Texas longhorns were probably the three million worst-quality beef cattle on the continent, “eight pounds of hamburger on 800 pounds of bone and horn.” They neither fattened well nor were particularly palatable. But they had evolved to tolerate human neglect and to survive on the open ranges of South Texas. And they were fecund. Sufficient grass and benign weather allowed Texas cattle to increase to more than five million by 1880, a number nearly as large as the two next-largest cattle-producing states, Iowa and Missouri, combined.10
