Urbana union. [volume] (Urbana, Ohio) 1862-1872, 1870-08-03

Meat a Costly LlGruIy for the Rich
Dry Bread and Bean POTTidge for tht
Poor.
There need be no anxiety in regart
to the bread question as it is a well set
tied point that the supply of breadstUffS
in this country under ordinary .circum-
stances will be largely in excess of the
wants of the people for an indefinite
time to come. But the meat question
presents a less satisfactory aspect, since
the demand for home consumption is
continually OutTunning the supply; and
if an actual famine is not threatened,
prices at least are tending to a range
which must soon place all kinds of ami
NAL food beyond the reach of the mass
es, and transfer them from the list of
/ necessaries to that of the luxuries. OF
life.
It is plain that something will have
to be done to furnish a solution of this
question, unless we are willing that the
American WOrkingman shall come
down to the same meager fare that his
European cOtempOTary is obliged to con-
tent himself with, and sUbsist upon dry
bread or bean pOTridge, with a mOrsel of
meat to make him homeopathic soup
. once week. In surveying the field,
we find that our agriculture, of late
years, has been directed more particu-
" the production of cereals than to live
stock and hence that our population has
/ increased much faster than our own
/ fiOcks and herds.
! This is, perhaps, a natural cOnse-
quence of our progression from a mere
pastoral to a more advanced stage of
civilization, i'll which men are brought
together in large communities and agri-
culture gives place to commerce and the
mechanic arts. The growing destiny of
population, and the necessary division
of land into small farms, brought under
a high state of cultivation so as TO fur
nish food for the largest possible num-
Der of consumers, are all conditions un-
favorable 20 the breeding and raising of
cattle for the provision market.
Formerly our seabOard States pFOduc-
ed meat enough for their own use, be-
sides exporting a surplus. But gradu-
ally they came to rely upon the newer
settlements, between them and the
Mississippi valley, where pastUrage was
plenty and land cheap. For the past
few years the bulk of our supply has
been drawn from the upper Mississippi
and the lake shore region, having Chi !
cagO for its commercial center, aud AL !
bapY its eastern distributing point. |
This cattle trade has come to be q great !
source of income to our railroads, and |
the cost of transportation from these re-
mote points Of supply to our seabOard |
markets has enhanced the price of |
meats to the consumer sas the GistauGe |
has increased,
But even the great stock States of |
OhiO,s Indiana, IllinOis-UntiI lately |
our soul dependence-are beginning to |
fail in their resource; and have small |
er surplus Of meat and cattle products ev- |
cry year for expectation. The pastoral re- /
gi0n is still receding westward; and now |
we are obliged to look to the prairies |
and new border States beyond the |
Mississippi-tO Texas, Arkansas, Mis- |
souri,, Iowa, and MinnesOta-fOr our |
much coveted but high-priced beef /
steak. In the course of time we shall /
probably have to go still further and /
paY higher for this luxury, unless we
can manage to stim Ulate the production
and thus obtain a supply nearer home.
The present high price of meat and
dairy products, and the relative low
price Of wheat and other cereals, ought
to be a sufficient inducement for our
farmers in the eastern and middle
States to return to their primitive busi-
ness Of stock raising. To be sure with
the limited facilities which they possess !
they cannot expect to make us wholly
Of the West But they can
10 much to check speculation and mo-
lOpOly in the cattle trade; and 50 far as
they are able to furnish their supplies
'Or the market they will UnquestiOnably
realize larger profits than in any other
branch of agriculture. Let our aglicul-
.ural societies see what they can do to ]
-he end of encouraging stOck-husbandry {
n New England,