Discuss the conditions and developments that affected the cattle industry during the last half of the nineteenth century.

Cattle ranchers were not very common during the early nineteenth century, most of them were actually Mexicans who ended up being thrown out of Texas after it became independent. They left their cattle behind and Texans claimed them for themselves. During the first part of the century beef wasn't very popular so the cattle was raised for its skin and tallow.

But then the civil war started and after the south lost, cattle had multiplied to over 5 million in Texas alone. There was really no market for beef in the southern states, but there was a huge market in the northern-eastern states.

Cattle trade began from Texas to Chicago and it generated a lot of money specially for the middlemen (Joseph McCoy was the most important one). The cattle was sent to Chicago using the railroads and the industry peaked by 1867. The factors that helped the beef industry were that more railroads were built, more land was available (native Americans were ejected from their lands) and refrigeration techniques improved.

But during the last years of the century the cattle industry collapsed (since middle 1880s) due to lower demand, a severe drought and more farmers settling in areas that previously had been used by cattle only. Since the cattle business became less profitable, farmers started to turn to agriculture instead of ranching.

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