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XVI. — The American Cattle Trade. By Professor H. E. Alvokd, 
of Easthampton, Massachusetts. 
I WILL endeavour to give a careful and candid presentation of 
the facts in connection with the production of beef in America, 
and the present condition and future prospect of the trade in 
dead meat between the United States and Great Britain. 
The general statement that the capacity of this country for 
the production of beef far exceeds all present needs within our 
borders, and hence that a demand from outside can soon be met 
by raising more live-stock, more corn, and accordingly more 
beef, admits of no dispute. But the details of this production 
and the condition of the home markets are called for. 
As a proper introduction, let us first consider the elements of 
the article beef, namely, the animals, the pasturage, and the 
grain used for food. 
What are known as the " native " cattle of America, have 
sprung from the stock of the parent countries which successively 
contributed to the colonisation of the New World, and the tvpes 
of the original varieties can still be distinguished in some parts 
of our land. In the older States of the Union, the common 
stock is a mixture descended from the different kinds of English, 
Dutch, Swedish, and Danish cattle, brought to the Atlantic 
shore in the seventeenth century, the English predominating. 
They have been largely modified by the changes in the climate 
in which they lived and bred, while the colonists', occupied by 
their own protection and sustenance, were obliged to let their 
little herds shift for themselves. The " natives" cannot, there- 
fore, be properly compared with any old or distinct breed, but 
they are an excellent basis of hardy stock on which to build, and 
they comprise, with the fast multiplying " grades," the great 
bulk of the beef and dairy-cattle of the more thickly peopled 
States. More than eighty years ago the process of improvement 
began, by the use of imported Shorthorns, and this has continued 
notably in Virginia, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania and 
Ohio, until the home production of thoroughbred animals is 
sufficient to furnish the means for the rapid improvement of the 
whole native stock of the country. There has latterly been a 
very brisk demand for young bulls, pure bred and high grades, 
for service in the herds on the Plains. 
In the South- West, the Rocky Mountain region, and on the 
Pacific slope, are found the descendants of the Spanish cattle, 
introduced into Mexico three hundred and fifty years ago ; and 
these, compensated by a genial climate and luxuriant herbage 
for want of care, preserve many of their original characteristics. 
