History of the Beef Cattle Industry in Illinois. Frank Webster Farley

      Published by Good Press, 2019

       [email protected]

      EAN 4064066169558

Table of Contents

       I. INTRODUCTION

       Topography of the Land

       People

       Cattle and Cattle Feeding [3]

       II. CATTLE FEEDING INDUSTRY [5]

       The First Silo in Illinois

       The Chicago Market

       St. Louis Stock Yards

       III. CATTLE BARONS AND PIONEER DROVERS OF ILLINOIS

       John T. Alexander [16]

       Jacob Strawn

       Benjamin Franklin Harris [19]

       Tom Candy Ponting.

       IV. THE RANGE INDUSTRY

       Texas Cattle

       V. THE PURE BRED INDUSTRY

       T. L. Miller

       Thomas Clark

       VI. CATTLE PLAGUES [38]

       VII. THE FEED INDUSTRY OF THE UNITED STATES

       BIBLIOGRAPHY

       ACKNOWLEDGMENT

I. INTRODUCTION

       Table of Contents

Topography of the Land

       Table of Contents

      "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. 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: