Podcast
The MeatEater Podcast
Steve Rinella discussed the book, which is mostly recollections of a man named John Young, and it revealed interesting historical facts about cattle ranching and hog hunting in South Texas during the 1860s.
It's now your favorite book.
— Episode: Ep. 566: Shooting Dogs and Stopping Hogs
Episode: Ep. 566: Shooting Dogs and Stopping Hogs
Steve Rinella discussed the book, which is mostly recollections of a man named John Young, and it revealed interesting historical facts about cattle ranching and hog hunting in South Texas during the 1860s.
It's now your favorite book.
So much of this book takes place down in South Texas, along the Gulf Coast, where cattle do just fine on their own.
So it's kind of told from the perspective, so it's a historian who took all of John Young's recollections.
With cattle at such a low price that they were sold for the value of their hides and tallow alone, what was locally called the skinning war came to be fought.
He's talking about when the cattle market collapsed. Instead of stealing cattle and driving them off, rustlers rode out on the range and killed cattle where they found them, removing the hides and leaving the carcasses for buzzards and coyotes.