They were hardly looked upon as wealth.

The people could not eat a tithe of the beef; they could not use a hundredth of the leather.

Over hundreds and hundreds of miles of ownerless grass lands, by the rapid waters of the mountains, by the slow streams of the plains or the long and dark lagoons of the low coast country the herds of tens grew into droves of hundreds and thousands and hundreds of thousands.

This was really the dawning of the American cattle industry.
Chips and flakes of the great Southwestern herd began to be seen in the Northern States.

As early as 1857 Texas cattle were driven to Illinois.
In 1861 Louisiana was, without success, tried as an outlet.