BEEF-MAKING CATTLE
In the United States the raising of cattle for meat is a great business. For years past this country has fed its own people and helped to feed those of Europe. The meat of cattle killed in Chicago and other cities is sold in the markets of London and other parts of England and the people of that country have long been growing fat on American beef. This is not so much the case in Germany, France, and Russia, for great numbers of cattle are raised there, but at times we could find the beef of our country on the tables of most of these lands.
When the white man went to America he found no cattle there. But it was not long before there were plenty of them, brought from Spain, France, England and other countries. These spread all over the continent until there were cattle everywhere. But these were not the best of cattle. There were no fine breeds raised here as in Europe.
Reproduced by Permission of the Philadelphia Museums
Ox Team and Native Cart, with Wooden Wheels, Nicaragua
This is the reason why so many Jersey, Ayrshire, Dutch and other fine milk-givers have been brought here from Europe. Meat-making cattle have also been brought, those known as Shorthorns, Herefords, and others, and now we can find in our fields great numbers of fine, fat animals, which are taking the place of the old poor stock.
Good beef cattle are large and square in shape, full and broad over the back, with thick legs, short necks, and well rounded bodies. The eye is bright, the face short, the skin soft, the flesh mellow and rich.
Cattle of this kind are to be seen now in numbers in our fields. But the great cattle-raising sections of this country are the broad grassy plains of the West and the vast fields of Texas. Here may be seen the great ranges, where for long years past cattle have been kept by the millions, roaming about, feeding on the rich grass, and growing fat and juicy.
Here also is the home of the cowboy, the man who lives on the horse and rides as if horse and man were one animal. His duty it is to ride among the great herds, keep them in order, stop them when they run away in mad fright, and live among them as the sheep-dog lives among the sheep. Brave fellows and splendid riders are these cowboys, among the best in the world.
If you should go west to-day you would not find the open cattle range of the past. The cattle-owners have found it best to fence in their ground, and wire fences may now be seen all over that once open country. But the fields thus made are very large and the cowboy still finds plenty to keep him busy.
If we seek other parts of the world we shall find cattle-ranges like those of the United States. In South America there are two great regions of this kind. One of these is in Venezuela. Here are great open plains called llanos, covered with rich, thick grass on which millions of cattle feed. The same is the case with the pampas of Argentina, vast prairies over which cattle roam in countless numbers.
On those great plains dwell the brothers of the cowboy, daring riders whose lives are spent in the care of the grazing herds. The Gauchos, as the cattlemen of Argentina are called, are not the sons of civilized fathers like our cowboys. They are a race by themselves, bold and hardy, but ignorant, many of them part Indian. But they are born and bred to the saddle and no riders can surpass them in handling their swift horses.
Of the other countries where great herds of cattle are to be found we may name South Africa and Russia. Mongolia, in the Asiatic part of Russia, is a land of vast plains, called steppes. This may have been the first region in which cattle were kept. As far back as history goes the herdsmen of this great region have been roaming about with their cattle, horses and other animals, living in tents, and moving from place to place seeking new fields of grass when the old ones are cropped. This was their life thousands of years ago and this is their life to-day, and they seem no more civilized now than they were then.
We do not care to talk about the killing of these fat herds. That has nothing to do with Home-Life, except in so far as we find their meat on our tables, for the killing is mostly done in great sheds and pens built for that purpose. It will be enough to say that the animals we have been talking about are of the greatest use to man. They work for him, they feed him with their milk and flesh, and after their death nearly every part of them is of use. From their skins leather is made and we walk upon their hides in our shoes. From the bones glue and gelatine are obtained, and when the bones are ground they are used to fertilize our fields. In fact use is made of nearly all parts of the animal and hardly a scrap of it goes to waste.
An Ox-team on a Florida Plantation