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Title: History of the Beef Cattle Industry in Illinois

Author: Frank Webster Farley

Release Date: November 10, 2015 [EBook #50420]

Language: English

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UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

May 22, 1915

THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY

Frank Webster Farley

ENTITLED History of the Beef Cattle Industry in Illinois

______________________________________________________________

IS APPROVED BY ME AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
DEGREE OF Bachelor of Science in Agriculture

____________________________________________________

Henry P Rusk

Instructor in Charge

APPROVED: May 27, 1915

Herbert W. Mumford

HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF Animal Husbandry

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INDEX

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HISTORY OF THE BEEF CATTLE INDUSTRY IN THE STATE OF ILLINOIS

I. INTRODUCTION

Topography of the Land

"As a whole, the surface of the State of Illinois is nearly level. The prairie regions which cover a large part of the state are only slightly rolling, except in those places where streams have worn valleys. These are shallow in the eastern and the northern parts of the state, deepening gradually as the great rivers are approached. Nearly all the waters of Illinois find their way to the Mississippi river. Along this river, as also along the larger streams of the state, the lands are cut into abrupt bluffs or sharp spurs which, nearing the sources of the streams, gradually become softened into rounded hillocks, sinking at last into the low banks. Through such waterways as these form, flow streams usually gentle in current, often sluggish, and sometimes becoming even stagnant. Over a large part of the state, ponds and "sloughs", or marshes, formerly abounded. In these the water was renewed only by the rains that fell occasionally. Under hot suns these ponds, having neither inlet nor outlet, quickly became foul, particularly where stock resorted to them to drink and cool themselves, as they did almost universally throughout the state a few years ago, and do even now in some parts.

"For years such ponds furnished the principal, almost the only, water supply for stock in large areas of this state.[Pg 2] The constant use of such impure water greatly injured the quality of the milk and butter of cows, and doubtless had a baneful effect upon the health of the animals that drank the foul water and those who used the milk and butter.

"With the drainage of the land and the introduction of a pure supply of water, came the disappearance of certain diseases of cattle and of human beings, particularly the so-called milk sickness and kindred maladies, and a marked improvement in the flavor and keeping qualities of milk and butter. Although the change thus far has been great, there are yet districts in which there has been little improvement in the conditions of the land, of the water supply, or of the people. Stock are still compelled to depend, for their water supply, upon streams and pools that almost invariably become stagnant in the warm and dry days of the latter part of summer each year."[1]

Inquiries addressed to hundreds of intelligent and careful observers, nearly all of whom were practical stockmen, elicited information showing the following:

"From all parts of the state, correspondents wrote that the ponds and streams become stagnant in the warm months of summer, a few making exception of those years in which rainfall has been heavy during the summer months. Stagnant water is found more generally in the southern than in the northern part of Illinois; chiefly, perhaps, because the cultivation and drainage of the land has not become almost universal as it has in the northern districts."

In several counties artesian wells afford a most copious supply of water of good quality. In Iroquois and other eastern[Pg 4] counties, such wells have been bored to a depth of from 150 to 200 feet and obtained an unfailing flow of water impregnated with minerals. Stock show a strong liking for such water after becoming accustomed to its use, and it is the belief of those who have had opportunity for observing the effects of its continued use, that this mineral water serves to keep the animals free from disorders which formerly prevailed in that region. This seems to be especially apparent in regard to malarial disorders.

People

About 1820, the State of Illinois was being rapidly settled by people from the eastern states. Prior to this time, very few white settlements had been made in the state. These early pioneers, drawn from the population of the eastern states, were composed of almost all nationalities. They pushed their way across the mountains of Pennsylvania and Virginia in crude wagons, drawn by oxen, bringing with them their household goods and a few milk cows. They came into Illinois, built new homes, and laid out new fields on the broad, unsettled prairies.[2]

Beginning with the year of 1800, when there were only a few people in the state, the population has increased very rapidly, as is shown by the following statistics, taken from the United States Census[Pg 5] Report (special supplement for the State of Illinois):

Cattle and Cattle Feeding[3]

When Illinois was first settled, almost the whole of the middle and the northern parts of the state were covered with a rank growth of native grasses, which furnished an ample supply and variety of forage of fair quality. "In the southern districts were heavy forests, but in the central and northern sections were but few groves or other timber growths to afford shelter to stock." The prairie grasses that grew in the central and northern districts were usually devastated by fire during the fall. However, the general fencing and cultivation of the land put a stop to the burning of these dead grasses of the prairies, and soon groves of oaks sprang up and covered many uncultivated spots. The leaves which stayed on these trees throughout the winter until spring, furnished valuable shelter to stock from the raw winter winds.

[Pg 6]

At the beginning of the settlement of Illinois, very little attention was given to the cattle interest. The pioneer settlers, however, had brought a few milk cows with them from the eastern states, but these cows were kept for milk only, no thought being given to beef production. After a few years, a few pure bred cattle were brought in, at which time some attention was given to beef, as well as to milk production, not for the beef produced, however, but principally to give a ready market for their grain crops.

The practice of raising beef cattle to market grain continued from then until near the end of the nineteenth century, when cattle feeding was no longer profitable as a grain market, and the question was: "How much beef can be produced from a bushel of corn?"[4]

"Despite the seemingly adverse character of the climate, Illinois has been, for some time, little, if any, behind other leading states of the Union in stock growing. In 1850, this state stood sixth in milk cows, and seventh in work oxen and other cattle. In 1860, it was tenth in work oxen, fifth in milk cows, and second in other cattle. In 1870, it was twenty-sixth in work oxen, fourth in milk cows, and second in the supply of other cattle. In 1880, it stood thirty-sixth in work oxen, second in milk cows, and third in other cattle. Iowa then had 240,280 and Texas had 1,812,860 more cattle than Illinois.

"The average value of milk cows in Illinois in 1884 was $35, and of oxen and other cattle, it was $28.04, while the[Pg 7] average value of milk cows in Iowa was only $31.75, and of other cattle $26.00. The blood of the Shorthorns was used more largely than that of any other breed in the improvement of the cattle of the state. The first, and for some years, the only representatives of pure races of cattle in this state were Shorthorns, and to this date they exceed all other breeds in number."

The growth of the cattle interest in the State of Illinois, from 1850 to 1884, inclusive, is shown by the following statistics, taken from the United States Census Reports. The first figures of close accuracy on the number of cattle in the state were those gotten in 1850.

II. CATTLE FEEDING INDUSTRY[5]

"When the farms of Illinois were first put into cultivation, the attention of the farmers was almost entirely devoted to grain raising. Wheat was cash and was the only product of the farm that could be sold for ready money. The virgin soils of the state gave to the pioneer large crop yields, but constant cropping soon began to tell on the soil and each year the crop yield became lighter. This depletion of the fertility of the soil by continuous cropping, together with a need for a near market for the grain crops, soon gave stimulus to an idea that cattle feeding would help restore the fertility of the soil and, at the same time, market the grain at home." From this time on, the production of beef in this state has been one of the most important phases of agriculture. In the southern part of the state, however, which was settled largely by French, and where the predominating cattle continued to be the mongrel bred stock, little attention was given to cattle feeding. These people turned their cattle out on the luxuriant grass and relied upon the meat and milk produced in that way.

"In the evolution or development of beef production that followed in Illinois and other corn-belt states, there has been two distinct stages, and it is now entering upon the third stage. The first stage was that in which cattle were fed to market corn, and also to increase the fertility of the soil, which was being[Pg 9] depleted by the continuous cropping. The second stage was that in which the ranges had been broken up and the object was not to raise cattle to market corn but to raise corn to make beef." The third stage, or that upon which the industry is now entering, is that of baby beef making.

Seventy or eighty years ago, and for several years afterward, cattle were bred and fed, not primarily for beef production, but to market corn. The farmers of those days were accustomed to say: "I'll make my corn walk to market," or "I'll condense my freight," or "I'll grow packages in which I can condense my corn and put in the hay and pastures as well." Statisticians figured that about six tons of corn could be put into one ton of pork, about ten tons into one ton of beef, and from twenty to twenty-five tons into one ton of butter. There were very few railroads in the state at that time and farmers were forced to haul their corn and wheat thirty and forty miles to reach a station. And while freight rates were extortionately high on corn and wheat in proportion to their cash value, railroads were racing with each other to get the livestock trade. They gave passes, rebates, and quick service, and many other things to get the patronage of the cattle feeders and shippers. The country roads in Illinois were bad, the bridges were few and poor, and the farmers, therefore, soon came to realize that their corn must walk to market if it gave them any profit.

"The growing of the so-called packages in which to condense[Pg 10] freight, and thereby sell corn to a better advantage, was an easy matter in those days. In the newer sections, away from the main lines of railroads, there was much open prairie land, which was covered with luxuriant grass. Cattle could be herded on this free grass on the prairies at a dollar a head from May to October, and then stalk fields could be had for ten cents an acre. Usually these stalk fields contained from twenty cents to thirty cents worth of corn per acre. The only expensive months for feeding were March and April, when either clover, timothy, or prairie hay had to be fed. The cost in the summer was only about twenty cents a month per head, in the winter about thirty-three cents. The total cost of growing a package was about $6.00."

The cattle herders in those days made contracts with the large operators to graze so many cattle at so much per head during the grazing season. The usual price for the entire season was from $1.00 to $1.50 per head. These cattle ranged from three to seven years old by the time they were ready for market and sold for about $25.00 per head.

An instance of the cattle herding industry, as it may be termed, is related by Mr. C. W. Yapp, now of Urbana, Illinois, who was one of the early herders in that country near Mahomet:

About 1855, at 13 years of age, Mr. Yapp began herding cattle for the then large cattle feeders of that part of the country. In the early spring of 1860, he started from Mahomet with a bunch of 12 cattle, to meet a large drove that was coming up from the southern part of the state. These cattle were native stock which had been collected over the state. The entire bunch[Pg 11] numbering around 900, were driven to Drummer's Grove, near Gibson City. There they were branded and herded on the open prairie during the spring and summer. In the fall, they were returned to the lots of the large feeders, where they were fed out during the winter. The feed during the winter consisted mostly of shocked corn.

Some of the large cattle feeders bought their packages to be filled with corn, while others grew them. In either case, the primary aim was not to make beef, but to market the corn crop at a much better price than would be obtained if the winter was spent in hauling the corn to market at the nearest town. Naturally, these feeders fed corn with a lavish hand. They fed from twenty to thirty pounds to a steer per day, and if the steer became gorged and mussed over it, it was thrown out to the hogs. They kept corn before their cattle all the time. They argued that if you want solid beef, beef that will weigh like lead, give the cattle nothing but corn and water. They wanted big packages, nothing less than two-year-old steers past would do, and three and four-year-olds were preferable. They wanted steers that would be at least four years old when ready for market and that would weigh from 1500 to 1600 pounds. These steers were desirable because they would hold more corn than the smaller ones. Very little attention was given to the finish of the steers sent to market. They were all driven out together regardless of the degree of finish. It was not until some time in the eighties and nineties that much attention was given to the degree of finish[Pg 12] in fat steers when sent to market.

After the open prairies became settled up and there was no more free grass at home, the feeders of Illinois and the adjoining states could buy their packages on the ranges on the plains west of the Mississippi river, or at the range cattle markets. Corn was still cheap and so were packages in the shape of stockers and feeders. The reason for this was that the great corn fields of Kansas and Nebraska were being opened up and the great national pastures from Canada to the Texas Panhandle had not yet become spotted and rendered useless by the homesteader. Speculation in semi-arid land had not set in, and the term "dry farming" had not been invented.

