It is flattering to western men to have celebrated travellers and authors from abroad publish, upon their return to their native lands, that they have found this country, scarce half a century old, and with its resources just beginning to develop, the granary of the world. It is with feelings of pride that they read from foreign pens accounts of our prairies waving like oceans with wheat and tasselling corn; our immense warehouses groaning with the weight of food waiting for shipping facilities to bear it to less-favored peoples.  Still, when all this has been said, every thorough western man knows that the story of our agricultural greatness is but half told. The great stock interests of the western States have, by these writers, been in a measure overlooked. These prairies that feed Europe with their surplus grains, graze numberless flocks and herds upon their thousand slopes. These railroad webs that stretch over our vast expanse of territory bear upon their iron threads more than wheat and corn to empty into our lake and river ports. The concentrated products of the prairies—the golden cornfields, the luxuriant grasses, the water, and the air—in the form of beef-cattle, constitute a large part of their burdens, while thousands more, on foot throng the highways to the eastern marts. More than the “granary of the world" is the west. She is the great meat manufactory of the world also.

In proof of these remarks, I can do no better, perhaps, than to give some of the statistics of the slaughter and shipment of cattle at Chicago for the past few years. I give the monthly shipments of the last two years, as they will afford some information concerning the time of year our stock-feeders and growers consider the best for realizing upon their cattle. During the year 1859 there were received at Chicago 111,604 head of cattle. These were disposed of as follows:

In 1861 there were received by railroads 164,579 head, and estimated driven in on foot, 40,000, making a total of 204,579 head. They were forwarded monthly as follows:

There may also be added to these figures the number shipped over the Michigan Central railroad, received at Lake Station, from the Joliet cut-off— in 1861, 8,563 head of cattle, and in 1862, from the same source, 41,592.

The Great Western railroad, running through the central portion of Illinois, and connecting with the Wabash Valley road at State Line, carried during the year 1862, 40,230 head.

A more comprehensive view of the number and value of the cattle of the northwest may he had from the returns of the last United States census—1860. This gives to

And we have a grand total of 5,192,808 head of cattle within the territory mentioned. It is to be regretted that these States, generally, have not a yearly census, that these figures might be brought down to a later period.  The enormous increase here can, however, be understood when it is stated that in most of them the number of live stock has increased more than one-half since the census of 1850, and in several of them to a much greater extent.  Should this vast number of cattle be estimated at $10 per head, (certainly not a very high estimate at present prices for beef cattle,) we should have the immense sum of $50,109,280 in the year 1860.

From the Iowa assessors’ returns for 1862, William Duane Wilson, secretary of the Iowa Agricultural College, writes me that, of all the counties except fourteen in that State, there is an aggregate of 565,352 head of cattle. He says:

“Estimating those from which no returns have been received, including but six counties of any consequence, at the ratio of those which have returned, those not reported will be very near 80,000, making the total 645,352. We are satisfied that at least ten per cent. should be added to this number for cattle not returned to the assessors, which will make the total over 700,000 head. As the average reported assessed value per head is a fraction over nine dollars, it is fair to presume that at least three-fourths of the whole are cattle ready for the market, or milch cows. After deducting 300,000 as the probable number of cows, there are left 225,000 head for the shambles. Deducting again 50,000 for home consumption, the probable number for export for 1862 will be 175,000. The number of cattle reported in census returns as sold in 1858 was 141,146, at an aggregate value of $2,950,187, being a fraction over twenty dollars per head. The increase, therefore, of near 34,000, is not too great to set down for 1862, a period of between three and four years having intervened.”

Having thus given some idea of the number of cattle in the northwest, it may be interesting to consider for a moment the sources from which they originally came, their character as regards blood, &c., the manner of rearing and feeding, and other matters connected therewith.

