The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1882-07-20
THE BEEF FAMINE.
Facts and Figures on the Subject

''N uiCo Oh
THE PRESENT SCARCITY OF MEAT
PREDICTED YEARS AGO AND AN
OTHER LIKE II no BE EXPECTED IN
1885.
General S. Brisben writing from
Fort Keogh, Montana, to New York
paper, says that the beef famine pre-
vailing in some parts of the East has
excited great interest in the West
Beef cattle of all kinds have gone up
SIS to S6 per head, although the stock
raisers say they see no good reason for
such rise. The beef famine is merely
panic and will soon be over, but it |
is II warning of what may really occur |
if we do not take pains to raise more |
beef He says that three years ago he !
predicted this famine of 1882 and an !
other like in 1885, unless more cattle |
were raised, and he adds: 1t is my |
opinion that we have been in beef |
famine for the last ten years, though |
we did not know it. A four-year-old |
steer can he raised on the plains for
ST. and the meat of the animal ought
not to command in any part of the
United States over ten cents per pound
dressed That cattle raiser should
make twenty, thirty, forty and even
| fifty per cent per annum profit on the
money he has invested III cattle Is
outrageous, but he will yet make still
more than that if more people do not
go into stock raising as Il business. y
careful examination of the statistics of
cattle production in the United States
will show that the increase of cattle
has not kept pace with the increase of
population, and the only wonder is
that beef is as cheap as it is.
Last year we had in the whole
United States 10000 900 horses, 32, ,000,-
600 cattle, 80, ,00C, 900 sheep and "a, ,O00,-
900 swine as against 80, 900, 900 inhabi-
tants. A little figuring will show the
pitiable condition we have arrived at
for Il supply of fresh meat. Nor did
we get all we raised, for lS5, 100 cat
tie were exported from this country
last year worth S14, 4,304, l03. Last
year also $50, ,431 new people were
added to our population from foreign
sources, and fully 100000 from de-
mestic sources. TO put it in other
words the increase of cattle was as one
and half per cent, to an increase of
two per cent, of people. How long
will this con tinue no one can tell, but
if it keeps on long the poorer classes
will have to eat beef only once or
twice week and depend on mutton
and swine for the rest of their meat
diet. There is, however, great preju-
dice in the minds of the people against
hog meat The little worms which
infest the flesh of swine are danger
Gus to human life unless the meat is
well cooked, and in any event 1t will
be long time before pork eau be
made popular. Good beef at reason
able prices is what the people want,
and that is just what the people can
not get now.
While the manufacturing and cereal
and vegetable interests of the United
states have advanced fairly the stock
interests have comparatively stood
still. We are t0-,iay raising beef for
= only 40, 10000 of people, whereas we
= should be raising beef for S0,000,O 900.
The reasons for these are various,
. chief of which is the fact of the scarcity
of land in the East Farmers have
found that in heavily populated dis
tricts it does not pay them to raise cat
tie. The large number of acres re-
. quired for grazing purposes is incom-
patible with small farms, and to stall
feed in large numbers is not practica-
: BILE. So the Eastern farmer devotes
=, his land to cereals and vegetables, and
OFTEN buys his own beef. The distance
a, of the plains from the East, and the
q danger from Indians, have heretofore
q deferred Eastern capitalists from seek
, ing investments in stock raising out
West. Happily that difficulty is now
removed. The railroads have opened
up the West, and the Indians, witt
the exception of few in Arizona, have
e been conquered. The pastoral land'
4 of the West have never been under
\ stood or appreciated by the people o
t this country or the Government. Th'
e day will come when the national Treas
= ury will derive more taxes from tin
: grazing country than the best agricul
r tural regions. Those arid plains 81
V long considered worthless are the ma
+, tural meat producing lands of America
o and in a few years 5O,000,0OO peopl
e will draw their beef from them
t Where are the great grazing grounds
do you ask? They are in Texas
Colorado, New Mexico, Dakota, Wyon
ing, Montana, Washington and Idaho
W He then goes on TO say: For th
n next ten years believe cattle raisin
"a will be one of the most lucrative cal
he ings in the States, and those who hay
ce the good fortune to be able to engag
W in it will rapidly grow rich. The be
IN way is to associate capital and rail-
n cattle IN large numbers. 1t costs l
OF more to take care of three thousar
H. steers than it does one thousand, al
es the profits are more than three times
L 4