inferior in size to those of the old
States. This is owing entirely to bad management. Our cows are not
penned up in pasture fields, but suffered to run at large over the
commons. Hence _all_ the calves are preserved, without respect to
quality, to entice the cows homeward at evening.

In autumn their food is very scanty, and during the winter they are
permitted to pick up a precarious subsistence amongst fifty or a hundred
head of cattle. With such management, is it surprising that our cows and
steers are much inferior to those of the old States?

And yet, our beef is the finest in the world. It bears the best
inspection of any in the New Orleans market. By the first of June, and
often by the middle of May, our young cattle on the prairies are fit for
market. They do not yield large quantities of tallow, but the fat is
well proportioned throughout the carcass, and the meat tender and
delicious. By inferiority, then, I mean the _size_ of our cattle in
general, and the quantity and quality of the milk of cows.

Common cows, if suffered to lose their milk in August, become
sufficiently fat for table use by October. Fallow heifers and steers,
are good beef, and fit for the knife at any period after the middle of
May. Nothing is more common than for an Illinois farmer to go among his
stock, select, shoot down, and dress a fine beef, whenever fresh meat
is needed. This is often divided out amongst the neighbors, who in turn,
kill and share likewise. It is common at camp and other large meetings,
to kill a beef and three or four hogs for the subsistence of friends
from a distance.

Steers from three years old or more, have been purchased in great
numbers in Illinois, by drovers from Ohio. Cattle are sometimes sent in
flat boats down the Mississippi and Ohio, for the New Orleans market.

We can hardly place limits upon the amount of beef cattle that Illinois
is capable of producing. A farmer calls himself poor, with a hundred
head of horned cattle around him. A cow in the spring is worth from
seven to ten or fifteen dollars. Some of the best quality will sell
higher. And let it be distinctly understood, once for all, that a poor
man can always purchase horses, cattle, hogs, and provisions, for labor,
either by the day, month, or job.

Cows, in general, do not produce the same amount of milk, nor of as rich
a quality as in older States. Something is to be attributed to the
nature of our pastures, and the warmth of our cli