- The Summer that the rain came not
The great drouths caused the price of corn to fluctuate but the aggregate corn yield kept on increasing with increased acreage and usually the year following a drouth was one of superabundance of corn. Such was the year of 1895 following the drouth of 1894. The proportion of cattle per thousand population steadily increased. Meanwhile our cattle markets became centralized and were always full to overflowing. Everybody wondered where the cattle came from. - Cattle
In April, 1869, a charter was granted by the state of Illinois to the East St. Louis Stock Yards Company. This company was authorized to issue stock to an amount not to exceed $200,000. The original charter of the company, which later operated the National Stock Yards, fixed the capital stock thereof at $1,000,000, which was, subsequently, raised, by a vote of the stock holders, to an amount of $250,000, to meet the requirements of the rapidly growing business. When the National Stock Yards were completed, they were more convenient than were any others of their kind in the country. - Early Settler Homestead
About 1820, the State of Illinois was being rapidly settled by people from the eastern states. Prior to this time, very few white settlements had been made in the state. These early pioneers, drawn from the population of the eastern states, were composed of almost all nationalities. They pushed their way across the mountains of Pennsylvania and Virginia in crude wagons, drawn by oxen, bringing with them their household goods and a few milk cows. They came into Illinois, built new homes, and laid out new fields on the broad, unsettled prairies. - Pioneer Wagons
About 1820, the State of Illinois was being rapidly settled by people from the eastern states. Prior to this time, very few white settlements had been made in the state. These early pioneers, drawn from the population of the eastern states, were composed of almost all nationalities. They pushed their way across the mountains of Pennsylvania and Virginia in crude wagons, drawn by oxen, bringing with them their household goods and a few milk cows. - Outlines of Manilla Buffalo
- Skull of Short-nosed Ox of the Pampas
- Free Martin
- Chillingham Bull
- Kyloe, or Highland Ox
- Zebu.—(Var. δ.)
- Zebus (var. γ) and Car
- Zebu
- Brahmin Bull
- Head of Musk Ox
- Zamouse, or Bush Cow
- Arnee from Indian Painting
- Horns of Young Arnee
- Arnee
- Gaur
- Head of Gaur
- Pegasse
- Head of Cape Buffalo
- Cape Buffalo
- Young Cape Buffalo
- Short-horned Bull
- Pulo Condore Buffalo
- Head of Manilla Buffalo—female
- Herefordshire Cow
- Manilla Buffalo
- Italian Buffalo
- Syrian Ox
- Jungly Gau
- Head of Domestic Gayal
- Occipital view of the same Skull
- Head of Asseel Gayal
- Gayal, from Asiatic Transactions
- Head of Gyall
- Gyall (Bos Frontalis)
- Yak, from Oriental Annual
- Yak, from Asiatic Transactions
- Aurochs, or European Bison
- Head of young male Bison
- Skin Canoes of the Mandan Indians
- Bison Calf, about three weeks old
- Bison surrounded by Wolves
- Indian Hunting Bison
- Wounded Bison
- Young female Bison
- The Bison
- Skull of Domestic Ox
- Stomach of Manilla Buffalo
- Alderney Cow
- The Sangu, or Abyssinian Ox
- Banteng
- Hungarian Ox
- The Last Span - ready to join
- Rail Making
- Locomotive of To-day
- A Sharp Curve—Manhattan Elevated Railway, 110th Street, New York
Equally valuable improvements were made in cars, both for passengers and freight. Instead of the four-wheeled English car, which on a rough track dances along on three wheels, we owe to Ross Winans, of Baltimore, the application of a pair of four-wheeled swivelling trucks, one under each end of the car, thus enabling it to accommodate itself to the inequalities of a rough track and to follow its locomotive around the sharpest curves. There are, on our main lines, curves of less than 300 feet radius, while, on the Manhattan Elevated, the largest passenger traffic in the world is conducted around curves of less than 100 feet radius. There are few curves of less than 1,000 feet radius on European railways. - A Switchback
Another American invention is the switchback. By this plan the length of line required to ease the gradient is obtained by running backward and forward in a zigzag course, instead of going straight up the mountain. As a full stop has to be made at the end of every piece of line, there is no danger of the train running away from its brakes. This device was first used among the hills of Pennsylvania over forty years ago, to lower coal cars down into the Nesquehoning Valley. It was afterwards used on the Callao, Lima, and Oroya Railroad in Peru, by American engineers, with extraordinary daring and skill. It was employed to carry the temporary tracks of the Cascade Division of the Northern Pacific Railroad over the "Stampede" Pass, with grades of 297 feet per mile, while a tunnel 9,850 feet long was being driven through the mountains.