The silver state. [volume] (Unionville, Nev.) 1870-1903, 1882-10-09
A CORNER ON BEEF.


|
ton of the California meat market
The point the price of beef may reach
| during the next twelve months is a
matter, says the Examiner, that lies
entirely in the hands of few men who
have not only secured the entire supply
of beef cattle available for this State,
but by combination of circumstances
have been enabled to shut out all
chance Of supply from outside sources
| they do not control. The latest whole
sale quotations for beef cattle in San
| Francisco are seven and a half and
eight cents for prime, nine to nine and
a half cents for stall fed, six and half
to seven cents for second quality, and
five and half to six cents for the poor.
est beef in the market. The opinion Of
those most competent to judge is that
before February fifteen cents will be
asked for prime, and from eight and a
half to twelve cents for all inferior
grades, and that even these high prices
will be still farther advanced, unless
the increase in prices causes a large
falling off in consumption. For some
time these prices will cause a serious
reduction in the profits of the restau-
rants, which will be finally compelled
to advance their prices. Many of San
Franchises most cherished institutions
will thereby be swept away. The res
taurant which supplies its customers
with plate of meat, bread, vegetables,
butter and coffee for fifteen cents, will
have to succumb to the bull beef ring.
and no compensating establishment will
be found to take its place.
NO MORE STEAK FOR THE ToILER.
Next in the line of march will be the
popular places wherein three dishes are
retailed to hungry customers for two
bits and when they have gone never to
return, the two-bit French dinners and
the 'bit a dish" houses will have to
fall. The toiling laborer who now lux
uriates in steak for breakfast, a roast
for dinner, and another steak for sup
per, will have to cut off the two ends to
keep the middle, and mush or bread
and butter will be all that he can OBJ
| tain to stay his stomach at the begin
ming and end Of the days work. 1t is
not necessary to enumerate the hard
ships that this rise in beef will entail
upon the poor, and those who have
small fixed incomes, as they must be
patent to all, as it is not probable that
any corresponding increase in wages
will accompany this tremendous in
crease in one OF the chief necessai les of
life; but it may not prove uninteresting
to trace up the chain of circumstances
that lead to the approaching beef
| famine.
SOURCES OF SUPPLY.
For years past, the principal sources
of CALIFORNIA; beef supply have been
Nevada and Idaho. Year by year the
value OF land in this state for agricul-
tural and Embarrassing purposes has
gradually increased until, at the present
time, there is but little land that can
be proftably used for cattle raising.
Vast tracts of cheap lands in the val
leys Of this State are worthless for graz
ing purposes on account of the lack Of
rain, and it is only above the snow line,
where grass can be relied upon every
year, that cattle can be fattened with
out taking food to them. Lux 4 Miller
have vast tracts Of land in MERGED,
Fresno and Tulare counties, CAL, which
will barely support sheep, and on which
cattle would starve to death; conse-
quently their practice has been to pro-
cure large herds of cattle in Nevada,
idaho, New Mexico and Texas, and
simply use their own lands for driving
and fattening stations.
NEVADA FEEDING HUNGRY EUROPE.
Snow falls ovel nearly the whole OF
Nevada and Idaho, and their lands.
though not well adapted for agricul-
ture, are covered with nutritious grass
es that make cattle raising their natu.