At the close of the civil war the need for a market for the surplus cattle of Texas was as urgent as it was general. Then began the great exodus of Texas cattle. The red men were easily confined on reservations, and the vacated country in the Northwest became cattle ranges. The government was in the market for large quantities of beef with which to feed its army and Indian wards. The history of the world can show no pastoral movement in comparison. The Northwest had furnished the market the outlet for Texas.
