Orleans County monitor. [volume] (Barton, Vt.) 1872-1953, 1889-08-26
The Future of Beef Cattle.


depressed to an unparalleled degree.
That the depression is particularly
unfortunate and disastrous at this
time is self-evident. That it should
result in plunging millions of farm
ers into dependency and discourage
ment is natural. That it will be the
means eff enormously decreasing the
production of cattle in the near fu-
ture is inevitable. Talk never so
earnestly, write never so eloquently,
argue never so convincingly about it,
! the curtailment of beef production,
| tor q few years to come, at least, is
| certain. Still, it is well to inquire
| if such course is advisable, is wise.
There is, in our opinion, no more
justification for ''going out of beef
than there is justification for present
depression in the def market. There
are no natural causes for the depres-
sion in fact, if natural causes were
| allowed to shape the market there
would now be more than an average
activity in it, and prices would be
above the average of the past few
years. There is no surplus of cat
tie there are less cattle in proper
ton to population now than one year
ago, and if the price of beef to con-
sumers were not SO eXtravagantly
high beef famine would be iminent
before the end of the present year.
the farmyard price of beef cattle
could be doubled, the price to town
and city consumers could be reduced
one-third, and still ample margin be
left for reasonable profits to middle
men. Such conditions would work
magical change in the beef industry
in less than six months. The bar
rier to such a desirable consumma-
ton are purely artificial, and being
artificial they should differently af-
feet our calculations than if natural.
Natural causes could be removed
only by the slow process of time
artificial ones may pass away in
night. Slowly perhaps, but surely,
we believe forces are organizing which
will remove these artificial causes in
the not distant future. Weak, timid,
or corrupt legislatures may fail to do
their share of the work, but it will
be done nevertheless. 1t is simply
impossible that this great people will
allow one of its chiefest and most
necessary industries to be strangled
to death by so infamous a thing as
monopoly-a monopoly of four men
If it is possible, if we have fallen SO
low, it doesn't matter whether beef
cattle are four cents pound or one
cent; our proper place is among the
Digger Indians, and grasshoppers is
our most appropriate food.
But present conditions cannot con-
tinue. The people they rob are too
numerous, the interests they ruin are
too large. This is not to be strug-
gle of and with the ''poor farmer"
alone. The enormity of the outrage
is just beginning to make itself APP
parent to the rich and powerful in
town and city. 1t is apparent not
alone in the enormous bargain be-
tween the purchasers price, but in
rapidly waning business by reason
of the impoverished of our agricul-
tural class. Merchants of all classes
manufactures of all kinds, consnm-
ers of every grade, and all importers
and breeders of fine cattle must be-
come the farmers allies in this fight,
and there can be but one result. If
consumers must pay rs much or more
than present prices for their beef,
they will make no complaint if the
farmer gets the benefi tof it, for with
truly prosperous farmers it matters
but little how much consumers pay
for meat they can afford it. 1t is
charging the consumer an extrava-
giant price, and at the same time de-
priving him of his ability to pay the
price, by destroying the class upon
which he depends for the wherewith-
al to buy, that is piling up wrath
against the s'Beef Combine's'' day
of Judgment "To go out of beef"
now seems to us tacit admission
that we do not possess the power to
destroy the oppressor, nor the man
hood to try.
All the natural factors of the beef
! question indicate that this is a most
excellent time to continue beef grow
ing, to increase the herds and focks
the only adverse factors are those
that are within our power to remove.
1t is our candid opinion that those
who stay in the beef business, or
who go in now, will reap a rich re-
ward, for as we stated in the outset
of this article, beef is bound to be
in smaller supply, and it will be in
larger demand long before this
springs calves are fit for beef
Rurdl World.
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The Weather Bureau.
Although the Signal Service Bu-
reau is made the target for the wit
of the country, and Notwithstanding
the fact that it's predictions often
prove absurdly untrue, the methods
,oo1 nv, 4ba carviao in nhc anH