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            HISTORY OF THE BEEF CATTLE INDUSTRY IN ILLINOIS

                                  BY

                         FRANK WEBSTER FARLEY


                                THESIS

                                FOR THE

                     DEGREE OF BACHELOR OF SCIENCE

                            IN AGRICULTURE

                                  IN

                      THE COLLEGE OF AGRICULTURE

                                OF THE

                        UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS

                                 1915




UNIVERSITY OF ILLINOIS


                                                             May 22, 1915

    THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT THE THESIS PREPARED UNDER MY SUPERVISION BY

                        _Frank Webster Farley_

  ENTITLED _History of the Beef Cattle Industry in Illinois_

  ______________________________________________________________

  IS APPROVED BY ME AS FULFILLING THIS PART OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE
    DEGREE OF _Bachelor of Science in Agriculture_

  ____________________________________________________

                        _~Henry P Rusk~_
                                                     Instructor in Charge

  APPROVED: _May 27, 1915_

                         ~Herbert W. Mumford~
                  HEAD OF DEPARTMENT OF Animal Husbandry




INDEX


    I. Introduction
           Topography of the Land
           People
           Cattle and cattle feeding

   II. Cattle Feeding Industry
           The first silo in Illinois
           The Chicago market

  III. Cattle Barons and Pioneer Drovers
           John T. Alexander
           Jacob Strawn
           Benjamin Franklin Harris
           Tom Candy Ponting

   IV. The Range Industry
           Texas cattle

    V. The Pure Bred Industry
           T. L. Miller
           Thomas Clark

   VI. Cattle Plagues

  VII. The Feed Industry of the United States.

      HISTORY OF THE BEEF CATTLE INDUSTRY IN THE STATE OF ILLINOIS




I. INTRODUCTION


_Topography of the Land_

"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:

  Number of        District              Chief Source of Water
  Counties                                   Supply

   8          Northwest or Postal      Streams and wells;
                   District              springs furnish a
                                         considerable part of
                                         it; few ponds used;
                                         three instances of
                                         tile drains.

              Central Northern         Wells chief source;
                   Counties              springs, streams,
                                         and tiles used to a
                                         considerable extent.

              Northeast Counties       Streams, wells, and springs
                                         used about equally.

              Eastern Counties         Wells chiefly; streams next;
                                         ponds and tile drains
                                         follow in the order named;
                                         nine instances of springs.

              Central Counties         Forty-nine districts report
                                         wells; forty report
                                         streams; thirty-five tile
                                         drains; twenty-five ponds;
                                         twenty-four springs.

              Western Counties         Wells and tile drains equal;
                                         springs next; ponds in a
                                         few instances.

   4          Southern Counties        Ponds and streams equal; six
                                         report wells; five report
                                         springs; four tile drains.

  21          Central S. Counties      Ponds chiefly; streams next;
                                         wells next; springs and
                                         tiles in the order named.

              Southeast and
                Southwest Counties     A like condition: ponds,
                                         streams, and springs.

"From all parts of the state, correspondents wrote that the ponds and
streams become stagnant in the warm months of summer, a few making
exception of those years in which rainfall has been heavy during the
summer months. Stagnant water is found more generally in the southern
than in the northern part of Illinois; chiefly, perhaps, because the
cultivation and drainage of the land has not become almost universal as
it has in the northern districts."

In several counties artesian wells afford a most copious supply of
water