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The United States Grows
(1865-1900)

The Cattle Industry Grows

The Cattle Industry Grows
Reading Level
     edHelper's suggested reading level:   high interest, readability grades 3 to 5
     Flesch-Kincaid grade level:   4.69

Vocabulary
     challenging words:    wherever, settled, clearly, boom, graze, possible, wide, marked, amount, rocks, business, longer, wire, certain, eastern, muddy
     content words:    Chisholm Trail, San Antonio, Kansas Territory

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The Cattle Industry Grows
By Cathy Pearl 		  
1     There was a lot of wide open land in the middle of the country. The flat land was a great place to raise cattle. As more people moved west, the cattle industry began to grow.
 
2     During the 1870s and early 1880s, cattle ranching went through a boom. This was a period where ranching grew more than normal. The land in the Midwest was not widely settled yet. There were vast areas of open land that cost very little money. This attracted many people.
 
3     At the same time, the population was growing quickly in the eastern part of the country. This growth led to more people wanting beef. Beef was selling for a lot of money in markets in the East.
 
4     Many ranchers learned about the industry from Mexican ranchers that lived in or near Texas. Americans took many of the ideas and equipment they used from the Mexican ranchers. Ranchers also used the same type of cattle. The Texas longhorn did well when raised on the plains.

Paragraphs 5 to 15:
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