284 AMERICAN CATTLE. 



Another item which may be taken into account, as to the man- 

 ner of feeding, is the number of cattle which the grazier or 

 stall-feeder has on hand. It takes but little more labor to feed 

 fifty cattle than ten, or in like proportions of number. In the 

 way of transportation, it costs little more to carry a fat beast to 

 market than it does a lean one. They mostly go by rail. They 

 are charged by the car load, and a given number of pounds is 

 allotted to the car ; so, according to the price he brings, the lean 

 bullock costs more to carry than the fat one, as he has as much 

 length and breadth of bone, if less flesh, and takes nearly as 

 much room as the fat one, while his selling value may not be 

 more than half, or two-thirds as much; and this, in a transporta- 

 tion of a thousand miles or more, is a considerable sum in the 

 aggregate. The drover is paying a huge price for transporting 

 bone, horn, hoof, and paunch, for no good whatever, for they are 

 all waste, and when "in market his stock is "blown'' upon by 

 every buyer he meets, and at the best they go off at low prices. 

 We have seen hundreds of car loads of what are called, in the 

 Eastern markets, "Durhjnn Steers" — grown in all the States 

 where Short-horns, or any other choice breeds, in their high 

 grades are kept, and well fed — which cost not over five to ten 

 dollars a head more in their transportation, than the poorest 

 scrub. Such cattle sell readily, at good prices, in almost any 

 state of" the market, while the ragged ones wait, perhaps some 

 days for a buyer, and then at two, three or four cents lower, in 

 every pound of estimated weight. 



SHAPE OF A FAT NEAT ANIMAL. 



The proper shape of a fat ox or cow of a good breed, when 

 the head, neck, and legs are cut off, should be nearly an oblong 

 square, and the nearer they approach that shape, the more per- 

 fect they are. A square anatomy gives a broad space for the 

 lungs and the viscera, and room for the deposit of inside fat. 