The great drouths caused the price of corn to fluctuate but the aggregate corn yield kept on increasing with increased acreage and usually the year following a drouth was one of superabundance of corn. Such was the year of 1895 following the drouth of 1894. The proportion of cattle per thousand population steadily increased. Meanwhile our cattle markets became centralized and were always full to overflowing. Everybody wondered where the cattle came from.

In the year of 1895, this system reached its climax. The question confronting the farmer at this time was: "Why did he continue growing corn and feeding cattle?" He grew corn because he could do it cheaply and more certainly than anything else. The farmer had begun to realize that the limit of good land watered by the rains of heaven would soon be reached. He would, therefore, hold on to his land and gain back all that he[Pg 13] had lost in fertility by growing corn in the increased price of land that was sure to come in the near future. He had been feeding cattle to sell his corn with the idea also that cattle feeding and cattle grazing were good for the land. The limit of good land was not reached, however, nearly so soon as he had expected and when it was reached, land advanced in price more rapidly than even the most optimistic had anticipated. The year of 1895 marks the end of the first stage of beef production in Illinois as well as in the other corn belt states.

The Summer That the Rain Came Not

In the nineties (1896), cattle feeding in Illinois and the other corn belt states entered upon the second stage of its evolution or development. The purpose of feeding cattle during this stage was not to market corn but to make beef. The great corn crop of 1895 and 1896, following the drouth of 1894, gave very cheap corn. Cattle were cheap also. During the two years 1896-1897, business was on a standstill the whole country over, but the next year, 1898, business started in full blast; cattle began to advance in price, and the demand for feeders increased. As a consequence, the whole country was scoured for them, but it was found that the choicest ones had been sold off in 1894, and the early part of 1895. Cattle feeders, anxious to secure cattle to fill their feed lots, turned to other sources for their supply. They went into Mexico, Oregon, Colorado, and Tennessee, and bought their feeder cattle. When cattle went[Pg 14] up in price, corn went up also, then labor began to gradually go up.

At that point began the advance in the value of land. The government had no more choice corn land. The two acres necessary to keep a cow during the summer and two more acres, the hay from which would keep her during the winter, doubled in price within the next fifteen years, but it did not increase in actual value as determined by the amount of grass or grain it would produce. It was at that time the people were confronted first with dear land, stockers, feeders, corn, hay, and beef. This all led the cattle feeders and the corn growers to begin studying out a method or system by which they could profitably grow corn to make beef instead of growing beef to market corn. The prices of fat cattle were very tempting, something unheard of ever before, but when it came to buying feeders, the margin was very little greater than it had been in previous years, and besides, corn was higher than it had ever been. The problem then was, how to get the most beef out of a bushel of corn.

Experiment stations had been doing work along that line for several years. They pointed out that the younger and smaller the animal is, the less will be the grain required to sustain the life-giving forces, or to run the machine, and a greater proportion will go to the building up of body tissue, hence the greater the profit in feeding young animals. Feeders began to drop out the two and three year old steers and replace them with baby beeves. Many feeders tried it but somehow or other they could not make it work according to the experimental evidence.[Pg 15] They found no profit in feeding any kind of cattle. Many feed lots became empty and blue grass and clover pastures were plowed up and put into corn fields. If corn was worth more outside of the steer than it was in the steer, the farmer argued, why feed cattle? The landlord could get more rent from corn land than from grass land devoted to cattle grazing; therefore, he saw no profit in building expensive barns, sheds, and fences for cattle feeding.

In the summer of 1907, business was flourishing and packers were in need of money. To meet their needs, they flooded the western banks with commercial paper. They bought so few cattle that the price fell off at least 30 per cent in three months' time. The loss accrued by such a rapid decline in the price of fat cattle was so great that it paid for the commercial paper that had been issued by the packers. Such conditions as these hastened the process of depleting the feed yards and decreasing the number of cattle on the market.

"The cattle have left central Illinois and the grain elevator now distinguishes the landscape. The vast blue grass pastures of the ante-bellum period have disappeared, and corn tillage is the principal occupation of the agrarian population. Down in Morgan and Sangamon counties, even recollections of the cattle trade, as it existed in the days of John T. Alexander and Jacob Strawn, are being rapidly affected. A few cattle come in from the west to be fattened on corn, but summer grazing is the exception and the interest of the occupant of the land centers, not in the cattle market quotations, but in the price of corn.[6]

[Pg 16]

"All the evidence seems to point toward the conclusions that another change in the corn belt system of beef production is imminent.

"One of two things will happen or Illinois will quit the cattle business. Either some new breeding and rearing center must be developed, or Illinois feeders must return to breeding their own feeder steers.

"I believe that Illinois will not quit the cattle business. There is too much at stake besides the mere success or failure of the cattle business alone. First of all, this country needs the beef. The greatest people of the earth have been meat eaters, and I believe that the American people will continue to eat meat and will pay the price necessary to make its production profitable.

"Another consideration of vital importance, but too broad a subject for discussion in this connection, is the value of livestock as an aid to the maintenance of soil fertility. Then, too, for the sake of our economic stability, the livestock interest of the country must be preserved and encouraged. Professor Herbert W. Mumford is my authority for the statement that 80 % of the corn grown in the United States is fed to livestock. Picture, if you can, the effect upon corn belt land value and our economic situation generally if the country suddenly lost this market for 80 % of its corn crop.

"Regarding the possibility of another breeding center being developed, it may be said that there are other sections that can produce feeders much more cheaply than Illinois. There[Pg 17] are large areas of cheap lands in some of the Gulf states with which Illinois could not compete in the production of feeder steers. But these sections are not interested in the production of cattle, and it is doubtful if the south ever produces a surplus of feeder steers. Hence, it seems that the probable solution of the whole question will be brought about by producing our own feeders.

"If Illinois does return to the cattle breeding business, it will not be on the old extensive scale that prevailed throughout the state a generation ago. Grass grown on these high priced lands is too expensive to be disposed of with so lavish a hand as it was thirty or forty years ago.

"A return to cattle breeding in Illinois will be coincident with a more general adoption of supplement for pasture. The use of smaller proportions of permanent pasture, more extensive use of rotated or leguminous pastures, the passing of the aged steers in our feed lots, and the inauguration of what may be called intensive systems of baby beef production."[7]

[Pg 18]

"In reviewing the cattle breeding and the cattle feeding situation in Illinois in 1894, Mr. J. G. Imboden stated that the outlook was not very encouraging. The question was, "Are the men who are feeding the grain and fodder crop of the farm any worse off than those grain farmers who are selling their grain on the market, or even the butcher, the grocer, the boot[Pg 21] and shoe dealer, or the drygoods merchant?" They undoubtedly were not at that time. Competition was very close, profits small, and unless a business man was satisfied with a small profit, his competitor did the business. Such were the conditions that faced the cattle breeders and feeders at that time.

"From 5 % to 10 % of the feeding value of the crops on Illinois farms were left in the field; straw-stacks stood in the field where the thresher left them; stover stood on the field after the corn was husked, while on these same farms were stock that were shrinking from exposure and lack of feed."

The outlook for the feeder was very discouraging, but much more so for the breeder. There were no hopes for success for the breeder until the feeder had two or three years of success in order to make a market for the cattle that were bred. Strong efforts were being made to devise some methods of feeding the farm products more economically and in such a way as would mean more grain and better profits for the feeder.

"The cattle feeders of Illinois presumed that the time was nearing when feeder cattle of the best grade for grazing and feeding purposes would be hard to secure. While at that time there were plenty of cattle west of the Mississippi river, in Illinois there was a scarcity of breeding cattle to supply the demand. It was harder to buy a bunch of fifty uniformly good steers, throughout central Illinois especially, than it had been for fifteen years past. This was probably due to the fact that feeders had quit raising their feeding cattle and the breeders had changed from one breed to another in hopes of finding a breed[Pg 22] that would give them greater returns. Again, many breeders had become very careless of the merits of the cattle on their farm."[8]

The First Silo in Illinois

"In 1881, Oatman Brothers, of Dundee, Illinois, built the first silo in the state. At the eighth annual meeting of the Illinois State Dairyman's Association, held at Dundee, Illinois, December 14-16, 1881, Mr. E. J. Oatman read an article on "Silos and Ensilage.""

Mr. Oatman stated that some agricultural paper in Chicago had been agitating the building of silos in Illinois and had tried to induce him to build one. The stories that the paper told about the value of ensilage as a feed sounded too good to be true. The idea of cutting up green fodder, packing it away in a hole, and expecting to see it come out in first class condition, in the dead of winter, seemed to be impossible. A great many objections arose to such "cow kraut" as some called it. It would heat, ferment, and rot; therefore it was a very difficult matter to make people see its value as a feed.

Mr. Oatman, however, visited the farm of Messrs. Whitman and Burrell at Little Falls, New York, on February 1, 1880, for the purpose of seeing their silo and the condition of their ensilage. He made a thorough investigation and thereupon became convinced that ensilage was a success. He returned home to his farm at Dundee and made preparations to build a silo. His first silo was 49 feet by 43 feet by 20 feet deep, dug out into the ground. It[Pg 23] was divided into three parts, all of which were made of concrete.

After the silo was finished, Mr. Oatman proceeded to fill it, which required thirteen days with a force of ten men, at a rate of about twenty-three tons per day. After it was filled, stone was placed on top, at the rate of about 150 pounds per square inch.

Mr. Oatman met with many discouragements with his new silo; the community at large thought it was a very foolish idea. Some said that if it did keep, the cattle would not eat it, and others still more radical, even hoped that he would lose it all, and said that any man who would try such a thing was crazy.

When the time came to open the silo, Mr. Oatman found that the silage was all fresh and nice with the exception of a few inches on top. His cattle took to it readily, and he found that it greatly increased the milk production of his dairy herd.[9]

The use of ensilage as a feed for beef and milk production has become so general in Illinois since the first silo was built in 1881 that ensilage is now one of the staple feeds. While there are a few people who still think that the use of ensilage in the production of beef is a fad, practically every one agrees that it is economical in the production of milk.

Ensilage is a roughage and not a concentrate, and its profitableness in a fattening ration depends not so much upon its nutritive value as upon its succulence and palatability, the steers' ability to consume large quantities of it, and the fact that it makes possible the utilization of all of the corn plant, a large proportion of which would be wasted.

[Pg 24]

Every year sees a more general adoption of ensilage as a roughage, and with the inauguration of the present intensive system of baby beef production, and where the baby beeves are raised on the farm on which they are to be fed, ensilage is the most economical feed that can be used in maintaining the breeding herd.

The Chicago Market

"The situation of Chicago in the great agricultural center of the United States brought it into prominence at an early day as the center of the live stock trade. This position it has never lost. However great may be the development of other sections of the country, Chicago can not fail to continue to be the leader in this class of business. Its location as a railroad center and its position as a distributing point is made secure by the steadiness of its growth and the magnitude of its present operations. There is greater competition in this market than in any other. The Chicago market is the purchasing point, not only for the local packers, large and small, the exporters, and the speculators, but also for a great number of smaller packing houses scattered over the country, and for the feeders and breeders of the most fertile and largest agricultural sections of the United States."[10]

Prior to the year of 1833, Chicago had no provisions to export, and as late as 1836, an actual scarcity of food there created a panic among the inhabitants.

The first shipment of cattle products from Chicago was made in 1841, by Newbury and Dale on the schooner, Napoleon, bound fo[Pg 25]r Detroit, Michigan. This shipment consisted of 287 barrels of salted beef and 14 barrels of tallow.

