Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1890-04-16
ROUND-UPS.
Reasons Given Why a Shortage in Cat
tle May be Expected in Two Years.
Encouraging Signs for the Swine Growing In
dustry-A String of Fine stock-Prices
Advancing All Along the Line.

There are some papers (and they are
Drominent ones toe, in the country who
will not accept the theory of over-pro-
4r,ct5on of beef cattle as the cause of the
denression of prices. In fact leading
,oatroDolftan paper, the New York Press,
claims that there has been no over pro-
5uctiou of beef cattle, but that the re-
verse is the truth. That paper takes the
racor6 I'D and goes back to 1910, when,
tv the best data obtainable, the per cap
ita If cattle in the United States ex-
,asied that of the population by about
ffrv Der cent. When the war broke out
the numbers were substantially equal,
lint to-day the number of cattle is about
tVo-thirds of the number of inhabitants,
or only sixty-siX per cent. Of a beef ami
mai TO each head of population.
1t cannot be controverted, says the
Press, that with our ratio Of increase OF
noDulation, and with the decreasing
ocreage devoted TO cattle raising, this
discrepancy must become annually
wider, until our own people shall not
only consume all the beef that the
country can produce, but be compelled
10 import beef from Canada and South
America.
OF perhaps equal Importance is the
fact that for several years past, in order
In meet the annual beef demand, it has
been found necessary to make large and
yearly increasing drafts upon the female
cattle of the country, to an extent pre-
viously unknown. Formerly, as rule,
on
barren cows were sent to the market,
the supply from these classes being equal
10 the demand, whereas from 1886 to
1888 inclusive the beef supply from
these sources proved so inadequate that
large drafts had to be made upon the
breeding stock of the beef-growing
regions, particularly west Of the Missis-
sippi.
Thus the official reports Of the cattle
handled at the Union stockyards, Chi
cago. for the year 1883 show that out of
grand total of . GIL SAB head of horned
cattle handled in that period exclusive
of SO geo calves $40, 514 head, or 331%
per cent of the whole number, were
cows. 1t is also worth considering that
in consequence of this increasing demand
for female cattle as beef, many thou
sands Of young cows and heifers have
been spayed in order to increase their
weight at maturity, thus withdrawing
them from the class OF breeding animals,
The production Of beef, unlike that of
cereals and other agricultural products,
or of manufactured articles, cannot be
increased at will nor fastened. Retarded
and lessened il may be and is being by
the operation of existing natural causes,
some OF which are above indicated. But
TO produce by any given date a mature
(fOur-y ear-old) beef steer, one must be-
gin nearly five years in advance, aud
must, on the average, raise two calves
to get one steer.
Under the existing conditions in the
United States it is not only demonstra-
bic that within a very few years We
shall have no surplus beef for export,
but there is every reason to believe that
our total beef supply will be found less
and less adequate to cur needs, as meas
uTed by our present rate per capita of
consumption.
Briefly stated, the status of the cattle
growing industry Of the United States IS
that of steadily diminishing supply to
meet a steadily increasing demand.
AT all eEents, unless there appear some
saving economic providence in the shape
Of new and independent competition, the
most Discerning mind, studying present
conditions and tendencies, cannot well
discover how We are to avoid beef fam
inc in the near future. There is no need
10 deceive ourselves by the fictitious
abundance of cattle in the market, for
the situation is the same as to cattle
aud consumers as it was to the duped IN
vestOrS in Grant s. Ward CONTRACTS
they were getting what they thought
were enormous returns on their invest
ments, when, in fact, they were being
paid out Of their own principal. Two
years more of the present "abundaDee
oil cattle in the market will demonstrate
To the uninitiated how young cows,
CO Ives and spayed heIfers have been
slaughtered TO produce this seeming
Il guidance; the cattle range industry
viii have been closed out, and thssfound-
alton laid for an unavoidable beef
famine.