The flocks of these
strong men, carelessly interlapping, increased and multiplied
amazingly. They were hardly looked upon as wealth. The people
could not eat a tithe of the beef; they could not use a hundredth
of the leather. Over hundreds and hundreds of miles of ownerless
grass lands, by the rapid waters of the mountains, by the slow
streams of the plains or the long and dark lagoons of the low
coast country the herds of tens grew into droves of hundreds and
thousands and hundreds of thousands. This was really the dawning
of the American cattle industry.
Chips and flakes of the great Southwestern herd began to be seen
in the Northern States. As early as 1857 Texas cattle were driven
to Illinois. In 1861 Louisiana was, without success, tried as an
outlet. In 1867 a venturous drover took a herd across the Indian
Nations, bound for California, and only abandoned the project
because the Plains Indians were then very bad in the country to
the north. In 1869 several herds were driven from Texas to
Nevada. These were side trails of the main cattle road. It seemed
clear that a great population in the North needed the cheap beef
of Texas, and the main question appeared to be one of
transportation.
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