There were two weekly papers published in Chicago at this time: The American, a whig paper, and the Democrat.

The first market in the way of stock yards in Chicago was located on the north branch of the Chicago river. These yards were used chiefly for swine. In 1836, the first cattle yards were opened on a tract of land near twenty-ninth street and Cottage Grove avenue. A few pens had been erected here to accommodate the cattle trade. The first scales for weighing livestock ever used in that country were used in these yards.[11]

[Pg 26]

In 1855, there were two regular stock yards in Chicago; one, called the Merrick Yard, is now known as the Sherman Yards, and the other was called the Bullshead Yard. A great many eastern people came to Chicago at this time to buy fat cattle to take back east. Most of the cattle they bought were driven over into Indiana to Michigan City, to be shipped on east. John L. Hancock was the only packer in Chicago at this time. Ice was not used, and packing was done during the cool seasons of the year.

One element of the success of Chicago as a market was the fact that stock might be pastured without charge on the prairies near the city, while the owners awaited favorable market conditions in the eastern states. The cattle were herded on the open prairies just outside of the city, and the buyers of Chicago rode out each day and bought the cattle in such numbers as they needed.

In 1865, the growth of the livestock traffic had increased so rapidly that the several railroad companies that centered in Chicago, together with the managers of the stock yards already existing, combined for the erection of the Union Stock Yards. These were opened for business on Christmas day, 1865.[12]

"The meat industry of Chicago, from the purchase of the livestock to the shipment of the meat, in either the fresh or the cured condition, is carried on at the Union Stock Yards, which are located near the outskirts of the city. The yards cover exactly a square mile of ground. One-half of this area is covered with cattle pens, and the other half by huge establishments of the[Pg 27] packing houses. The pens are surrounded by strong stockades, about shoulder high, and they are laid out in blocks with streets and alleys, in much the same fashion as an ordinary American town. The whole of this area, a half mile in width, and a mile in length, is paved with red brick; and here we see the first notable evidence of the effort to maintain the stock yards in a sanitary condition.

"The brick paving makes it possible to thoroughly clean both pens and streets, and this is done at regular and frequent intervals."[13]

"Whatever may have been the conditions in the past, it is a fact that today the greatest care is exercised in the shipment and handling of the stock from the time they leave the farms until they reach the packing houses. The price that the animals will bring in the pens depends upon the conditions they present under the eye of the buyer, who represents the packing houses, and it is to the interest of the farmers, the cattlemen, and the commission men, to whom the cattle are consigned at the yards, that they shall receive the best food and the most careful attention up to the very hour at which the sale is made. They are shipped in special stock cars, in which they are carried as expeditiously as possible to the stock yards, where they are unloaded and driven to the pens. Here they are at once fed and watered, each pen containing a feeding trough and a water trough, into which a stream of fresh water is kept running.

"The cattlemen consign their stock to the various commission houses, and for receiving and selling the stock, there is a[Pg 28] charge of, respectively, twenty-five cents and fifty cents a head. The purchase of the cattle is made by buyers, of whom each of the packing houses maintain a regular staff."

"About 1845, a bold editor left Buffalo, New York, then the greatest lake part of the country, and bravely ventured as far into the rowdy west as Chicago. Possibly the people here received him with generous hospitality; perhaps they treated him with something even more warming to the inner man; or it may be that as they filled him with solid chuck and, perhaps, with less solid refreshments, they took occasion to remark, with that modest and restrained hopefulness for which Chicago people have justly received credit, that Chicago was destined to become a town of some importance. Be that as it may, when that editor luckily found himself once more safe within his sanctum, he gave vent to his joy and overflowing gratitude by writing wild, enthusiastic predictions concerning the future of the town, which was then aspiring to rise above the rushes and wild rice of the Chicago river.

"Reckless of the opinion of the readers of his paper, perhaps trusting to their ignorance of the conditions of the out of the way place, this bold editor predicted that the day would come when Chicago would have an elevator capacious enough to hold 25,000 bushels of grain, and that in a single winter season, 10,000 cattle, and as many hogs, would be slaughtered and packed there.

"Beef packing was the leading industry of Chicago at that time, but no trustworthy statistics relating to the cattle traffic previous to 1851 have been preserved, and from 1851 until 1856[Pg 29] no account of the receipts of cattle were kept. This was probably due to the fact that a large number of those cattle that were brought to Chicago were held on the open prairies until sold to butchers to supply the requirements for local consumption. No accurate count of cattle disposed of in that way could well be obtained."

Statistics of the receipts of cattle at the Chicago Union Stock Yards from 1851 to 1913, inclusive, and the shipments from 1852 to 1884, inclusive:

St. Louis Stock Yards

In April, 1869, a charter was granted by the state of Illinois to the East St. Louis Stock Yards Company. This company[Pg 32] was authorized to issue stock to an amount not to exceed $200,000. The original charter of the company, which later operated the National Stock Yards, fixed the capital stock thereof at $1,000,000, which was, subsequently, raised, by a vote of the stock holders, to an amount of $250,000, to meet the requirements of the rapidly growing business. When the National Stock Yards were completed, they were more convenient than were any others of their kind in the country.

[Pg 33]

III. CATTLE BARONS AND PIONEER DROVERS OF ILLINOIS

Previous to the end of the first quarter of the nineteenth century, no droves of cattle were seen in the country west of Ohio. The first drove ever driven from Illinois was taken from Springfield, through Chicago, to Green Bay, Wisconsin, in 1825, by Colonel William S. Hamilton. Beginning with this date, the practice of collecting cattle into droves and driving them to market soon grew from a minor occupation into an industry within itself; beef cattle that were grown and fattened in Illinois were gathered together into large droves by men who made it a business, and were driven to the then great cattle markets on the sea board. Foremost among these early pioneer cattlemen were: Jacob Strawn, John T. Alexander, B. F. Harris, and Tom C. Ponting. In the scope of their operations, Jacob Strawn and John T. Alexander exceeded many of the conspicuous operators in the rise and fall of the range industry in this state. These men owned hundreds of acres of the prairie land of the state, on which they collected enormous droves of cattle. These cattle were grazed here throughout the spring and summer, then were fed during the winter. It was no uncommon occurrence for one of these operators to buy all the corn for sale during one season in three or four counties. The next spring these fat bullocks were trailed across the level country to the eastern mountain ranges, over which they climbed to reach Lancaster, Philadelphia, and New York. Cincinnati and Buffalo received a few of these cattle, but most of them were driven on through to the markets[Pg 34] on the sea board, where better prices were obtained. These cities bore about the same relation to the livestock traffic of those days as Chicago, St. Louis, Kansas City, and St. Joseph bear to the cattle trade of today; they were the collecting points for the business and the slaughterers who bought them either salted the carcasses down in barrels and casks or sold them to local consumers. Other dealers, however, bought some of these cattle and drove them on to smaller towns nearer the coast. "In the census of 1850, it was recorded that Illinois alone sent 2,000 head of cattle each week to the New York market."

While the cattle barons represented a large part of the beef cattle trade of Illinois, there were hundreds of smaller dealers who fed only a few cattle each year which added materially to the magnitude of the beef cattle industry of the state. A few of these smaller operators were found in almost every section of the state, especially in the central and northern part.

Cattle trailing continued until lines of railroad connecting Illinois with the cities on the Atlantic coast were built. This made cattle trailing unnecessary and greatly stimulated the production of beef in the state by furnishing means for placing beef before the consumers of the east quickly and, at a much less cost than that of the old method. The long drives greatly decreased the weight of the animals, and, at the same time, the meat of carcasses was inferior to that of the cattle that were shipped by railroad, and slaughtered without having taken such a long drive.[15]

[Pg 35]

John T. Alexander[16]

JOHN T. ALEXANDER.

"Among the cattle operators of Illinois, John T. Alexander was probably the greatest by reason of the magnitude of his transactions, but he was antedated by Jacob Strawn, who located in Morgan County in 1827. Alexander has been regarded as America's greatest cattleman in a commercial sense. In the strict sense of the term, he was a pastoralist and a trader, not an agriculturalist. His parents were native of Ireland, who migrated to Virginia in 1818, and in 1824 joined the exodus to the Mississippi Valley, settling in Jefferson County, Ohio. John T. Alexander was the oldest of a family of eleven children. His education was on the farm. He was endowed with that faculty called cattle sense. At the age of fifteen, he was entrusted, by his father, with the entire charge of a drove of cattle sent to Philadelphia. He sold them to advantage, collected the money, and took it safely home. At the age of seventeen, he was purchasing cattle in Illinois to replenish his father's Ohio pastures. It is related that his[Pg 36] search took him down into Sangamon county, where he was so struck with its natural advantages, from a cattle standpoint, that he determined to migrate."

In 1840, the Alexanders settled in Morgan county, then a cattle range bounded only by the horizon. Mr. Alexander accumulated a herd of steers, pastured them on the public domain, and for half a decade prospered in a moderate way. As the country became settled, it soon became evident that he must own land or get out of the cattle business as far as that locality was concerned. In 1848, he purchased 3,000 acres of land at prices ranging from 87 cents to $3.00 per acre. This land was adjoining the half section that he had originally homesteaded. In 1855, he acquired another 1,000 acres at $30.00 per acre. This indicated how rapidly the price of land was advancing. In 1857, he bought 700 acres more at $50.00 per acre, and in 1859, he acquired 1500 acres of the Strawn estate at $30.00 per acre. In 1864, he secured 853 acres at $60.00 to $70.00 per acre, making him the owner of 7,233 acres of the choicest land in Illinois. In 1866, he purchased the stock farm of Michael Sullivan in Champaign county, Illinois, containing 26,000 acres at $11.00 to $12.00 per acre.

It was during this period of purchase that John T. Alexander acquired the title of "cattle king." His transactions were on an enormous scale. His buyers searched every nook and cranny of the cattle producing region of the Mississippi valley, and Alexander, on the Wabash railroad in Morgan county, Illinois, was the largest cattle shipping station in the world. Entire[Pg 37] trains of cattle, destined for eastern markets, were daily loaded there and almost the entire population was on the Alexander pay roll. Thousands of other cattle, for which he paid but never saw, were loaded at innumerable points for eastern markets. From a pastoralist, he had emerged into a speculator on probably the most gigantic scale the live stock industry has ever witnessed. He ruled the markets of the East and was the Napoleon of the cattle trade. His name was more familiar to the West than that of Vanderbilt or A. T. Stewart. His annual cattle shipment for many years exceeded 50,000 head, and in 1868, reached 75,000. For a lengthy period, his sales on eastern markets exceeded $4,000,000 annually, and it is related that prior to his Champaign county purchase, an inventory of his assets showed 7,233 acres of land, averaging $75.00 per acre in value, $100,000 in bank, 7,000 cattle on his Morgan county pastures, and not a dollar of debt.

Such speculative operations, however, had the result of entailing financial embarrassment. In 1871, Alexander had to contract his business and part with his Champaign county property. This embarrassment was due to many causes, not the least serious of which was cattle mortality by splenetic fever, by which he lost $100,000. He also sustained heavy losses by shrinkage in cattle values, and the Champaign county investment proved disastrous. He also became involved in railroad complications. The railroads were keen competitors for the livestock traffic and in 1871, Alexander severed his relations with the Pennsylvania railroad, making a contract with the New York Central, by which[Pg 38] that company gave him a low rate conditional to a specified tonnage. By way of resentment, the Pennsylvania railroad put merely nominal rates into effect, thereby glutting eastern markets and crippling Alexander's trade, which had become so colossal as to be unwieldy. To carry on such gigantic operations, he was compelled to trust to innumerable assistants, many of whom proved to be either incompetent or unfaithful. Confronted with liabilities aggregating $1,200,000, he was forced to make an assignment, but his estate was sufficient not only to pay off every creditor, but leave him a large sum for a fresh start in life. It was while energetically engaged in retrieving his fortune that he died, in 1876.

