Editing Cowboy (section)

===Cattle drives===
{{Main|Cattle drives in the United States}}
{{See also|Cattle towns}}
[[File:Cattle Roundup, Great Falls, MT, Geo B Bonnell, c1890.jpg|thumb|Cattle roundup near [[Great Falls, Montana]], circa 1890]]
Prior to the mid-19th century, most ranchers primarily raised cattle for their own needs and to sell surplus meat and hides locally. There was also a limited market for hides, horns, hooves, and [[tallow]] in assorted manufacturing processes.<ref name=Malone5>Malone, J., p. 5.</ref> While Texas contained vast herds of stray, free-ranging cattle available for free to anyone who could round them up,<ref name=Geographic/> prior to 1865, there was little demand for beef.<ref name=Malone5/> At the end of the [[American Civil War]], [[Philip Danforth Armour]] opened a meat packing plant in [[Chicago]], which became known as [[Armour and Company]]. With the expansion of the [[meat packing industry]], the demand for beef increased significantly. By 1866, cattle could be sold to northern markets for as much as $40 per head, making it potentially profitable for cattle, particularly from Texas, to be herded long distances to market.<ref>Malone, J., p. 6.</ref>

The first large-scale effort to drive cattle from Texas to the nearest railhead for shipment to Chicago occurred in 1866, when many Texas ranchers banded together to drive their cattle to the closest point that railroad tracks reached, which at that time was in [[Sedalia, Missouri]]. Farmers in eastern Kansas, afraid that Longhorns would transmit cattle fever to local animals as well as trample crops, formed groups that threatened to beat or shoot cattlemen found on their lands. Therefore, the 1866 drive failed to reach the railroad, and the cattle herds were sold for low prices.<ref>Malone, J., pp. 38–39.</ref> In 1867, a cattle shipping facility was built west of farm country around the railhead at [[Abilene, Kansas]], and became a center of cattle shipping, loading over 36,000 head of cattle that year.<ref>Malone, p. 40.</ref> The route from Texas to Abilene became known as the [[Chisholm Trail]], after [[Jesse Chisholm]], who marked out the route. It ran through present-day [[Oklahoma]], which then was [[Indian Territory]]. Later, other trails forked off to different railheads, including those at [[Dodge City, Kansas|Dodge City]] and [[Wichita, Kansas]].<ref name="Malone, J., p. 42">Malone, J., p. 42.</ref> By 1877, the largest of the cattle-shipping boom towns, Dodge City, Kansas, shipped out 500,000 head of cattle.<ref>Malone, J., p. 70.</ref>

Cattle drives had to strike a balance between speed and the weight of the cattle. While cattle could be driven as far as {{convert|25|mi|km|sigfig=2}} in a single day, they would lose so much weight that they would be hard to sell when they reached the end of the trail. Usually they were taken shorter distances each day, allowed periods to rest and graze both at midday and at night.<ref>Malone, J., pp. 46–47.</ref> On average, a herd could maintain a healthy weight moving about {{convert|15|mi|km|round=5}} per day. Such a pace meant that it would take as long as two months to travel from a home ranch to a railhead. The Chisholm trail, for example, was {{convert|1000|mi|km}} miles long.<ref>Malone, J., p. 52.</ref>

On average, a single herd of cattle on a drive numbered about 3,000 head. To herd the cattle, a crew of at least 10 cowboys was needed, with three horses per cowboy. Cowboys worked in shifts to watch the cattle 24 hours a day, herding them in the proper direction in the daytime and watching them at night to prevent [[stampede]]s and deter theft. The crew also included a cook, who drove a [[chuck wagon]], usually pulled by [[oxen]], and a horse [[Wrangler (profession)|wrangler]] to take charge of the ''[[remuda]]'', or herd of spare horses. The wrangler on a cattle drive was often a very young cowboy or one of lower social status, but the cook was a particularly well-respected member of the crew, as not only was he in charge of the food, he also was in charge of medical supplies and had a working knowledge of practical medicine.<ref>Malone, J., pp. 48–50.</ref>