1 28 American Cattle Marl-eis and the Dressed Beef Tradei 
the West ; but tlie cause is not so mucli in the above reason as 
in the fact that the agriculture of the States is changing. It is 
getting to be more and more settled ; the rough-and-ready style 
is becoming a thing of the past, and the methods employed are 
steadier and more applicable to the location and the climate of 
the various districts. The farmers of the older States, with their 
lands partially worn out, but with better improvements and 
finer buildings, have taken up pursuits more suited to their 
condition. " Muck," as the late George Hope of Fenton Barns 
used to call it, is being saved, and the soil is receiving back 
part of the nutriment it has so generously given up. There are, 
of course, beef cattle raised in every part of the country, but the 
lines are being more sharply defined every year. 
Within the last ten years this fact has been especially 
noticeable, and, as water finds its level, so the different indus- 
tries connected with cattle are becoming located in certain 
parts of the Union. Thus, the Eastern States are strongly 
inclined to dairying, the Central States to feeding, and the 
Western States and Territories to raising and feeding combined. 
In certain parts of the Central States, such as Ohio, Michigan, 
Illinois, Wisconsin, Minnesota, and Iowa, large dairy interests 
have developed, and a considerable export trade to other States 
is carried on ; but, as a general rule, the corn (that is, Indian 
corn) States are the feeding States, and this industry is develop- 
ing wonderfully as the cheap lands of Iowa, Nebraska, Kansas, 
and kindred States are brought under the influence of the 
plough. Further westward still lie the range districts. The 
cattle from the Western plains have, as a rule, been used for dressed 
beef or put into cans ; but the day is not far distant when the 
great majority will find their way into the feed lots of Kansas, 
Nebraska, Iowa, and Missouri before coming to market. Texas, 
with her millions of cattle, is already endeavouring to mature, as 
far as possible, her aged steers on the black lands of her eastern 
border ; while for years past thousands of her young cattle have 
been driven to the Indian Territory, Colorado, Wyoming, and 
Montana, to be fattened there on the stronger and more succu- 
lent grasses of a northern clime. In this latter business alone 
there is an immense market ; but it is of a scattering, desultory 
nature, the transactions taking place in all manner of places — 
in the drawing-room, in the rotunda of some prominent hotel, 
or ofttimes under the burning sun of the Texas plains. The 
magnitude of the deals can be judged from the fact that a bar- 
gain comprising the delivery of 1 7,000 steers to one firm was 
consummated at Kansas City, Missouri, some days ago, and the 
writer has repeatedly purchased 4,000 to 5,000 cattle at one time. 