Those survivors of John T. Alexander, who remember his activity as Illinois' greatest operator, describe him as being tall and commanding in appearance. Even at the time of his death, he was hale and youthful. He was of sanguine temperament, naturally impulsive, but quiet and non-assuming in manner, sparing in speech, and undoubtedly one of the great American captains of industry in his time, an outstanding figure in a trade that boasts many conspicuous men.

The old Alexander mansion in Morgan county, the greatest house in the countryside half a decade ago, remains in a somewhat dilapidated condition, and the decaying out-buildings convey a mournful hint of vanished greatness. Here, during Alexander's time, Abraham Lincoln, Stephen A. Douglas, Richard Yates, and others, whose illustrious names adorn Illinois history, were the guests of America's greatest cattleman.

[Pg 39]

Jacob Strawn

Jacob Strawn came from Ohio and settled in Morgan county in 1827, and a few years later was probably the most extensive cattle dealer in the world, but his operations were, to a large extent, local and his most distant shipping point, Saint Louis. His pastures in Morgan county embraced about 15,000 acres and his business reached its maximum about 1860.

Survivors of that period recall Strawn's free handed methods. He purchased cattle by the thousands, fixing the price on mere verbal description as to quality and weight. Frequently, at delivery time, nobody was on hand to receive the cattle, but they were driven into the Strawn pastures and left with confidence that payment would be prompt. Both Strawn and his successor, Alexander, were always ready to buy cattle, in fact they were the market of that period. Strawn was at the height of his career when John T. Alexander came on the scene. Strawn produced beef as a feeder and grazier; Alexander contracted cattle to be delivered in the future.[17]

Mr. T. C. Sterrett relates that in the summer of 1856 he came to Illinois and was informed that the largest cattle dealer in the state was Jacob Strawn, living near Jacksonville, in Morgan county. He visited Strawn's place and found a remarkably large brick house and was astonished at the amount of brick paving about the house. Mr. Strawn lived on a good farm at Orlean[Pg 40]s Station, east of Jacksonville. He owned a lot of good horses and Shorthorn cattle. Piloted by the foreman, Mr. Sterrett went out into a 1,200 acre pasture which was fenced with rails and stocked with a fine lot of cattle. He was very much struck with a hundred head of the finest general work horses that could be found anywhere. This band of horses and cattle, the good fences, and the general appearance of everything about the place, indicated the power and ability of the owner. Mr. Strawn was by far the greatest American cattleman of his time.[18]

Benjamin Franklin Harris[19]

December 15, 1811—May 7, 1905

B. F. HARRIS at 55

"Benjamin Franklin Harris was born December 15, 1811, on a farm in the Shenandoah Valley, near Winchester and Harper's Ferry, in Frederick county, Virginia. He was the second of ten children of William Hickman Harris and Elizabeth Payne (own cousin of Dolly Payne Madison from England). His grandfather, Benjamin Harris, with two brothers, came from England and settled on the eastern shore of Maryland in 1726. The family were of Scotch-English extraction and Quakers; in this country becoming fighting Quakers, then Methodists. He grew to manhood on his father's Virginia farm, attending the country schools until sixteen years of age. At that time, President Jackson's attitude toward the United States bank so seriously affected values that wheat declined from $1.50 to 50 cents and Virginia farm land to less than one-third of its former price. [Pg 41]These declines so affected the father's obligations that Benjamin Franklin Harris and his brothers, each with a six horse team—in those days without railroads—went into the "wagoning" or freighting business, and for three years "wagoned" freight over that section and out through Pennsylvania and as far west as Zanesville, Ohio, in order to recoupe the father's losses."

On March 20, 1833, the Virginia farm had been sold at 40 % of its original cost, and in a one-horse gig and a two-horse carryall, the Harris family set out for Ohio, arriving at Springfield on April 8, and nearby, purchased and settled upon their new farm. It was during this year that Benjamin Franklin Harris commenced business for himself, buying and driving cattle overland to Lancaster, Pennsylvania, and there disposing of them to cattle feeders.

In 1834, he started for Illinois via Danville, then through the present site of Sidney, and Urbana—where there was but one cabin—and on to what is now Monticello in Piatt county. During the ensuing years, he began to accumulate farming lands in Piatt and Champaign counties and to buy cattle throughout all this section as far south and west as Mt. Vernon, Vandalia, and Springfield. During several seasons, he bought for the purpose of feeding cattle, all the corn for sale in Macon, Sangamon, and Champaign counties. Each year, for nine years, he drove these cattle overland via Muncie, Indiana; Springfield, and Columbus, Ohio, into Pennsylvania, and some into New York and Boston, where they were sold.

When B. F. Harris came into this state, no streams were bridged, and there were only eleven families on the Sangamon river[Pg 42] from its source to the limits of Piatt county. Fifteen years later not a half dozen men had ventured their cabins a mile from the timber limits—the deer and the Indians were still at home here. In 1840, he visited Chicago, a town of 2000 people, on stilts in a swamp. Nineteen days were required for the trip and the corn and wheat he teamed there sold for 20 and 30 cents respectively. Fifteen years after he came, not 25 % of the land in these counties had passed from government ownership and the first railroad came twenty years later.

The operations of B. F. Harris in connection with the early beef cattle industry of Illinois were conducted more largely along the feeding lines than were those of John T. Alexander or Jacob Strawn. He bought, fed, and sold, from 500 to 2000 head of cattle annually for nearly three-quarters of a century. The Pittsburgh Live Stock Journal, May 8, 1905, in speaking of his death, referred to him as "The grand old man of the live stock trade—the oldest and most successful cattle feeder in the world." Everything to which he put his hand flourished. His judgment was so trustworthy that he made but few business mistakes. He did business on a cash basis and was never in debt. Operating on this basis, he was a rich man long before his race was run, and he enjoyed a period of ease and entire freedom from anxiety much longer than falls to the lot of most men who are counted fortunate in the world.

On May 23, 1856, his famous herd of one hundred cattle—the finest and heaviest cattle ever raised and fattened in one lot by one man—were weighed on his farm by Dr. Johns of Decatur, the president of the State Board of Agriculture. The average[Pg 43] weight of each of the hundred head was 2,378 pounds. Visitors to the number of 500 came from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky, and this state to see these cattle, whose weight can never again be equalled. The following year, February 22, 1857, twelve of these cattle which he had retained and fed were shipped to Chicago. This remarkable bunch averaged 2,786 pounds. Clayborn and Alley, the most famous butchers in Chicago at that time, paraded them about Chicago's downtown streets.

Following is a copy of a pamphlet gotten out by Mr. Harris immediately after the sale of these cattle. (see next page)

The New York Tribune of October, 1853, refers to his prize winning drove of cattle averaging 1,965 pounds, displayed at the New York World's Fair then in session.

Every few years, he took cattle prizes or topped the market. Less than a year before his death, his 1,616 pound cattle topped the Chicago market for that season.

Mr. Harris died May 7, 1905, in his ninety-fourth year, still in strong mental and physical vigor, although at the age of fifty-three, he had retired from extremely active business life. He came in the day of ox teams and lived to ride over his farm with his son, grandsons, and great grandsons in an automobile. He voted for nineteen presidents, beginning with Henry Clay, and saw five generations of his family settled in Champaign county. He established the First National Bank in Champaign in 1865—the oldest bank in the county, and was its president at the time of his death.

In the issue of The Breeder's Gazette, May 24, 1905, is the following statement: "In literature, art, professional life, or politics, a man with a record of achievements equal to that of the late Benjamin Franklin Harris would deservedly have numerous biographers. Many a man has been made the subject of bulky biography who might not measure up to him on any score. This is not because the most inviting and interesting personalities are found outside the farmer's calling, but largely because until recent years agriculture as a vocation has not been adequately appreciated by the public. It has not been sufficiently dignified to become the source of life histories. Other professions have furnished the candidates for the Plutarchs, and contributed the heroes and heroines famous in fiction. Farming has been drawn on principally for Philistines. Its great men, its geniuses, its Harrises, have been overlooked by almost all writers worthy of putting their useful lives into books."

[Pg 44]

(Cont. on page 47.)

Record of the Best Hundred Head of Cattle Ever Fattened in One Lot in the United States.

STOCKMEN, ATTENTION

Who Can Beat This Record?

Weight of 100 head of Cattle, fatted by B. F. Harris, of Champaign County, Illinois:

Average price sale, 7 cents

These cattle were weighed by Dr. Johns, President of State Agricultural Society.

[Pg 45]

Twelve of the large cattle out of 100 head, weighed May 23d, 1856, which was during the time of fattening:

Same cattle weighed July 18, 1856:

Same cattle weighed February 12th, 1857:

Average, 2786¼ lbs.

Average age, 4 years

Weighed by B. F. Harris; sold for 8 cents per lb.

Largest steer in Illinois, weight 3524, 7 years old, raised by John Rising, fed by H. H. Harris.

Average weight of the 100 head, 2377 lbs.

The foregoing is a correct statement of a famous cattle sale which occurred in the City of Chicago, month of March, 1856.

The herd comprised 100 head of the finest and heaviest cattle ever raised and fattened in one lot by one man in the State of Illinois, or in the United States of America, or elsewhere, so far as the records go to show. These cattle were raised from[Pg 46] 1 and 2-year-old steers on my farm in Champaign County, Illinois, and fattened for the market in the years of 1855 and '56, their average age, at that time, being 4 years. They were weighed on my farm by Dr. Johns, of Decatur, Illinois, President State Agricultural Society. Said weights were witnessed by a large number of representative men from Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois, to the number of five hundred, among whom were many professional cattle raisers and dealers, all of whom bore willing testimony to the average weight of the cattle, which was 2,377 lbs. per head. Out of this lot of 100 cattle, 12 head of the finest steers were selected and fed until the following February. They then showed an average weight of 2,786¼ lbs., and were sold to Messrs. Cliborn and Alby, of Chicago, at 8 cents per lb. The weight master kept a record of each draft as the cattle were weighed—one and two in a draft. A copy of said weights is herewith attached for the inspection of the general public; also copy of average gain at different periods.

On the 22d of February, 1857, the 12 steers sold to Cliborn and Alby, appropriately decorated with tri-colored ribbon, preceded by a band of music, were led through the principal streets of Chicago, followed by 100 butchers, mounted and uniformed. After this unique procession, the cattle were slaughtered by said Cliborn, and Alby, for the city markets, some of the beef selling as high as 50 cents per lb. Small packages of it were sent to customers in various parts of the United States, and even Europe, and sold, in some cases, as high as $1.00 per lb. These orders were given by these parties simply that they might say they had eaten of this famous premium beef.

B. F. Harris.

[Pg 47]

Tom Candy Ponting.

August 26, 1824-

"Tom Candy Ponting was born at Heyden farm, Parish of Kilsmeredo, near Bath, Somersetshire, England, August 26, 1824. He was the son of John Ponting and Ruth Sherron Ponting. The Pontings came into England with William the Conqueror, so were descendants of Normandy. The Ponting family were breeders of cattle and Tom Ponting has followed cattle breeding all of his life, both in England and in this country."