Ohio and Kentucky being older settled States, and their people giving early attention to stock-raising, gave to Illinois her first instalments of cattle, if we except the small French cattle brought at a very early period by the French settlers of southern Illinois, but which are now extinct, and have left no trace among the cattle of the present day. Though the character of the cattle of the first-mentioned States has been greatly improved since then, yet Illinois and the west have no cause to complain of the native cattle which were so freely drawn from them. Later, as the adaptability of the States farther west for the production of beef became known, and they became rapidly settled with an enterprising people, vast numbers of cattle flowed in from Texas and Missouri, on whose plains, seemingly the natural home of horned cattle, they multiplied like fishes in the upper lakes. There they seemed to breed and thrive without care or expense.  The proximity of Illinois and Iowa to market, as well as the peculiar agaptability of the rich prairie grasses for grazing, and the ease with which corn and other grains can be produced for fattening purposes, together with the temperate climate with which they are blessed, have established these States, and similar territory to the westward, as the great localities for either the producing or the finishing process of beef-making.  Even up to the breaking out of the present rebellion it has been the custom of our drovers and breeders to visit those States, which we may call the supply States, investing largely and profitably in the young stock of the Missouri and Texas breeders. Such cattle have also, of late years, been brought to the packing market of Chicago direct, coming through Missouri and Iowa to the Mississippi river, grazing by the way, and from thence transported by rail to the shambles. In 1859 the drovers met with a scarcity of grass, and with forcible opposition from the rebel Missourians to the passage of stock through their country to a northern market. It has been ascertained that in the neighborhood of 80,000 head of Texas cattle were thus prevented from coming forward. Now the trade from both States has been nearly destroyed, and unless calves are reared in much larger numbers by the farmers of these more strictly northwestern States, there must be a marked diminution in the amount of beef and beef cattle for the eastern market. There can be no doubt of this, though the figures, as yet, do not indicate such falling off.

This much in reference to the introduction of the native stock, which forms the basis of the western supply of beef. This stock, though hardy, strictly acclimated, and possessing good fattening qualities, failed long since to fulfil the requirements of the breeders of Illinois and the west. These enterprising and intelligent men could see no reason why such a country as that which we possess should not rival or even surpass that paradise of beef-eaters, old England, in the production of fine beef.  Consequently, neither time nor money have been spared in procuring the best specimens of the best breeds of beef and work cattle, so that the west, to-day, has numerous herds of Short-horns, Devons, Ayrshires, and Alderneys, that she would not fear to put in competition with the most celebrated herds of New York or Massachusetts, or even those of the famed breeders of England itself.

At the United States fair, held at Chicago in 1859, there were eighty-three premiums paid on cattle of all classes. OF these Illinois exhibitors received thirty-six; Iowa, ten; Ohio, nine; New York, seven; Maryland, twenty; Michigan, one; Canada, one; two western States receiving more than one-half the whole number of awards. And he who has attended the last four or five exhibitions of the Illinois State Agricultural Society will not fail to award to this comparatively young State full need of praise for her fine Durham and Devon herds.

Probably the first blooded Durhams of Illinois came from the Kentucky importations, and were introduced into the southern and central parts by gentlemen who had received their taste for fine stock in their boyhood days in that "daughter of old Virginia."  As early as 1833 James N. Brown, the most extensive and successful breeder of Durham stock in the west, and J. D. Smith, brought a few head of the best Kentucky stock into Sangamon county, Illinois, and from this beginning, with judicious crossing and management, they have succeeded in producing a herd of pure bred Durhams, of which any State or any country might be justly proud. Other gentlemen in the central and northern parts of the State—among whom may be mentioned the Dunlaps, of Morgan county; Iles, Bone, and Jacoby, of Sangamon; Barnett, of Will Thomas and Carle, of Champaign; Wentworth, of Cook, and many others—early turned their attention to the improvement of Illinois stock. These men and others, not satisfied with the crossing that could be obtained from the best specimens of animals from both south and east, formed themselves, in 1857, into an association called “The Illinois Stock Importing Association,” and appointed James N. Brown, H. O. Johns, and Henry Jacoby, agents to visit England and purchase stock. They had a capital of $25,000 to operate with.  They left New York in March, 1857, made their purchases in April and May, and reached home toward the last of July. Owing to unfavorable weather, the cattle were sixty days upon the water. during which time several head died, and the rest were landed in bad condition. On the 27th of August the cattle were sold at auction, on the fair grounds at Springfield. The following is a list of the animals, the purchasers, and the price paid for each animal:

