Eureka daily sentinel. [volume] (Eureka, Nev.) 1871-1887, 1882-10-07
A CORNER ON BEEF.
Fifty Per Gent Increase in Price
Probable by Next

Probabl. by Next January.
The San Francisco Examiner, in an ex-
haustive article, discusses the condition OF
the California meat market. The point
the price Of beef may reach during the
next twelve months is q matter, says the
Examiner, that lies entirely in the hands
of a few men who have not only secured
the entire supply of beef cattle available
for this State, but by a combination of
circumstances have beon enabled to shut
out all chance Of supply from outside
sources they do not control. The latest
wholesale quotations for beef cattle in San
Francisco are seven and half and eight
cents for prime, nine to nine and a half
cents for stall fed, six and a half to seven
cents for second quality, and five and
a half to six cents for the poorest beef in
the market. The opinion OF those most
competent to judge is that before Febru-
airy fifteen cents will be asked for prime
and from eight and a half to twelve cents
for all inferior q AIDES, and that even these
high prices will be still further advanced,
unless the increase in prices causes a large
falling off in consumption. For some
time these prices will cause a serious re-
duotion in the profits of the restaurants,
which will be finally compelled to advance
their prices. Many of San Francisco's
most cherished institutions will thereby
be swept away. The restaurant which
supplies its customers with a plate of
meat, bread, vegetables, butter and coffee
r.. nr.- . ILL have 10 I1ppt, ~, IA
to the bull beef ring, and no compensat-
ing establishment will be found to take it's
place.
NO MORE STAKE 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 nave to fall. The toll
ing laborer who now luxuriates in a steak
for breakfast, q roast for dinner and
another steak for supper, will have to cut
off the two end to keep the middle, and
mush or bread and butter, will be all that
he can obtain to stay his stomach at the
beginning 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 tre-
mendous increase in one OF the chief neces-
saries OF life, but 1t may not prove unin-
teresting to trace up the chain of circum-
stances that lead to the approaching beef
famine.
SOURCES OF SUPPLY.
For years past the principal sources OF
California's beef supply have been Nevada
and Idaho. Year by year the value of land
in this State for agricultural and fruit
raising purposes has gradually increased
| until, at the present time, there is but lit
tie land that can be profitably used for
| embarrassing. Vast tracts Of cheap land
| in the valleys of this State are worthless
for grazing purposes on account of the
lack of rain, and it is only above the snow
line, where grass can be relied upon every
wear, that cattle can be fattened without
| bringing food to them. Lux & Miller
have vast tracts OF LAND in MERGED, Fresno
and Tulare Counties, which will barely
support sheep, and on which cattle would
starve to death; consequently their prac.
tice has been to procure 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 over nearly the whole OF Ne
vada and Idaho, and their lands, though
not we'll adapted for agriculture, are Gov
cred with nutritious grasses that make
cattle raising their natural industry. The
practice among the Northern grazers has
been to herd the cattle ON the high ranges
until the approach of Winter, when they
would drive a large number to the Winter
ranches and distribute the balance ATOMS
tho line of railroad for shipment to this
State, where they we're Stalled unui
slaughtered. There was no other niafRe'
than California for Idaho and Nevada cat
tie; consequently the large supply there
kept the price of beef here from four t'
seven cents per pound all the year round
Daring the past ten years the whole o
Europe has been ringing with the glaf
news that, owing to many new invention'
FOR the transportation of cattle and beef
the vast prairies OF America would serve a.
a grazing ground for all, and beef woult
soon be as cheap in London or Berlin AS