whole territory of Montana there were but 250,000 head of cattle, including dairy cattle and work oxen.


“In the fall of 1883, there was not a buffalo remaining on the range, and the antelope, elk, and deer were indeed scarce. In 1880, no one had heard tell of a cow in “this niche of the woods” and Charlie Russell had made no pictures of them; but in the fall of 1883, there were 600,000 head of cattle on the range. The cowboy…had become an institution.”


Everyone was in a mood to buy cattle – to speculate on this newest of money makers. Newly formed livestock associations paid for publication of journals that told everyone how easy it was to get rich quick in the cattle market. Eastern newspapers were filled with stories and letters from men that had “struck it rich on the cattle range.” Observers were sent from corporations in the United States and Europe to obtain a clear picture of the profits to be made.


There were profits to be made, but not without facing certain problems first. Joseph McCoy commented on some of these:


“Confronted by the necessity either of continuing the breeding of cattle adapted to the hard conditions of the open range or of so changing those conditions as to make them suited to the production of well-bred cattle, they eventually struck a compromise between two extremes. Through the use of pure-bred, or high-grade sires, and Texas cows, a type of animal was produced that was of high quality and yet, because of the strong strain of Texas blood, was hardy and able to endure the cold of winter and the heat of summer, and thrive in spite of the hardships incident of life on the open range.”


Breeders’ magazines were full of stories of fat profits. Steers worth only five dollars at birth were, when ready for the butcher market, bringing $45 to $60. One magazine stated that these steers “had run on the plains and cropped grass from the public domain for four or five years, and now, with scarcely any expense to his owner, has netted a $40 profit…that is all there is of the problem and that is why our cattlemen grow rich.”


Some of the articles that appeared in the eastern journals were written by newspaper man Bille Mye , of the Laramie Boomerang. Mye had quite a taste for good humor, but it is said that some Easterners speculating in the cattle market actually believed the following story:


“Three years ago,” he wrote, “a guileless tenderfoot came into Wyoming, leading a single Texas steer and carrying a branding iron; now he is the opulent possessor of 600 head of fine cattle – the ostensible progeny of that one steer.”


Many pure-bred bulls were beginning to pour into Texas in the 1880s also. Many of these cattle died from tick fever, but the ranchers understood this risk, and absorbed the losses as best as possible. This situation did slow down the “improvement” of breeds in south Texas somewhat, but according to some ranchers of the area, this was all for the better.


In some letters written to friends, one Texan who ranched along the southern coastal area told of his experience with the pure-bred bulls from the north:


“Some of my local friends, and myself on one occasion, tried a few of the improved bulls on our Texas cows. The cross calves weren’t bad at all, but trying to keep the damn pure-bred bulls from dying became a full-time chore. They got sick in the winter months, died of heat stroke or fever in the summer months, and during this time had to be doctored and constantly fed ‘his own particular diet.’ When they did feel up to doing their job, they serviced fewer cows than our Texas ‘scrub’ bulls did. The new breeds do put on weight faster than my old Texas cattle, but I found my profits to be dropping considerably. Therefore, I guess I’ll stick with something I can depend on rather than the new breeds.”


Of course, it wasn’t like this everywhere in Texas, as many pure-bred herds did make their owner more money quicker, but quite often with reduced profit margins.


Despite the breeding-out of Texas Longhorn cattle, the fever tick problem would remain


as a nightmare for cattlemen for some time. It was generally thought that the Texas Longhorns were the major carrier of the fever, but quite often this was proved to be a falsehood.


Veterinary inspector Leslie J. Allen was called upon in 1908 by the Wichita National Forest and Game Preserve to look into a major case in that location. Since the opening of the Kiowa and Comanche country in that area, the land was used continually for cattle under permits issued by the Bureau of Forestry.


In one instance, of a herd of 168 cattle, owned by J.A. Kenady, 48 head died of the fever in one month’s time. Three were sick at the time of the inspection, and an autopsy revealed Texas fever unmistakably. This veterinarian concluded that 10 head of deer were probably the carriers, and they were running at large within the preserve.


Everything that could be said against the Texas Longhorns was spread in a massive propaganda campaign starting in the early 1870s. The attacks became markedly more brutal and unrealistic in the last two decades of the last century until the tough Texas cattle were nearly non-existent and orders were given to shoot them on sight in some areas if they were found wild.


Besides tick fever, these attacks on the Longhorns were basically centered on the fact that the Texas animal didn’t put on weight as fast as the improved breeds and didn’t utilize grain as well. In very few cases was it mentioned that the Texas Longhorn usually provided the rancher with higher profit margins.


One writer of the time slandered the Longhorn in this manner:


“Men inured by long habit to a partiality for the common cattle, always contending that ‘the breed is in the mouth’, and blindly averse to all improvement, may insist on the quality of their rough beasts as compared to the finer ones. But it is of no use. Measured by the scales, both animal and food, and the time it takes to bring the creature to the block – the only way to settle the matter –


2017 SEPTEMBER i TEXAS LONGHORN JOURNAL 29


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12  |  Page 13  |  Page 14  |  Page 15  |  Page 16  |  Page 17  |  Page 18  |  Page 19  |  Page 20  |  Page 21  |  Page 22  |  Page 23  |  Page 24  |  Page 25  |  Page 26  |  Page 27  |  Page 28  |  Page 29  |  Page 30  |  Page 31  |  Page 32  |  Page 33  |  Page 34  |  Page 35  |  Page 36  |  Page 37  |  Page 38  |  Page 39  |  Page 40  |  Page 41  |  Page 42  |  Page 43  |  Page 44  |  Page 45  |  Page 46  |  Page 47  |  Page 48  |  Page 49  |  Page 50  |  Page 51  |  Page 52  |  Page 53  |  Page 54  |  Page 55  |  Page 56  |  Page 57  |  Page 58  |  Page 59  |  Page 60  |  Page 61  |  Page 62  |  Page 63  |  Page 64  |  Page 65  |  Page 66  |  Page 67  |  Page 68