STOCK-RAISING. Texas ranks second in the value of live stock, and far exceeds all other States in the number of cattle. The State is probably more widely known for its grazing in terests than for any other industrial feature. There is no other part of the country in which ranching has been carried on so extensively. The use of the pasture lands has occasioned much trouble between the settlers and the ranchmen, the former violently opposing the attempts of the ranclunen to monopolize the public land by in closing it with barbed wire fences. A number of laws have been passed protecting the interests of the settlers. The total number of cattle in 1900 was 7,279,935, not including 2,148,261 spring calves. Only one other State had half this nmn ber of cattle. The practice is extensively fol lowed of shipping or driving the cattle into other States for market feeding.
The decrease in dairy cows as shown in the table below is only apparent, being due to a change in the method of enumeration. Twice as much milk was reported in 1900 as in 1890. There has been a gain in the number of horses, mules, and swine. The State ranks first in the number of mules and third in the number of horses. The number of mules more than doubled between 1890 and 1900. However, the number of sheep decreased nearly two-thirds in the same pe riod. Sheep-grazing seems to be giving way to cattle-raising. In the following table of holdings on farm and range, the two census years shown are not strictly comparable. since the 1890 fig ures do not include the number of animals on ranges separately reported, and consisting of over 2,300.000 cattle and about 800.000 sheep: