TEXAN, on SPANISH CATTLE. 
115 
from which they could not be allowed to escape until turned off in the 
Spring. Underground pipes conveyed their drinking water, the feed, 
ground corn and hay, together with residuum from a mill was conveyed 
to them by cars on tramways running between each two lines of cattle. 
Tho stables were kept only light enough so that the workmen could see 
to foed and clean ; good ventilation was provided, and at the end of six 
months they were turned out, and shipped to New York, — good ripe cat- 
tle so far as Texans could bo made such, — and brought the price of fat 
cattle in tho market there. Of this lot only two eaf-loads were culls or 
unfit for the New York market. They were strictly corn-fed, or rather 
meal-fed. For the first month they wero sulky and savage, refusing to 
take kindly to their rations. They never became so quiet that strangers 
could be allowed in the barns without danger of throwing them off their 
feed, and yet they were altogether superior to the ordinary Texan cattle 
of ten years ago in point of docility, for they had been closely herded. 
Nevertheless, the one experiment was sufficient. If other cattle could 
have been had at a fair price it would not have paid to have fed them. 
At that time good cattle were high and scarce, Texans were cheap. The 
ledger account came out all right in the Spring, but the writer did not 
care to try the experiment a second time. As to how they looked when 
off of grass and ready for the stable in the Fall, the full page illustration 
we have prepared will show : 
Weight of Texan Cattle. 
The average weight of full grown Texan steers as usually sold from 
grass in tho Western markets, maybe stated at 1,000 pounds; of this 
the averago beef and bone will be 400 to 450 pounds ; of the balance, 
except the hide, it is pretty much offal, the tallow being exceeding light. 
Of late years very many Texas cattle are yearly bought for feeding in 
distillery stables, on the slop made in the manufacture of high wines. 
They are roped and fastened and remain there until sold to the butcher. 
Others again aro bought in the Autumn and shipped to the vast corn-fields 
of Kansas, Iowa and Illinois, and fed in the fields during the Winter. 
They really take more kindly to this latter system of feeding than any 
other, and they will gain about two hundred pounds of flesh during the 
Winter, weighing an averago of 1,200 pounds, and making in the neigh- 
borhood of 700 pounds of beef. 
From what wo have stated it will readily be seen that there is no profit 
in breeding Texans, when other cattle may be kept. There are, however, 
vast outlying territories where tho herding of these cattle is found profit- 
able. In Texas, New Mexico, the Indian Territory, Western Kansas and 
