VOL. XLVIII. NO. 2o7i . NEW YORK, OCTOBER 5, i889. 
PRICE, FIVE CENTS. 
$ 2.00 PER YEAR. 
[Entered,According to Act of Congress in the Year 1889 , by the Rural New-Yorker, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress, at Washington, D. C.J 
&\)t ijtvjXsnuut. 
A GROUP OF NEVADA CATTLE. 
T HE picture shown at Figure 246 is a 
copy of a photograph taken on the 
farm of Mr. Samuel Davis of Carson, Neva¬ 
da. The big bull in the foreground is a 
Holstein—“Saratoga” 3,300, and the little 
girl is the eiglit-year-old daughter of Mr. 
Davis. The picture was made, originally, 
to illustrate the gentle character of these 
animals. We are very glad to print it, be¬ 
cause many Eastern people seem to have 
an idea that the wild Texas steer is the 
true type of all Western cattle. The dairy 
animal is by nature a docile creature, and 
kind treatment of stock will give satisfac¬ 
tory results in any part of any country. 
We do not see that the “dehorner” has 
much of any business inside Mr. Davis’s 
yard. 
THE PAST HISTORY AND FUTURE 
PROSPECTS OF THE BEEF-PRO¬ 
DUCING INDUSTRY IN OHIO. 
JUDGE T. C. JONES. 
Beef cattle raising and marketing in Oh to 
over half a ecu t ury ago; character of the 
farms; j mpecuniosity of the farmers; 
quality of the cattle; early drives to the 
Baltimore and Philadelphia markets, 
profits of the farmers; prices to stock- 
growers; mode of feeding; the great ex¬ 
tent of the trade; railroad transporta¬ 
tion supersedes driving; soil exhaus¬ 
tion. 
The writer has been familiar with the 
condition of the cattle-growing industry, 
and the general practice of the farmers en¬ 
gaged in it, in the rich valleys of this State 
for more than half a century. Indeed my 
recollection of the practice of cattle grow¬ 
ers, and the quality of their stock in the 
Scioto Valley covers a period of more than 
three score years. In those early days our 
people were comparatively poor; they had 
very little capital except what was invested 
in their lands. In that portion of the State 
known as the Virginia Military District, 
embracing all the lands bet ween the Scioto 
and the Miami Rivers, there were many 
large estates, holdings of 500 to '2,000 acres 
being quite common. In other districts the 
farms were generally small, averaging but 
little, if any, more than 100 aci-es each. But 
the occupiers of these small estates con¬ 
stituted then, as they do at this day, the 
great majority of our cattle-growers. Then, 
as now, every farmer must have a few cat¬ 
tle. The work ox was then almost as es¬ 
sential on every farm as the dairy cow, 
which has always been regarded as a neces¬ 
sity in every family. 
The quality of our cattle, descended, as 
they were, from good animals imported 
from Europe, mostly from Great Britain, 
was pretty good. In breeding, attention 
was given to the maintenance of useful 
rather than fancy properties. The calves 
of the cows that were good milkers, and of 
good form, and thrifty feeders were gener¬ 
ally reserved for breeding, while the off¬ 
spring of the poor milkers and the “raw- 
honed” sort were drafted for slaughter. 
Attention was also given to the disposition 
of the breeding stock. The restless and 
the vicious were regarded as not only dan¬ 
gerous but unprofitable. But the great 
defect in the character of Ohio stock in the 
first third of the present century was the 
absence of uniformity in essential charac¬ 
teristics. No attention was given to breed¬ 
ing for uniformity of type, and the ances¬ 
tors of our stock being imported for the 
most part before systematic improvement 
in breeding had been established in Europe, 
we had no cattle that were thoroughbred, 
none, that is, that had been bred to a uni¬ 
form type in useful properties. Our cattle 
were of all colors—red, black, brindle, 
spotted (pied), line-backed, etc. Some had 
long horns, but the great majority were 
middle-horned, while the hornless sorts 
were not uncommon, though we had no 
polled breed, nor was it supposed in those 
days of practical experience that the ab¬ 
sence of horns was any special advantage. 
In the early history of our agriculture 
the great want of the inhabitants was 
money. The farmer could not realize cash 
for his products, because they could not 
be sent to market. As early as the year 
1805, George Renick, of Chilicothe, started a 
lot of 68 head of fat cattle for the Balti¬ 
more market, driving them by way of 
Moorfield, Hardy County, Virginia, where 
21 of them were sold for $20.95 per head; 
one was given to Mr. Renick's father, then 
living near Moorfield, and the remaining 
46 head were sold at Baltimore, the profit 
on them, after deducting all expenses, 
being $31.77 per head. 
Mr. Harness Renick from whom I have 
t his account, states that there is no entry 
in his father’s books showing the first cost 
of these cattle; but they were doubtless 
good in quality for the period, and fully 
ripe in condition. Mr. George Renick who, 
besides being a large land holder, was en¬ 
gaged in the mercantile business of Chil¬ 
icothe, was the first to conceive the idea of 
sending to the cash markets of the Atlantic 
the products of the. rich soil of the Scioto 
Valley by this method, the profits of which 
were highly satisfactory during all the 
years of the early history of our agricul¬ 
ture. But the prices realized to the breed¬ 
ers of these cattle were generally very low r , 
as shown by the following furnished by 
Mr. Harness Renick from his father’s book: 
1S18,—76 head of cattle were purchased at 
an average price of $20.75 per head. 
Twenty-six head on hand put down as 
worth $25 each. 
1822, —325 head, net cost $15.45 per head—90 
of these were Kentucky stock, which 
cost, including expenses, $9.71 per head. 
1823, —300 head, cost per head $12.75. 
1824, —303 head, cost per head $9.40. 
1825, —212 head, cost per head $13.68. 
Twenty-seven of these were bought of 
Governor Worthington. 
These cattle were well matured, generally 
from four to five years old. The sales at 
Baltimore and Philadelphia during these 
yeax-s show a profit of from $19.95 per head, 
clear of expenses, to $[31.91. 
Beef cattle were somewhat higher in 1828 
to 1830; but prices continued low until the 
great expansion in the currency caused by 
the large issues of the State Banks in 1836. 
This expansion of the currency was follow¬ 
ed by a general suspension of specie pay¬ 
ments in 1837. This derangement in the 
currency with changes in duties on foi'eigu 
imports, caused the most sevei'e depression 
in prices of agricultural products ever ex- 
pei'ienced in our history. Still the method 
of marketing our crops by driving fat cat¬ 
tle to market, “ with hogs to follow,” inau- 
gurated by George Renick in 1805, continued 
until superseded by the railway transpor- 
tation in 1850 to 1852. During the last 10 or 
12 yeai's of its existence the volume of this 
business was enormous. In our rich val¬ 
leys corn was the great staple cx'op, and ex¬ 
cepting the limited amount consumed by 
A GROUP OF NEVADA CATTLE. From an Indistinct Photograph, Fig. 246, 