Though these cattle were distributed over all parts of the State, and though different breeders have since, from time to time, purchased from the different herds of New York and Massachusetts, and brought them into the northern as well as central and southern parts of the State, yet the Durhams seem to have found their most natural home in the latter two portions. There they have been bred pure, and have also been crossed very extensively with the native stock, till it is not improbable that nine-tenths of all the market cattle sent from Illinois have a strain of Durham blood. The climate there seems especially suited to the perfecting of this breed. In northern Illinois, and in Iowa and Wisconsin, however, they have not succeeded as well; and with the majority of intelligent breeders, the smaller, hardier Devons are preferred, though it cannot yet be said that they are very widely disseminated, or that they have imparted any of their general characteristics to the mass of northern cattle.  They are, I think, as they are becoming better known, increasing in popularity, and the time is not far distant when the peculiar Devon traits will be easily traced among the cattle of this latitude, to which they are undoubtedly particularly adapted. Probably the finest Devon stock in the west were brought here by Colonel Horace Capron, who for several years bred them quite extensively and very successfully in McHenry county, Illinois. He brought them from Maryland, where they had descended from the stock sent there by the Earl of Leicester. The other eastern importations of Devon stock, of both strains, have, at various times, been drawn upon by different western breeders, among the principal of whom may be mentioned Hon. John Wentworth, of Cook county, Illinois.

From improved blood, and from better breeding and management, the character of western beef cattle has advanced in the last seven years, as the statistics of the markets both here and at the east conclusively demonstrate.  Our heaviest cattle are sent eastward, and any market report of any extent will show that the average weight of western beeves is far greater than that from any other part of the country. In New York the present average weight of slaughtered animals will not vary much from 800 pounds net, while seven years ago it was not over 600 pounds. In Chicago, in 1852, the average weight of cattle packed was 542 pounds, while in 1860 it was 600 pounds. There can be no doubt that the average of western beef cattle, when marketed, is as high as 750 pounds each.

Many of the fancy fat cattle slaughtered in this country are from the west.  The "Christmas beef” in western cities, especially Chicago and St. Louis, is as fine as was ever exposed for sale in the most noted English markets. Indeed, I have heard many Englishmen, within the last year, say that they have never seen as fine beef as that presented at some of the Chicago meat-stalls during the holidays; and it is but a just tribute to that noble breed, as well as to the favorable character of the west for their perfection, to say that this prize beef is from what may be termed the American Durhams, either pure or graded.

Owing to the peculiar character of the west, and the extensiveness of the business, beef-making differs in many respects from that of any country in the world.  It is not attended with the same care or labor as at the east, where a severer winter makes it absolutely necessary to feed young stock during nearly one-half the year, and likewise to shed or stable them. Nor can it here be done without some care for a short period during winter, as on the pampas of South America and the plains of Texas. We have here a sort of happy combination of the two conditions: a mild climate, for the most part, and a soil inexhaustible in its resources for the production of just such food as cattle best thrive upon when dependent upon the care of man.

The greatest proportion of western cattle are forwarded to market when at from three to five years old, the mean being four years. The general practice among large growers is what is here called, or miscalled, stall-feeding.  It would naturally be supposed, by those unacquainted with western beef-making, that by stall-feeding is meant feeding in stables or sheds, with ground feed, slops, roots, &c.; but such is not the case. The great mass of cattle fattened here are never stabled, or even sheltered by sheds, their only protection from inclement weather being that afforded by groves or belts of trees, and even these are often of but little use against prairie winds and storms. Still the best feeders select localities where their stock may have the most of such protection. Where from one hundred to one thousand head, or more, are fitted for market on a single farm, it will at once be apparent that tying up in stalls and feeding, in the manner that our eastern friends fit a dozen or twenty head, would be altogether impracticable, though there might be some economy in food. In the grazing region of central Illinois, and corresponding latitudes to the westward, cattle feed upon the prairie grasses and rich blue grass that seems to come in upon all prairie land almost spontaneously, from early spring until December, generally on prairie grass from May to September, and on the tame-grass pasture the balance of the time. The great prairie ranges admit of herding in large herds with the care of but few men, and, at the same time, give great change of pastures.  Salt is given them freely, and they are driven to the best water the country may afford, either running streams, or that which collects in sloughs from the abundant winter and spring rains and the occasional showers of summer.  When put upon the cultivated pastures it is the general practice to have two or more fields for a change. This gives fresh pasture—a very necessary thing for rapid fattening—and at the same time keeps the pastures in good condition for winter grazing, which is a consideration not to be overlooked by those who would succeed best in localities where winter grazing is possible. The best breeders and feeders also take great pains to have their tame pastures sown with different grasses, so as to yield the best succession of feed, some being best adapted to early, and others to late feeding. In the territory further north the prairie ranges are less, and in many cases the country is so thickly settled that tame pasture is almost the only resort. Here, all through the season, change of pasture is practiced, and for reasons similar to those above stated.