Tom Candy Ponting came to the United States in 1847, landing in New York City, and finally making his way to Etna, Ohio. Here he was employed by a Mr. Matthews, to sell mutton from a wagon in the market house in Columbus, where they attended twice a week. Mutton sold for 15 cents to 25 cents per quarter[Pg 48] in those days, while beef sold for 2½ cents to 3 cents per pound. After a short time, Mr. Ponting quit his job selling mutton, went to Columbus, bought a horse and saddle, and went into the country to buy cattle. The first cattle that he ever bought in the United States were eight head which he purchased from a Mr. Bishop eight miles northeast of Columbus, Ohio.

In the spring of 1848, Mr. Ponting, in company with a Mr. Vickery, another Englishman, visited Racine, Janesville, Watertown, Madison, and Milwaukee, Wisconsin, looking for a location to start a butcher shop. Although there was plenty of need for butcher shops at these places, they did not locate because cattle were so scarce in the country. From Milwaukee, Mr. Ponting came to Chicago to study the situations there. He found no regular markets and only two places where they sold stock. While in Chicago, he met a Mr. Bradley, who had driven some cattle from McLean county, near Leroy. Mr. Bradley had sold all of his cattle except forty cows with calves. He sold these to Mr. Ponting, who drove them to Wisconsin and sold them to immigrants, a few at a time. He sold them for $15 to $25 per head and still made money. He returned to Chicago and again met Mr. Bradley, who had brought a boat load of sides of bacon up from Peoria. He had purchased this bacon from the farmers, hauled it to Peoria, and shipped it up the Illinois river to Chicago, where he sold it to grocery stores. This was the only means to dispose of the bacon put up by the farmers, as there was no hog packing done in Chicago at that time.

[Pg 49]

Mr. Bradley wanted Mr. Ponting to go with him to McLean county, but as Illinois was known in those days as a very sickly state, Mr. Ponting was afraid to venture.

While in Chicago at this time, he met a Mr. Lewis and Mr. Heyworth who had come up from Vermilion county with a drove of cattle. Mr. Heyworth was taken sick here and Mr. Ponting was employed to assist Mr. Lewis in taking the cattle on to Milwaukee.

In the spring of 1849, Mr. Ponting went to Georgetown, Illinois, and there purchased about 300 head of cattle. He also bought a camping outfit, a yoke of oxen, employed a cook, and drove through with the cattle to Wisconsin. The cattle that got fat on the way were sold to the butchers, while those that were fit for milk cows were sold to the immigrants. During this same spring, when Mr. Ponting was in Vermilion county, he visited Mr. Lewis at Crabapple Grove, which is on the line of Vermilion and Edgar counties. This man and one of his neighbors had bought a drove of geese, drove them to Iowa, and traded them for steers. They drove the steers back to Vermilion county, fattened them, and the next spring built flat boats and shipped them to New Orleans. In the fall of this same year, he made several trips over the line into Illinois, in Stevenson county, buying fat sheep to drive to Milwaukee. There were no regular banks in Milwaukee, therefore all the money that was paid for stock was Mexican dollars and five franc pieces. Very little American silver money was seen at that time. The hotel rates in Milwaukee were very cheap; only $2.00 per week, with bitters before breakfast, free. Whiskey sold for 15 cents a gallon and was used liberally by stock drivers.

[Pg 50]

In March, 1850, Mr. Ponting rode on horseback from Milwaukee to Leroy, in McLean county, where he met with some men who were buying cattle to take back to California. He went from here to Christian county, where he bought a drove of cattle which cost him from $6 to $11 per head. In the spring, he drove them to Milwaukee. There had been very heavy rains that spring and rivers were very high, which made cattle driving very difficult.

In the spring of 1851, he purchased about 350 head of cattle, buying from Rochester, near Springfield, to the Wabash river. After gathering the cattle together, he pinned them up near the present site of Moweaqua. He bought these cattle very cheap and drove the entire herd to Milwaukee, where they were herded on the prairies near town until sold. He took a few in each week and sold them to the butchers. After finishing the season's work, he returned to Indiana to spend the winter.

In the summer of 1852, the cattle business in Wisconsin was dull. Money matters were very much changed; gold began to come in from California, and get into circulation. Mr. Ponting and his partner decided to go to Texas and buy their feeder cattle. They rode through to Hopkins county, Texas. Here they visited a Mr. Hart, one of the large cattle men in that country. They bought several hundred cattle and drove them back to Illinois, reaching Moweaqua in July of the next year. He put these Texas cattle on pasture until winter, when they were fed out on shocked corn. Mr. Ponting's partner went to Indiana and bought several hundred hogs to follow these cattle. They bought shocked corn,[Pg 51] paying about 50 cents a bushel for it. They would go into a piece of corn after it was dry enough and select two of the smallest shocks they could find. The owner would select two of the largest ones. These were shocked out and weighed, the average being taken as an average size shock. He bought about 40 acres from Mr. Dennison Sanders this way. The shocked corn was fed to the cattle in the same place each day, so that when it rained, the accumulation of stalks would keep the steers out of the mud. He drove this bunch of cattle to New York the next summer, where they were sold July 4, 1854.

In the spring of 1855, Mr. Ponting purchased a large drove of cattle, which together with some he had bought a few months before, were driven through to Chicago. Illinois was pretty well settled by this time, and it was unnecessary to take a camping outfit along. He stopped this drove of cattle near Pullman, put them out on the grass and took only a few into Chicago at a time. There had been a great change made in the Chicago market since Mr. Ponting was there two years before. There were two regular stock yards; the Merrick Yards, now known as the Sherman Yards, and the Bullshed Yards. In the fall of this year, he bought another bunch of cattle and drove them to Chicago in October. This time he stopped the cattle near the present site of Kankakee, and rode on into Chicago to learn the prospects for a market. They were then taken on to Chicago and left just outside the city to graze until they could be sold to the cattle dealers. This was the last bunch of cattle Mr. Ponting ever drove over land to Chicago, and it is probable that they were the last bunch ever driven from central Illinois. From this time on, the cattle were sent to market by[Pg 52] railroad. The next year, 1856, he shipped 110 head of cattle from Moweaqua, the first cattle ever shipped from that place.

In the early part of 1857, the cattle business was very flourishing and the packers said there would be a big demand for them that fall. Mr. Ponting contracted for 1000 head of cattle and about 1500 hogs before the season was over, but before he got them on the market, a panic came on, money became almost worthless, and he suffered a heavy loss.

In 1866, Mr. Ponting went to Abilene, Kansas, to buy some feeders. He purchased about 700, sold them the next spring, making a good profit. He repeated the Kansas purchase the next year with like success. In 1868, he took the cattle he had bought in Kansas to Albany. They numbered around 800. In 1870, he went back down into Texas and bought cattle as he had done in 1852. He found a herd of about 2500, out of which he bought all of the two and three year olds. These numbered about 850, for which he paid $16 per head. There had been a new railroad, just finished, from St. Louis through Missouri, close to the Indian Territory line to a place called Pierce City. The railroad officers had some agents trying to get a contract to carry these cattle, together with some other cattle belonging to Hall brothers, over the new road. They billed the cars, numbering 80 in all, with a contract to refund $50 per car. They did this to get the contract which made a big showing before some New York magnates, who were there at the time trying to buy stock in the new railroad.

In 1876, Mr. Ponting visited a Shorthorn sale at Springfield and bought several head of cattle with which he started a Shorthorn[Pg 53] herd. In the spring of 1880, he attended another Shorthorn sale at Chicago, where he bought a few more Shorthorns to add to his herd. Until his first purchase of Shorthorns, Mr. Ponting's operations had been entirely along the line of buying and feeding and although he did a small pure bred business from this time on, he continued his feeding operations as he had done in previous years, although probably not on as large a scale.

Mr. Ponting had not been in the Shorthorn business very long until he became interested in Herefords. In the fall of 1880, he visited the fair at St. Louis, where he purchased four Herefords. In the spring of the next year, Mr. W. H. Sotham of Guelph, Canada, bought four more Herefords for him. In the fall of 1882, he sold out all of his Shorthorns, thereby severing his relations with this breed.

In 1886, Mr. Ponting made a contract with the Wyoming Hereford Association to sell them 270 head of Hereford cattle, to be delivered in the spring of 1887. The firm paid for a part of them and Mr. Ponting took a note for a few more. About 60 were left on his hands and had to be sold for beef. As a result, he lost about $800 on the deal, which killed all of his profits.

Mr. Ponting continued in the Hereford business until 1903, when he decided to retire from actual business. In the summer, a gentleman came from Iowa and bought his entire Hereford cattle trade. He had at this time about 3700 acres of land, 1500 acres of which were in Christian county. He decided to divide his property among his children, keeping a sufficient amount to support Mrs. Ponting and himself. He bought a home in Moweaqua,[Pg 54] where he and Mrs. Ponting have lived happily ever since.

When Mr. Ponting came to Chicago in 1848, there was only one cattle market west of the Allegheny mountains, and that was at St. Louis. At that time, there were a good many cattle sold for the New Orleans market during the spring and winter, but the principal markets were New York, Boston, Baltimore, and Philadelphia It took ninety days to make the trip to New York with cattle and the drovers had to wait until the roads settled in the spring before they started.

At Fort Worth, Texas, there was nothing but a large fort and force of United States soldiers to subdue the Indians around there. The present six big western markets have all been started since that time.

"While the magnitude of Mr. Ponting's operations was not as great as that of John T. Alexander, and although he probably never accumulated as much wealth as Benjamin F. Harris, he was successful and his operations extended over a greater period of time than any one of the early pioneer cattlemen of the state of Illinois. He operated throughout two of the stages of cattle feeding and has lived to see the beginning of the third."[20]

[Pg 55]

IV. THE RANGE INDUSTRY

"In the ante-bellum period, central Illinois was a vast blue grass pasture. The people were breeding many cattle, but not enough to supply the steady increasing demand for stockers and feeders. Cattle feeders made good the deficiency in the local production by heavy drafts on Missouri, Kansas, Texas, and other sections of the trans-Mississippi region. The subsequent reign of King Corn was then barely in the incubating stage. Grass was the beef maker's principal reliance.

"Not until well along in the sixties did the cultivation of corn begin on an extensive scale and corn-fed steers become conspicuous on the markets. After the grazing period, corn speedily took possession of the whole of central Illinois, until now less than 15 per cent remains in pastures, whereas in the days of the "barons" an exactly reverse condition existed. At that time, fully 85 per cent of such counties as Sangamon, Morgan, and Logan, were in grass.

"The cattle that were secured from Missouri, Iowa, and Kansas, were purchased during the fall months. By the early part of winter, central Illinois pastures would be fully stocked with three and four year old bullocks, which were allowed to graze all through the winter and the following spring and summer. About three acres of the rich blue grass was allowed to a steer and on this they fattened rapidly.

"There are men now living in Missouri and Illinois who drove cattle from that vast breeding ground west of the Mississippi river, into central Illinois, for the cattle kings, Jacob Strawn[Pg 56] and John T. Alexander. These herds, numbering about 300 to 400 head, grazed leisurely across the open country at about 15 miles or so a day. During the war, the trade was more or less interrupted, but the practice was continued until settlement and railroads rendered trailing both unnecessary and impossible.

"The annexation of Texas to the United States, and the discovery of gold in California in 1849, resulted in an influx of population and capital that soon exerted a stimulating effect upon the production of cattle throughout the southwest, as well as beyond the Sierra Nevada Mountains in the west.

