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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