Dec. 1896.] CATTLE-RAISING INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED STATES. 257 



CATTLE-RAISING INDUSTRY IN THE UNITED 

 STATES. 



In a report to the Foreign Office on the United States cattle - 

 raising industry in 1896, and on the export of cattle and beef 

 to Great Britain, Mr. O'JBeirne, Third Secretary of Her Majesty's 

 Embassy at Washington, states that the conditions of cattle- 

 raising in America have undergone considerable alteration 

 during the past 15 years. Examining the statistics of animals 

 in the United States, as given by official estimates, it appears 

 that the number of oxen and cattle other than milch cows 

 increased rapidly from 1870 until 1885; but that after this 

 date the increase slackened, and there has been a very consider- 

 able decline since the maximum was reached in 1892. The 

 number of cattle in the United States at different periods has 

 been approximately as follows : — 



Number of Cattle in the United States* 



Date. 



Milch Cows. 



Oxen and 

 other Cattle. 



1st January 1870 - - 



10,095,000 



15,338,000 





1885 - 



13,904,000 



35,513,000 





1892 - 



16,416,000 



37,651,000 





1893 



16.424,000 



35,954,000 



» 



1894 - - "• - 



15,487,000 



36,608,000 





1895 - 



16,504,000 



34,364,000 





1896 - 



16,137,000 



32,085,000 



This development of the industry is attributed by Mr. 

 O'Beirne to the following causes : —Prior to 1870, a herd of 

 cattle on a Texas ranch was worth, roughly speaking, the price 

 of the hides and bristles. The opening up of the country by 

 railways, however, suddenly increased the value of these herds, 

 so that a rush into the business of cattle-raising ensued, and 

 ranching extended rapidly also in other Western States. But 

 with the further settlement of the country, free ranches became 

 scarcer, and the cost of raising the herds was augmented by the 

 cost or rent of the land, by taxation (from which the earlier 



* The number of "oxen and other cattle" shown for 1885 is the result of a 

 special investigation ; the other returns are based on estimates of the increase or 

 decrease in the various districts each year ; an actual count being only made durino- 

 the general census of the population. The total returned as milch cows consists 

 chiefly of cows reserved exclusively for the dairy, which generally belong to breeds 

 unsuitable for the beef market, and the numbers of which have consequently little 

 influence on the total number of beef cattle. Thus the largest cattle-producing 

 States, such as Texas , are returned as having, relatively, the smallest number of 

 milch cows. The heading also includes a large (but not ascertainable) proportion 

 of cows used for breeding meat-cattle, the rest being shown under " oxen and other 

 cattle." 