"At a comparatively early date, there was a ready market for Illinois bred cattle to go to the states west of the Mississippi river to be used for breeding stock. The development of the range cattle industry created a strong demand for pure bred bulls, and cattle breeders of Illinois were called upon, perhaps to a greater extent than those of any other state in the Union, to supply this demand. The range cattle business also created a market for young cows and heifers to be used for breeding purposes. This demand steadily increased from year to year, until a very large part of the yearly product of pure bred cattle in Illinois was absorbed for that purpose."[21]

"In 1880, the range cattle trade was yet in a transition stage, especially as to the destination of marketable cattle and the special use to which they were put. Before this time, the bulk of the range cattle trade was divided between the coming establishments of the west, slaughter for home consumption, for[Pg 57] exportation as dressed carcasses to the eastern markets, and shipping on the hoof to eastern states as feeders. Large feeding stables had been established in Nebraska for the purpose of feeding out these large numbers of rangers, but they could not utilize all of them. The overflow of these grass fat rangers found their way to eastern feed lots to be finished on the grain of the corn belt. The numbers increased from year to year, and extended farther and father east as the numbers increased.

"The fact that one of the large feeding plants of Nebraska could turn off as many as 2000 ripe range steers in one month, gives some indication of the immense capacity of the range cattle trade.

"As the Indians were confined more closely from year to year, there were more grazing lands opened up to be devoted to the raising of these range cattle. Most people at this time, seeing the rapid increase of the range industry, thought there would never be a beef famine as the economists of the time predicted. They said such economists always look on the dark side of things."[22]

"Not many had any adequate conception of the vastness of the cattle interest in the great pasture region lying on the eastern slope of the Rocky Mountains during the seventies and eighties. It was worth quite a journey to see a single thousand head of these cattle engaged in feeding together. To witness a drove of 4000 moving leisurely along at a convenient distance from each other, to allow the animals to graze as they traveled a mile or so an hour, would seem to an unaccustomed eye as if the[Pg 58] herd must consist of tens of thousands. The appearance of such a drove as this might be recalled by a single transaction made by Dennis Sheedy of Colorado, who sold 27000 head of cattle to the Ogalla Cattle Company. This company was composed of A. H. Swan, of Cheyenne, Wyoming, William Paxton, of Omaha, Nebraska, and J. H. Bosler of Carlisle, Pennsylvania. The cattle were put on a range on the north side of the north Platte Run in Nebraska and Wyoming. The lumping price was $30 per head, amounting to $810,000 for the entire lot."[23]

Texas Cattle

"It will be no departure from the strictest truth to say that the oldest known race of cattle on this continent is the Texas or Spanish cattle. They have been very generally popular with the stockmen of the plains, because they turned the free grass of the plains into available cash for their owners.

"The Texas cattle are truly the only animals except the bison that deserve the name of "Native" American cattle. All the other scrubs in the country are foreigners by blood, or are descendants of intruders from other lands. These long legged, big headed, thin fleshed brutes were in this country centuries ago. It is by no means certain that their ancestors did not roam the plains of the Brazos and the Rio Grande a thousand years or more before America was visited by the Spaniards. There is evidence that the real ancestors of the cattle of Texas were seen in Old Mexico and described about five hundred years after the Christian era, but this evidence has been considered unworthy[Pg 59] of full confidence, because to admit its truth would be to confess that the honor of first discovering America belongs to the barbarians from the Orient.

"In the carefully edited official records, known as the "Chinese Year Book", which was written some fourteen hundred years ago, a circumstantial account of a visit to Mexico by a party of Buddhist Priests is given. These priests saw in the country two breeds of cattle. One of these breeds was described as having very large horns which would hold ten measures. These were probably the earliest ancestors of the present race of Texas cattle, while the other breed with shorter horns was, it is likely, the ancestors of the bison that later roamed over the ranges of the western plains. Those ancient travelers were too well accustomed to seeing cattle and horses in their own country to be in even the slightest degree likely to mistake any other animal for kine. The generally accepted belief, however, is that the Texas cattle are descendants of cattle brought to America by the Spanish invaders, although no definite proof seems to have been brought forward to show that those roistering, plundering explorers ever imported any cattle to this continent, and turned them loose in such numbers as would have produced the vast horde that covered the Southwestern plains before the Civil War.

"To western people, especially in those parts where Spanish or Texas fever has caused the destruction of stock, Texas cattle are so well known that a description of their peculiarities will appear unnecessary. There are many who do not know that the chief purpose of the Texas bullock, pure and simple, seems[Pg 60] to be the lugging about of a prodigious pair of horns. To this end, a big head and coarse shoulders have been given him. Behind these are a flat ribbed, thin chested, light body, held up at the hinder end by a pair of cat hams on thin, deer-like legs. The whole outfit, unburdened by flesh or fat, is muscular, nervous, and active. Such of them as lived through alternate roasting, starving, and freezing during the early years of their lives, found their way to the northern markets to be fattened and slaughtered. These rangers fattened very readily in the northern feed lots and those that were not too old and tough made very good beef. Thousands of them were driven from Texas in the early forties and fifties to Illinois feed lots, where they were fattened and then re-driven to the markets on the seaboard. In later years, they were slaughtered in Illinois and shipped in refrigerator cars, in the form of dressed carcasses, to the Atlantic States. Choice parts, as steaks, roasts, and tenderloins, were sent to health resorts, watering places, and to hotels and restaurants. A vast quantity of their flesh found its way into tin cans, to feed hungry humanity, in the hut of the laborer, at the picnic of the aristocrat, in the camp of the miner, and in the forecastle of the sailor in every corner of the world. It will be seen that the mission of the Texas steer was to raise the standard of living, to add to the comfort, and preserve the health and strength of people the world over."[24]

[Pg 61]

V. THE PURE BRED INDUSTRY

The beginning of the pure bred cattle industry in the state of Illinois was antedated by the introduction of the mongrel bred cattle by a very narrow margin of time. While there were probably a few mongrel bred cattle in the state before 1830, those that were brought in after that date were the real foundation cattle. These cattle were brought from the eastern states, by the early pioneers, for milk cows, and it is their descendants which are referred to when the native cattle of the state are spoken of.

The changes which have been made from the mongrel bred cattle that were brought into the state by the early settlers to the present day improved breeds have been marked.

"For almost a century, attention has been given to the breeding of pure bred cattle in Illinois. As early as 1833, a man by the name of James Williams, brought some Shorthorn cattle of the Patten Stock, from Kentucky to Sangamon county. In 1834, J. D. Smith and J. N. Brown brought a number of Shorthorns from Kentucky to the central part of the state. In the spring of 1838, Colonel John Williams, a son of James Williams, brought a Shorthorn bull and a Shorthorn cow from Lexington, New York, into Sangamon county. These three importations of pure bred stock into Illinois were the earliest of which there are any records. Other importations of Shorthorns into the state were made at later dates, however, and they soon became the leading breed of cattle in the state for both beef and dairy purposes."[25]

The rapid dissemination of Shorthorns throughout the state was probably due chiefly to the method by which the breed was advertised. The leading breeders held public auction sales[Pg 62] annually on their farms, or at some convenient place, and people all over the state were invited to come to these sales and bring such pure bred animals as they had for sale. In view of apprehensions on the part of some of the breeders, that this method might tend to spread disease among the cattle, it became a rule to require that every contributor to a sale furnish a certificate from a veterinarian, showing his cattle to be in good health, and that they had not been exposed to any contagious disease.

Shorthorns held full sway in the state until about 1865 or 1870, when the tide began to turn. Other breeds began to be introduced into various parts of the state. Some of these breeds gained popularity so rapidly that within a very few years the competition became very keen between them and the Shorthorns. At the shows, all breeds were shown in the same class. This created considerable excitement among the enthusiastic advocates of the various breeds and often resulted in fist and skull fights.

"At the Chicago show in 1879, there was close competition among the breeds when it come to tying the ribbon for sweepstakes award. Mr. F. L. Miller, a Hereford man, wanted to put the breeds to a slaughter test. The other breeders refused to kill their pure bred cattle, but some grades were slaughtered instead; one Shorthorn, one Hereford, and one Devon."

Neither of these steers had marbled flesh. One family who ate some of one of the steers was said to have been made sick, due to the excessive fatness.

The feeders of this time gave very little or no attention to the marbling of meat. All they noted was whether an animal was getting fat or not. They didn't notice whether they were putting the fat on evenly.[26]

From the very earliest improvement of cattle in Illinois, Shorthorn blood has been used more extensively than that of any other breed. They were the first pure bred cattle brought into the state and were the only pure bred cattle in the state for several years. They were more generally known by farmers throughout the state and at a very early date were found in almost every county.

Hereford cattle have ranked next to Shorthorns, both in number and popularity.

"About 1870, Herefords began to play an important part in beef production in this state, and it was only a few years after this time that they were taken into Sangamon county, where Shorthorns had first gotten their strong hold."[27]

"The competition between the Herefords and the Shorthorns grew stronger each year. In February of 1885, the Shorthorn Breeders' Association, in session, decided to ask each member to contribute fifteen cents for each Shorthorn owned by him, to be [Pg 64]used for the good of the Shorthorn interest. The rivalry between the different breeds of cattle was so sharply defined and closely pressed that they thought it indispensable to the protection and prosperity of the Shorthorn interest and thought the State Association of Shorthorn Breeders should be kept in an active and strong existence."[28]

The following is a summary of reports gathered by the Bureau of Animal Industry in 1885, by sending out questionnaires to different parts of the state, showing the breed of cattle that has been used moot extensively in cattle improvement.

T. L. Miller

"Early in the "seventies," Mr. T. L. Miller, than a business man in Chicago, who owned a farm at Beecher, Will county, Illinois, became interested in Hereford cattle."

Mr. Miller was born at Middletown, Connecticut, on April 7, 1817. In 1842, he went to Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, where he was in business until 1856, when he removed to Chicago, Illinois. Here he was in the fire insurance business until about 1870. He had bought the first 320 acres of his farm at Beecher and 207 acres three miles to the north. He commenced to improve the farm with buildings in 1862. His nearest railroad station then was Monee, on the Illinois Central. In 1870, the Chicago, Danville, and Vincennes Railroad, was built, and Mr. Miller bought about 340 acres of additional land to the west of that already acquired and laid out the village of Beecher. He closed out his business in Chicago and went to live on this "Highland Stock Farm" in March, 1870. A few years later, he laid the foundation for his herd of Hereford cattle.

Mr. William Powell, an Englishman, who later on bred and handled Herefords extensively on his own account both in Illinois and Texas, was jointly interested with Mr. Miller in some of his earlier ventures in Herefords. An item in the "National Live Stock Journal" for February, 1872, reads as follows: "We learn that Messrs. Byers and Campbell, of Nevada, Ohio, have sold to Messrs. T. L. Miller and Wm. Powell of Highland Stock Farm, Beecher, Will[Pg 67] county, Illinois, an individual half interest in three Hereford cows and two bulls, and thirty-six pure bred Cotswold sheep. Mr. Miller's farm soon afterward became the center of the greatest American activity in the Hereford trade."[29]

Thomas Clark

"Thomas Clark was born in Herefordshire, England, near the Monmouth border, in 1842. His father was a cattle grower of local repute, who used pure bred Hereford bulls, but did not profess to be a handler of pedigreed strains. Thomas Clark came to the United States in the spring of 1866, and after working for a time on a farm near Pittsfield, Ohio, was employed by a Cleveland butcher having a large city trade. Thrifty and possessed of an inborn faith in the "white faces" of his native land, by dint of hard work and economy in the course of a few years, Clark found himself in a position to get into business in a small way on his own account. As foreman and cutter in Cleveland, he acquired a practical familiarity with what lies under a bullock's hide, that was of distinct advantage in his subsequent career as a breeder and feeder of good cattle. He had an interest in his brother-in-laws little butcher shop in Elyra, but his own fondness for the fields led him to give most of his time to the 80 acres he had under lease near town. He moved on this farm and began breeding Hereford cattle. He bought his first bull, Sir Arthur (705), as a calf, from F. W. Stone of Canada.

