasses over-fatten stock, but he 

 can see fields of 10 acres from which 500 bushels of 

 wheat were cut and threshed, and if he will work he 

 can dig 500 bushels of potatoes from a single acre of 

 land. 



The increase of the wool-trade has^ been most marvel- 

 lous. The wool industry of South America, South 

 Africa, and Australia does not date back more than a 

 quarter of a century, and now they export 250,000,000 

 pounds. 



In England, thirty years ago, there were imported 

 74,000 bales of wool from Germany, 10,000 bales from 

 Spain and Portugal, 8000 bales from the British 

 colonies, and 5000 bales from other places, making a 

 total of 97,000 bales. In 1864 there were imported 

 from Australia 302,000 bales ; Cape of Good Hope, 

 68,000 ; South America, 99,000 ; and from all other 

 sources, 219,336 ; in all, 688,336 bales. Australia now 

 supplies more than three times the whole amount of 

 foreign wool consumed in England thirty years ago, 



