The American Cattle Trade. 
year-olds and cows, 48s. ; and beeves, mainly four-year-olds, 
850 to 1000 lbs. gross, 3/. to 31. 12s. At railroad stations in 
Texas a shade lower. In Colorado and Wyoming there has 
been more demand for cows and young cattle for stocking new 
ranches, causing higher prices for such animals ; two-year-olds, 
21. 8s. ; cows, 3/. ; but merchantable beeves, 9 to 10 cwt., have 
ranged from 31. 12s. to hi. 
Quotations might be given from the market reports of various 
other places — St. Louis, Cincinnati, Buffalo and Albany, Balti- 
more, Philadelphia and Boston ; these seven cities received 
from 100,000 to 500,000 cattle each during 1876, an aggre- 
gate of over 2,000,000. But no new facts would be developed 
by extended comparison ; the prices, &c, would be seen to 
correspond with those of Chicago and New York. While local 
depressions and sudden advances might be observed — for such 
occur, — the close connection between these several markets 
makes it impossible for material differences to exist any length 
of time which cannot be accounted for by geographical position, 
cost of transportation and the like. 
These facts as to the chief markets in the grazing districts, 
the feeding and distributing region, and the places of con- 
sumption and exportation, enable certain deductions to be made 
as to the present and prospective beef interest in America. 
Eastern consumers and the exporters must continue to depend 
for their main supply upon the great corn-States, represented by 
the Chicago market ; and as the demand upon that region for 
fat cattle will continue to exceed the natural increase of their 
own herds, they in turn must look to the Far West and South- 
West for most of their young animals or " stockers." What is 
called the Prairie country, east of the Missouri, must be stocked 
largely from the Plains region, west of that river. The farmers 
in all parts of the country, who raise comparatively few animals 
from the calf, must compete with these larger supplies, and their 
prices will be controlled accordingly. It is evident, therefore, 
that the cost of producing a two or three-year-old bullock on 
grass alone, in the vast pasture which used to be called the great 
American desert, will largely determine the price of cattle in 
Chicago. Add the corn-crop (maize) and its value in the 
Mississippi basin, and we have the two chief factors governing 
the price of beef on the Atlantic slope, and, it may be, in Great 
Britain also. 
Let us now follow an animal in its course from its native 
pasture to the port of New York, or to Liverpool. We will 
start with the supposition that in the chief grazing district of 
Texas a steer, ready to start to market in the spring at four 
years old, is worth 3/. 12s. This is for a first-class animal of its 