"In 1877, when Mr. Clark's lease on the Ohio farm expired, seeing that the west was becoming a good market for Herefords, he[Pg 68] decided to remove to Beecher, Illinois. He had shown every year at the Ohio fairs, and always won. He made one show at Erie, Pennsylvania, while breeding in Ohio, and another at Jackson, Michigan, in 1876, winning first prize on herd, in competition with seven Shorthorn and Devon herds. This was the first time Herefords had won that prize in Michigan, and the event caused a lot of controversy. Clark had, meantime, sold three calves to T. L. Miller and delivered them personally. He was impressed with the idea that Illinois would be a better location for his cattle business than Ohio. He bought 80 acres of land, about one and one-fourth miles from the village of Beecher. He afterward added forty acres to the home farm, and subsequently, bought twenty-six acres in addition. Mr. Clark always kept his own lands largely in grass, and leased fields for farming purposes. He brought his Ohio herd, numbering at that time about twenty-eight head, to Beecher.

"In 1877, Mr. Clark showed a herd at the northern Ohio Fair at Cleveland, winning all prizes shown for."[30]

(1857) "There is no question but what the native cattle of the state may be improved by successive generations of judicious breeding, but if in and in-breeding is followed, as at present, the effects will be negative.

"The true comparison between native steers and improved steers is seen when they are put on the market. Shorthorn and Hereford steers at weaning time are worth about $15, while the native steers at weaning time are worth about $5. The Shorthorn[Pg 69] and the Hereford steers could be made to go to the New York market weighing around 1800 to 2000 pounds gross, and sell for 12 cents to 15 cents per pound, while the native steers were sent to market at six or seven years of age, weighing from 900 to 1000 pounds, and sold for 10 to 12 cents per pound.

"The Illinois Cattle Importing Company received a shipment of 38 Shorthorn cattle from Europe."[31]

"Messrs. Calef and Jacoby at Springfield, Illinois, sold at auction, March 23, fifteen head of cows and heifers, all Shorthorns. Two of the number were imported. They reached an average of $583. They also sold eight Shorthorn bulls which averaged $171.98 each."[32]

"Messrs. H. E Gardner of Bradfordton, Illinois, and J. S. Highmore of Rochester, Illinois, sold 30 Shorthorn cows and heifers at the Sangamon County Fair Grounds. The total number brought $3,140. Average of the cows was $104.66. They also sold 14 bulls for $10.20. The highest price paid in the sale was $280 for a cow. The total sale for cows and bulls amounted to $4,160, an average of $95.54. L. C. Carlin of Edinburg, Illinois, bought a bull for $100. Philimon Stuart of Cotton Hill, Illinois, bought one for $100 also.

"In the afternoon of the same day, D. W. Smith of Bates, Illinois, sold five cows and heifers for $770, an average of $154; also three bulls sold for $710, an average of $236.66. The total of the cows was $1,480. The highest cow sold to Lafayette Funk of Shirley, Illinois, for $2.30. The highest bull sold to George M. [Pg 70]Caldwell, Williamsville, Illinois, for $300."[33]

"Rossland Park Stock Farm at Ashkum, Illinois: The farm is 73 miles south of Chicago, on the Illinois Central Railroad, in Iroquois county. It is composed of 120 acres of deep, dark prairie soil.

"This farm was first owned by Mrs. Ross of Chicago, who gave very little attention to it and allowed it to become badly run down. It was then purchased by G. W. Henry of Chicago, who at once set about to improve it. He put a new fence around the entire farm and prepared it to be kept as a grazing farm for cattle.

"Mr. Henry was a Shorthorn enthusiast and bred Shorthorns until 1884, when he became interested in Herefords. High grade and pure bred Herefords had his attention then for two or three years, after which he decided to deal in none but pure-breds. He sold his entire lot of grades. R. W. Hollenbeak of Casey, Iowa, purchased 73 of the two year olds at $75 a head; 25 high grade one year old at $50 a head; one yearling grade bull at $75; and 49 young grade calves at $40 a head.

"There were left on the farm about 150 pure bred Herefords which soon were increased enormously by using some valuable bulls as herd headers."[34]

"The "Summit Farm", owned by Mr. Wentworth, comprises about 4000 acres, which is mostly prairie. He has on his farm 80 Shorthorns. He has some yearling heifers by the son of "Booth's Lancaster", which are very promising. He also owns the "Fifteenth [Pg 71]Duke of Ardie" who still holds his place as one of the grandest Bates bulls in existence.

"Mr. Wentworth feeds mangles in connection with hay."[35]

"The Polled Aberdeen Angus herd, belonging to Messrs. Anderson and Findley, of Lake Forest, Illinois, is one of the oldest herds in the United States, and is probably the largest of any in the United States or Scotland."[36]

"Our first importation was made in the summer of 1878, and consisted of the bull Nicolis 1102, and the five females: Jeannie Gordon 2914, Lazy 3rd 1100, Violet of Brucehill 1951, Diana 4th 3226, and Waterside Fancy 1854, and thus was established the first breeding herd of Aberdeen Angus cattle in the United States so far as we know. The cattle in this importation did so well with us that we were induced to make further importations, and the cattlemen of this country readily recognized the superiority of the breed, and with proverbial American go-aheadness, took hold of them at once. Such was the demand for animals of this breed in the early eighties that we found ready sale for them at prices almost beyond the reach of cattlemen of moderate means. We, together with other importers, drew upon the parent stock in Scotland to such an extent about this time that the straining point was soon reached and prices rapidly advanced in that country also.

"The land at Lake Forest, Illinois, upon which for so many years we maintained our herd, was constantly appreciating in value, until it is now (1901) worth about four hundred per cent more than [Pg 72]when we first established our herd there. We were, therefore, compelled to move our herd into cheaper lands, and this we began to do about 1894, and in 1897, practically all of our herd had been transferred to our Allendale Farm, in Allen county, Kansas. We purchased most of the land composing Allendale Farm in 1878, and have improved and added to it since until now, we have over 2000 acres, making as fine a place for the breeding of fine stock and the fattening of cattle as can be found in the country."[37]

"The Illinois Cattle Breeders' Association was organized in 1895. The first annual meeting was held at Springfield, on January 13, 1896. Mr. J. Frank Prather presided at this meeting. Mr. J. H. Pickrell was the first secretary. A committee was appointed to draft by-laws.

"The first paper on the program was "Home and Foreign Demand for Beef Cattle" by A. C. Howell, the editor of the Drover's Journal. The paper was read by the secretary, Mr. Pickrell. The main theme of the paper was on Baby Beef, in which he said that it was no longer a fad, but a profitable business."

[Pg 73]

VI. CATTLE PLAGUES[38]

"In 1882, Dr. Salmon of the Bureau of Animal Industry, became convinced, from the experimental evidence at his command, that certain disease germs produced a chemical substance during their growth and multiplication which, if injected into the tissues of an animal, would induce immunity from a disease that these germs cause. In other words, he thought that the liquid in which the bacteria were grown in the laboratory might be used after the bacteria had been killed or removed, to protect animals from the disease caused by these specific bacteria.

"The first experiment made at that time with fowl cholera failed to confirm the theory. Later experiments with hog cholera bacillus gave unmistakable proof of its correctness. The results were first published in 1886 and additional evidence was published the following year.

"Many cattlemen have been prejudiced against the tuberculin test and have objected to it, due to inaccurate or greatly exaggerated statements as to the damage it caused to the cattle on which it was used. Those who have had most experience with tuberculin have consequently failed to observe any injurious effects following its injection into healthy cattle. With cattle that are affected with tuberculosis, it produces a fever which lasts only a short time, and in the great majority of cases, the effects disappear within forty-eight hours after the administration of the tuberculin. The cases of abortion following the tuberculin test have not been numerous, even when cows were tested[Pg 74] within a very short time before the normal time of calving. The few cases that have occurred may be explained by the fact that abortion in cattle is a very common occurrence and that it would have happened even though the test had not been applied and that it was a coincidence.

"From the investigations and observations made, the following conclusions may be safely drawn:

"1. The tuberculin test is an accurate method of determining the presence of tuberculosis in an animal.

"2. By the use of tuberculin such animals as are affected with the disease may be detected and removed from the herd.

"3. It has no injurious effects.

"4. Comparatively small numbers of cattle which have aborted, suffered ill health, or fell off in flesh after the tuberculin test was made, were either diseased before the test was made or were affected by some other cause other than that of the tuberculin."

"On the 15th day of July, 1884, Dr. Trumbower was requested to visit a cow at Sterling, Illinois, belonging to Mr. C. A. Keefer. He found one of Mr. Keefer's pure bred Jersey cows, aged about six years, with symptoms of pleuro-pneumonia."

Mr. Keefer had bought this cow, Lass O' Lowrie, from Mr. W. C. Clark, of Geneva, Illinois, on June 6, of the same year. When Mr. Keefer visited Mr. Clark's farm on April 6, he saw Lass O' Lowrie with two other cows, Tama Warren, and Nutriena Tunlaw. All three of the cows had the appearance of unthriftiness, the hair was looking rough and dry, but this was attributed to a severe[Pg 75] winter without proper care and, in the case of Lass O' Lowrie, to recent calving. Mr. Keefer bought her with the assurance that she was perfectly healthy. She was shipped June 8 and was on the road four hours. When she was driven from the car to Mr. Keefer's farm, she was noticed to cough occasionally. She had calved in March and was again pregnant. From the time Mr. Keefer bought her, she became poorer, weaker, and milk secretion became entirely suspended. She stood in the field away from the other cattle and ceased ruminating. Coughing increased in frequency and strings of mucus dropped from the nostrils.

The case was thought to be one of tuberculosis and isolation was recommended, slaughter and burial to follow as soon as possible upon the necessity of the measure. On the morning of June 8, she was bled to death. On examination, the anterior lobe of the right lung was found filled with tubercles covering a space of four inches in diameter. They presented different stages of development; some containing a thick yellow inspissated pus, while others were undergoing a caseous degeneration or calcification, and still others appeared as small indurated brown or reddish circumscribed spots in the interlobular tissue. Beginning at the bifurcation of the trachea and extending downward and backward, was found a cavity about ten inches in length, which contained a pint of fluid of a grayish-black color and of very offensive odor, holding in suspension disintegrated lung tissue; also in this cavity was found a mass of inforcated lung tissue weighing two pounds. The part nearest the right lung was breaking[Pg 76] down and liquifying. Another mass of dead lung, weighing four ounces, of a yellow, granular, or caseous appearance, indicating that it was much older than the larger mass, was found lying in and partially buried in a separate sack which communicated with the larger cavity. In the abdominal lymphatic glands these were masses of compact tuberculous matter encysted in strong fibrous capsules, one of which measured three inches in diameter.

The cow had evidently been affected with tuberculosis, but the encysted mass of dead lung was a lesion which is not produced in this disease, but which is a frequent result of contagious pleuro-pneumonia. It seemed possible that this animal had both of the diseases at the same time, although the fact that pleuro-pneumonia was not known to exist in that part of the country made it appear very doubtful.