As soon as the grasses begin to fail in the fall, (the time, of course, varying with the latitude,) the stall-feeding, as it is termed, commences. The almost universal feed from this time onward until spring is corn from the shock, drawn on low wagons or sleds for the purpose, and thrown to the cattle, stalks and all, beginning with a small quantity, and gradually increasing as grass fails and rapid fattening is desired—the maximum being from half a bushel to three pecks a head per day. One man will thus care for about one hundred head, which is about the largest number that thrives well in one body. Two lots or feeding-yards are used, each on alternate days. As there would be great waste from this mode of feeding from tramping under foot, overfeeding, &c., were not some means provided by which it could be prevented, the plan of allowing swine to follow the cattle and pick up the remnants has been generally adopted. From one to two head of hogs to one of cattle will thus not only get a living, but fatten upon what would otherwise be a total loss.

This method of beef-making cannot be. better understood than by giving somewhat in detail the practice of some of our beef kings, as they have been not inappropriately styled. Probably the three most extensive growers and feeders of the west are Mr. Funk, of McLean, and Messrs. Alexander and Strawn, of Morgan counties, Illinois. The account of Mr. Funk’s management is as recorded in the Rural New Yorker, in 1862; and that of Mr. Strawn in the Prairie Farmer, 1861.

"Mr. Funk usually winters over from seven hundred to one thousand head of cattle, and stall-feeds for early spring market from three hundred to five hundred head. He markets his stall-fed cattle about the 1st of April. He buys cattle all the time, whenever he can do so profitably. Those he sells in the summer and fall are generally three years old. The class he stall-feeds are generally four years old.” * * * * * * *
   “He prefers to buy cattle (steers) the spring they are two years old. They usually cost then, if good ones, from $18 to $25 per head. These are kept one summer, one winter, and the half the next summer, when they are in condition to market, and will average from $45 to $52 per head. He winters his cattle on shocked corn. The steers that are to be wintered through and marketed in midsummer are 'strong-fed.' Those that are to go to market the last of March or 1st of April are 'stall-fed.' The difference in the two modes of feeding is, that the bullock that is being stall-fed gets all he can eat and a good deal more, while the one that is strong-fed gets enough to keep him thriving finely all winter, gaining in flesh and growing too. The corn is drawn from the field, on wagons, to the pasture or lot where the Cattle are herded. One man feeds from seventy-five to one hundred head; and this care occupies him from early morning till late at night. He rises and eats breakfast by candle-light, and draws com with from two to four yoke of oxen (the amount of team depending upon the condition of the soil) all day, and returns and eats his supper by candle-light again. Mr. Funk says that the true way to feed is to provide two fields for each company of cattle.  Feed the cattle in one field to-day, and in the second fo-morrow; to-morrow turn one hog for every strong-fed, or two hogs for every stall-fed animal into the field in which the cattle were fed to-day, changing each day, the hogs following the cattle.  He says one acre of good corn will winter one bullock, if strong-fed; if stall-fed, it will require one acre and a half per bullock. The cattle have no other feed, and no protection except timber, if they happen to be feeding near it.  Salts his stock with this feed about every third day, and provides them plenty of water. Beef, if fit to go to the New York market, sells here at $3 to $4 per cwt., gross; packing cattle at $2 to $2.50 per cwt., gross.”

"Buys, in preference, three and four year old steers, but takes them of all ages, if necessary. Getting them in February and March, he grazes them through summer and until December, when he commences to feed. This he formerly did as early as November, because of having had more cattle to a given quantity of land than he has at present.  He keeps a man to about every hundred head, which, with his system of management, is sufficient. The cattle are fed in timber groves, and the corn is thrown on the ground, stalks and all, just as it is hauled from the field, The allowance per head, when stall-feeding, is half a bushel daily, and the large cattle get even as much as three pecks. Two hogs are turned in to each steer, to collect the waste.  Mr. Strawn thinks sixty bushels a large crop of corn, and mistrusts the fabulous stories of yields that sometimes meet us in the papers.
   “In the old times his practice in feeding steers was to commence in October, while the cattle were still in pasture, giving them not more than six quarts a day. After feeding them ten days he increased the allowance by one quart if the cattle were large, and always fed them at one regular hour; or, if he wished to get them fat soon, he commenced with two feeds of five quarts each by the 1st of November; by the 10th he gives two feeds of six quarts; and so, increasing slowly, he got them up fo their full feed only when the cold weather came, if it should be deferred until January. By the latter part of January, or the early part of February, he would begin to feed so that the cattle would ever have beds of corn and fodder to lie upon. Mr. Strawn advises the keeping of hogs enough to eat up the waste in any event. If he fed heavily, he had half as many stock cattle as fat cattle to follow. He sells as soon as he can do so at a moderate profit, replacing the ones sold with other cattle; for he thinks that the nimble sixpence is better than the slow shilling.”
   "His allowance of pasture and corn for each head of stock is two acres. In former times he bought three-year-old steers at $8, and turned them off at $16; but the prices have so advanced that he now pays from $25 to $30 per head, and sells for $50 to $60.  The profit is the same as formerly, but the capital involved much greater.”

