Some of the large cattle feeders bought their packages to be filled with corn, while others grew them. In either case, the primary aim was not to make beef, but to market the corn crop at a much better price than would be obtained if the winter was spent in hauling the corn to market at the nearest town. Naturally, these feeders fed corn with a lavish hand. They fed from twenty to thirty pounds to a steer per day, and if the steer became gorged and mussed over it, it was thrown out to the hogs. They kept corn before their cattle all the time. They argued that if you want solid beef, beef that will weigh like lead, give the cattle nothing but corn and water. They wanted big packages, nothing less than two-year-old steers past would do, and three and four-year-olds were preferable. They wanted steers that would be at least four years old when ready for market and that would weigh from 1500 to 1600 pounds. These steers were desirable because they would hold more corn than the smaller ones. Very little attention was given to the finish of the steers sent to market. They were all driven out together regardless of the degree of finish. It was not until some time in the eighties and nineties that much attention was given to the degree of finish in fat steers when sent to market. After the open prairies became settled up and there was no more free grass at home, the feeders of Illinois and the adjoining states could buy their packages on the ranges on the plains west of the Mississippi river, or at the range cattle markets. Corn was still cheap and so were packages in the shape of stockers and feeders. The reason for this was that the great corn fields of Kansas and Nebraska were being opened up and the great national pastures from Canada to the Texas Panhandle had not yet become spotted and rendered useless by the homesteader. Speculation in semi-arid land had not set in, and the term "dry farming" had not been invented. 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.