Upon investigating the conditions of affairs at Mr. Clarke's farm, it was learned that his animals had suffered from a disease that had caused the death of several during the spring and summer. A cow which had been sold to C. P. Coggeshall and taken to the farm of Mr. John Boyd, of Elmhurst, was very sick, and a second cow bought by Mr. Boyd was also sick. Mr. Boyd's farm was visited on August 12. The cow called Cream Ecca, belonging to Mr. Coggeshall had died on July 20. The cow, Edith St. Hilaire, had improved very much during the two weeks previous to the visit and was then believed by her owner to be nearly well. An examination of the lungs of Cream Ecca showed them to be hepatized as in pleuro-pneumonia.

These facts appeared sufficient to justify the diagnosis of contagious pleuro-pneumonia, but in the absence of any history[Pg 77] beyond the Clarke herd, and considering the fact that the only cow of which a careful post-mortem examination had been made was certainly affected with tuberculosis, it seemed best to reserve a decision until more complete evidence had been obtained.

On August 14, Mr. George B. Loring made a third visit to Elmherst Farm, and in the presence of Mr. J. H. Sanders, a member of the Treasury Cattle Commission, and Mr. Wadham, and Mr. Boyd, the two sick cows were slaughtered. An examination of the lungs of Edith St. Hilaire showed that she had every symptom of pleuro-pneumonia. The other cow, Dassie 4th, was likewise examined with the same indications of the disease.

On August 15, Mr. Loring, the agricultural commissioner, went to Geneva, Illinois, and examined the conditions of the animals that were still on Mr. Clarke's farm. Mr. Clarke informed Mr. Loring that the first animal to show signs of the disease on his farm was the bull, Finis Lawrence, which became sick during the latter part of May and was killed in June. The cows, Ella Lawrence, Duchess of Broome County, Myrrhine, and Damask, all showed signs of sickness about the middle of June. Ella Lawrence was killed at the same time as the bull; Duchess of Broome County died; Myrrhine and Damask recovered and were on the farm at the time the examination was made. Tama Warren had also been killed, but Mr. Clarke insisted that this was because she was worthless as a breeder. Six animals in all had been killed or had died on Mr. Clarke's place since May. According to accounts received from other sources, it is probably that Tama Warren and Nutrina of Tunlaw were sick as early as April 6.

[Pg 78]

Mr. Clarke had brought on his place since June 1, one animal from New Jersey, three which he had purchased at the Epler sale at Virginia, Illinois, one from C. A. Keefer, of Sterling, Illinois, and several from Wisconsin. It was impossible to judge, from any information that Mr. Clarke could give, in what manner the disease had been brought to his place. As Ella Lawrence had come from Peoria, and as there were rumors of the disease at that place, it was decided to make investigations there.

On August 16, Mr. Loring visited Messrs. D. H. and S. S. Tripp, and Mr. O. J. Bailey at Peoria. These gentlemen admitted that they had lost animals from some disease, the nature of which they did not understand, and they freely placed at Mr. Loring's disposal all the information which they could obtain, bearing upon the matter. It was here that Mr. Loring gained a first insight into the history of the introduction of the disease into Illinois.

The first cases of this disease occurred in the Tripp herd, and the only animals that had been brought upon their place for several months before this sickness were three cows purchased at the Virginia sale, which occurred February 21. These cows, Helena, Rex, Albert's Pansy, and Fancy LeBrocq, were taken to Mr. Tripp's stable in Peoria, and afterward Helen Rex was taken to his farm, which is situated about two miles from the city. It was said that Helen Rex was coughing at the time of the sale at Virginia, and that she did not appear to be in good health, but Mr. Tripp either did not notice this or was not impressed with the idea that she was affected at all seriously. The first cow that showed unmistakable evidence of the disease was Pomare, a cow kept for family use in the town stable. The earliest symptoms were noticed with her on April 1,[Pg 79] and she died April 17. No other cases of the disease occurred until July 12, when the cow, Annos Orphan, presented the symptoms of inflammation of the lungs and died July 27. The next case occurred July 25, when a cow called Queenette showed that she was affected. She died August 4. No disease had been in Messrs. Tripp's herd nor in any other cattle in the vicinity previous to the purchase of the three animals at Mr. Epler's sale at Virginia.

The first sickness in Mr. Bailey's herd occurred May 10. The first cow affected, Lady Florentia, had been in his stable in Peoria up to this time, when she was taken to his farm seven miles in the country. This cow had not been in actual contact with any of Mr. Tripp's cattle, and the only way in which the disease could be accounted for in her was that it had been carried by some person going from one stable to the other. This cow recovered from the disease but several others of the same herd died within a few days after taking the disease. On August 18, a cow was killed and examined in the presence of Dr. J. H. Rauch, Secretary of the State Board of Health, and Dr. N. H. Pooren, State Veterinarian, both of whom had been invited to be present in order that they might see the disease and be convinced of its nature.

Mr. Epler's place at Virginia, Cass county, Illinois, was visited August 22. No animals were found showing symptoms of the disease, and Mr. Epler stated that he had lost none from his original herd since the sale, but a cow which he had bought at Beardstown, Illinois, and brought to his place in April or May, which died in June of an acute lung disease that evidently was pleuro-pneumonia. A cow sold to Porter Yates, of Springfield,[Pg 80] Illinois, at Mr. Epler's sale, was attacked by the disease and died in April. Another cow sold to E. S. Hodson, of Springfield, soon after her arrival was treated for a similar disease. Another cow sold to Frank Gaston, of Normal, Illinois, became sick April 6, but recovered.

As very many of the cattle sold at the Epler sale soon afterward became affected with pleuro-pneumonia, and as the mingling of the animals at the sale was the only means by which many of these herds could be connected, it became very certain that the disease in Illinois had been brought to the state with some animals that had been sent to Mr. Epler. The animals which he had collected for this sale had come from a number of different herds located at widely separated points. Upon investigation, it was found that only one of these herds had been affected with pleuro-pneumonia. That herd belonged to Mr. C. R. C. Dye, of Troy, Ohio. Mr. Epler had purchased five cows from Mr. Dye on December 28, 1883. These cows arrived at Mr. Epler's farm at Virginia, Illinois January 4, 1884. Two of the five cows purchased from Mr. Dye had been previously bought from the herd of James Lyman, of Downer's Grove, Illinois, in May, 1883. Mr. Dye had bought cattle from several farms in the east, but it was decided that the disease had been brought to his herd by some grade Jerseys which he bought in the vicinity of Baltimore, Maryland. One of these cows had, apparently, recovered from the disease, but was still able to communicate the disease which was afterwards determined.

The steps taken to eradicate the dreadful disease were as follows:

(1) Investigation to determine the existence of pleuro-pneumonia in any suspected locality in the country.

[Pg 81]

(2) The immediate quarantine and isolation of any herd in which the disease was found. If any considerable amount of the disease was found in any section of the country so as to be dangerous of spreading to other districts, the immediate quarantine of that district was enforced, as well as the prohibition of the movement of any animals from one herd or premises to any other within the district, or of any cattle to be upon any highway or any enclosed land within such district; provided, however, that animals might be moved, upon a written permit, signed by an inspector of the Bureau of Animal Industry. As soon as the quarantine order had been made, the immediate inspection, tagging, and numbering of every bovine animal in the district, and the keeping of a record of the same, and a record of all animals moved by permits was attended to so that the Bureau of Animal Industry might have complete control of the movements of all cattle within the quarantined districts.

(3) The condemnation and slaughter of all animals found to be diseased or exposed to the disease within the quarantined districts, and the thorough disinfection of all premises where such animals had been, or on which contagious was suspected to exist. At the same time, inspection and post-mortem examinations were made of every animal slaughtered during the quarantine, whether purchased and slaughtered by order of the Bureau of Animal Industry or killed by butchers, or others for their own use.

[Pg 82]

VII. THE FEED INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES

"Sixty years ago (1853) there was no knowledge of scientific feeding in the United States. Sixty years ago there was no feed industry in the United States. Thirty years ago (1883) the teaching of scientific feeding in the United States began. Thirty years ago the feed industry in the United States began. When I say that sixty years ago there was no feed industry in the United States, I mean that there was no feed industry such as we of the present day apply to the term. At that time, the population of the United States was only one-fourth what it is today. The problem of feeding domestic animals, as well as human beings, was simplicity itself, in fact it was not a problem. We had more land than we knew what to do with. The owner of livestock raised more grain and more hay and had more pasturage than he had animals to consume or than he had a market for. Domestic animals were fed on the natural grains and hays, grown upon the same farms as themselves. The city or town owner of horses or livestock bought his feed stuffs mostly direct from the farmer who grew them. By-product materials of the greatest feeding value, while produced in far smaller quantities than at the present day, were not sufficiently appreciated nor sufficiently needed to cause the farmer to make the effort to haul them from the mill or factory to his farm, much less to buy them. Scientific feeding with a knowledge of the balanced ration had not as yet been taught in our state universities. The value of grinding the natural grains was only slightly understood and was practiced only in a very[Pg 83] limited way by a few of the more progressive and thoughtful feeders. Flour mills experienced the greatest difficulty in finding a market for their bran and middlings. While these by-products were probably the first to be recognized as of great feeding value, yet hundreds of thousands of tons were sold for a few dollars a ton, or burned, or run into streams, for there was no market. Cottonseed meal as a feeding stuff was at that time unknown. Holes were dug into the ground at the cotton gins and the seed was buried as a means of getting rid of it. Distillers' and brewers' grains, starch factory by-products, molasses, oatmeal by-products, oat clippings, and many others were frequently piled up on vacant lots to decay or run into the streams, or given to such farmers as could be induced to haul them away, and the earliest practical use of them was by the manufacturers who fed cattle with them in their wet or underground state at the factories. No attempt was made to dry them or put them into form to be utilized commercially. Instead of being sources of great revenue to the manufacturer, they were, in many instances, the cause of great expense. Because of the waste and expense and the low prices realized, the cost of the main products—the food for human beings—was very greatly increased."[39]

"Here is a fact worth careful noting, that in these days of close competition, every cent realized for a by-product is credited to the cost of producing the main product—the human food—and that in addition to itself being converted into additional food for man, that is, into meat, dairy products, poultry, eggs,[Pg 84] etc., its sale operates directly in a very large way as a saving to the consumer upon the main product from which it is derived. In other words, there is only one profit figured, and that is upon the main product—the food for man—the by-product being figured solely as such, sold for what it will bring, and the returns credited to the cost in figuring cost prices for the main product.

"The problem of feeding the world—much less the problem of feeding the people of the United States—had not as yet commenced to trouble the scientist, the statesman, or the business man of the day. No one expected that in the short space of sixty years, all of our available lands would be occupied and that our population would have increased from 31,000,000 to 91,000,000 people, and that the problem of the cost of living, the cost of food, would, during the lives of people then living, be the thought and problem uppermost in the minds of our people. That this is the thought uppermost in the minds of our population today is evidenced by the daily conversations of our friends, by what we read in the newspapers, and by the action of Congress and our National Government in providing a commission for investigation of its cause."

[Pg 85]

The following data was taken from the Statistical Report of the Illinois State Board of Agriculture, December 1, 1913,—(Assessor's Reports)

Showing the corn acreage, pasture acreage, number of beef cattle, and the population of the state of Illinois from 1850 to 1914 inclusive.

[Pg 90]

BIBLIOGRAPHY

[Pg 92]

ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I desire to acknowledge the personal assistance and supervision of Professor H. P. Rusk under whose direction the work was planned and carried on.

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