Let it not be supposed that all the cattle of the west are thus reared and fattened. In the northern portions, where sheds and stables are indispensable in winter, this branch of husbandry is carried on very extensively, and is gaining in importance under the load of high freights and low prices that farmers are obliged to carry, from the want of proper facilities to transport the products of their grain-fields. In many cases the most approved systems of stall-feeding proper are practiced. Tame hay, roots, ground food, &c., are profitably fed, and no mean item of western beef is thus produced.

A large number of cattle in the west, also, are “still-fed.” This is usually done in and about the large cities and towns. The poorest cattle, such as are considered too lean to ship or pack, commonly known among cattle-men as “scallawags,” are generally chosen for this purpose. This is, as is well known, a rapid method of fattening, and it is claimed that the beef thus produced is not of an inferior character.

The cattle of the west, as a general thing, have been free from diseases for a number of years; that is, free from any epidemic or contagious diseases as are known in the old country, being subject only to such as want of care and improper food may engender at any time and in an country. In earlier days Missouri and some parts of Illinois were scourge considerably by a disease generally known as the Texas fever. Such was the case as late as 1858 and 1859, though much more extensively about 1825 or 1826. This disease has also been known in Illinois, but almost exclusively prevailing among cattle driven from Texas or Missouri. In 1858 and 1859 about three thousand head died from this or a similar disease in Macoupin county. It is probable, however, that this disease is but a type of murrain. It cannot be contagious, or it would long ago have swept over the whole country, destroying millions of cattle; for at no time have any special measures been taken to check it, Black leg and quarter ail are diseases known here, but prevail to no alarming extent in any section that I know of at present.

Considerable alarm was felt by our stock men and farmers generally at the time the pleuro pneumonia made its appearance in Massachusetts, and, ever watchful of this great interest, prominent breeders at once put forth exertions to prevent its introduction among our western herds, The governor of Illinois issued a proclamation recommending the farmers, drovers, and others, not to import into the State, cattle that could, by any possibility, be infected with the disease, and calling upon all to watch, with the greatest care, any appearance of this disease in the State, and, if discovered, to report at once to the secretary of the State Agricultural Society, that immediate measures for its extermination might be resorted to. He also appointed Dr. Andrew McFarland to visit Massachusetts where the disease was raging, to carefully note and report all the facts he could ascertain regarding its causes, nature, treatment, &c. The executive committee of the State Agricultural Society convened at Bloomington, to take measures to secure the stock-growers of the State against its introduction. They indorsed the action of the governor, recommended that railroad, canal, and steamboat lines prohibit the introduction of all cattle from the east into the State, and appointed James N. Brown commissioner to accompany Dr. McFarland on his tour of investigation. The companies of transportation from the east at once seconded the suggestions of the executive committee, and for a time there was a complete embargo placed upon the introduction of eastern stock. No exhibitors from the east were allowed to show their stock at the annual fair and cattle show of the society. Both commissioners visited the infected districts in Massachusetts, and made full and satisfactory reports upon the disease. Congress was memorialized to establish quarantine laws applicable to the importation of stock into the United States. Meanwhile measures were so promptly taken in Massachusetts to check the spread of pleuro pneumonia, that all these proceedings in a State so far removed were useless. But they show the jealous care with which our best men watch the stock interest, and how important it is in public regard. Diseases somewhat similar in their symptoms, and fatal to a limited extent, appeared in several counties of tho west at about this time, which created some alarm, but they proved of local character, and soon died out.

At present and prospective prices for beef, the supply from the west will not diminish, except so far as the Texas and Missouri importations are cut off.  There is a gradual but widely-extended change going on in the husbandry of the west. Wheat and corn culture, to the comparative exclusion of other crops and other systems of farming, is dying out. In their place the sugar-cane, flax, hemp, and, to some extent, cotton, are being cultivated. An increasing portion of the grain will be consumed by the live stock of the country, for it has become well established in the minds of a majority of western farmers that one of the easiest ways of marketing grain is in the form of beef and beef cattle.