360 
The American Cattle Trade. 
added by corn-feeding, further increasing the value of the 
animal by 21. to 21. 10s. The Prairie farmers who buy 900-lb. 
steers at Chicago for 6/. 8s. to 8/., and sell them there again at 
12/. to 13/. within a year, are generally ready to repeat the 
operation. The circumstances attending such transactions vary 
so much, in the nature of the cattle, the prices of grain, freights, 
and economy of management, that the exact profits cannot be fixed 
or averaged, but it may be assumed that these operations are 
decidedly remunerative. Indeed, enough is known from repeated 
(though disconnected) experiments, to prove that 300 to 500 lbs. 
can be added to the weight of beef-stock over two years old, 
in the Prairie States, profitably, at 2d. a lb. 
In the Western region, beyond the Mississippi and Missouri 
rivers, the natural supply of forage throughout the year far ex- 
ceeds any demand made upon it since the buffalo disappeared, 
and there young animals have their greatest relative value. 
The only use of the cow there is to produce her calf and sustain 
it for a few weeks. So, while in New England the average value 
of a cow is 8/. or more, and the calf, at birth, 4s., in Texas the 
cow is worth 32s. to 40s., and the calf from 8s. to 12s. 
Judging from the price obtained and the taste of the markets, 
one would think that the best beef is that produced in the 
section where it is raised at the greatest cost. There has been 
great prejudice in the past against animals fattened on grass 
alone, and in the North and East nothing has been accepted as 
first-class beef unless stall-fed. In Baltimore and Philadelphia, 
however, there can always be found some of the best beef, 
taken directly from the famous blue-grass pastures of Kentucky 
and Virginia ; and this was true before the revolution wrought 
in the cattle of that region by the introduction of Shorthorn 
blood. Until very recently the Texans have been almost 
excluded from the markets, except as " stockers," or frames on 
which to build beef by grain-feeding, and even corn-fed Texans 
have stood at the lowest figures for beef. This has been mainly 
prejudice, however, and deserves to die out, as it is doing. Late 
reports speak of Texan beef as " improving in quality and 
reputation." No one doubts the desirability of improving the 
Spanish blood by mixture with earlier maturing, better beef- 
making breeds ; but the excellence of the beef of a well-fatted 
" Texan," which never saw grain, or hay, nor stood under a 
roof, is undeniable, much as the looks of the animal belie the 
statement. Certainly, in my own experience, I never tasted 
better beef; and I particularly remember coming upon a little 
" bunch " of cattle running wild near the northern line of Texas, 
and shooting a three-year-old bull and heifer of the same age, 
neither ever touched by a human hand, whose beef was found 
