The representative. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1893-1901, 1895-03-27

cultural paper of-the-country echoed and
re-echoed the cry thar beef famine was
imminent. and ADVISED its readers to hold
on and not to rush like sheep in one com
mon direction-in the case in point into the
sale of their cattle. The tendency to un-
load cattle was stayed and holders have
waited and waited FOR the promised rise
gradually letting go their stock, until it
seems probable that, the supply in first
hands has really 6eeA reduced. The ship
ments to chicago markets for the year
1894 were 1874, 36$ while the receipts for
1893 were S,1S3, 4O6. 1.-The supplies at this great
market, the largest in the country have
decreased. VarioS causes may be assigned
for 1t, but we apprehend that 1t is due to
decrease in the surplus stock held in
first hands
Since the above eYas written the February
estlnate OF the Stock of the nation has
come to hand and veftfies the business of
the conclusions made' A decrease in the
number of cattle by 613 per cent when pop
ulation Is increasing, of swine 1853 per cent
and OF sheep by 2.2 per cent can but have
an effect on the markets of the country
IN the end. The effect would have already
been manifest but for the depression of
business, and on it's revival will be more
marked than 1t otherwise would have been
No class will be more interested in the
data supplied by the department than
dairymen, and the fact that cows are the
only class of domestic animals to increase
Will cause some anxiety for the future.
The returns, however, in the light of all
the facts, have little of encouragement in
them, for the increase of one-tenth of 1
per cent is not equal to the increase of
population. The low price of dairy pro-
ducts will arrest any stampede to dairying
that may have set in, while the encourage
ment to take hold again of meat making
will turn the tide back Ebbs and flows of
the Industrial tide swing in long and slow
Of ho 6oir CIT
alton should be expected at once
The decrease of beef animals is not To-
Called, being common to all the great
meat growing state and territories. Texas,
where it has been said that cattle can be
grown for S. a head, had a very marked
decrease in number of steers, or about a
half of a million, this being very nearly
one-fourth Of the decline in numbers for
the nation. So, too, New Mexico, Arizona
. and Wyoming, sections that at one time 1t
was thought would submerge cattle grow
ing in the old and settled states that grew
beef by the slow processes of cured crops
and barnyard care, have decreased their
cattle.
Settled agriculture may rejoice in the be-
lief that we have passed for this nation:
forever the period when beef can be made
in any section of it at merely nominal
/ rates, rates that legitimate agriculture can
not Itch. The indisposition of the far
West to produce meat at present rates is
the Hnal evidence that American agrtcul-
ture Is passing it's destructive period and
entering it's constructive era for all it's
parts, and that the terms of competition
between the several sections is to be upon
those of greater equality, in fact, of COM
parative equality.
The farmers of the older areas may now
begin In earnestness and hopefulness those
permanent improvements and adornments
for this and for the coming generations
that give those deep attachments to rural
estates that pass from father to son
through generations and that make farm
property the most desirable form of wealth
to hold.
In the same mail with report of the de-
partment of agriculture there to
hand an article in fthe Indiana farmer by
William Adams irb review of the cattle in
dustry of the state, in which the writer
shows that live Stock of the state has
decreased since 1879 by 10 per cent. The
following figures Are given by him:
Number Of live istockNin Indiana for 1872,
6,3 500; number Of, liSe stock of Indiana
for 1893, 5,62S, 462 q poHaala ton Of Indiana,
1870 1850, 1877; popHlatien of Indiana, 1890,
2,2SS0OO number ofFfarms 1870, 161, 2S9; num-
Der, 1880, 194,O13; Estimated for $780, 100000;
number of live stock for each farm, 1872,
80; number of live stock, per farm, 1893, q;
population for each farm, 1872, 1917; popu-
lation for each farm, 1898, IN
The above shows a t,srinkage of u head
of stock per farm. Taking the population
of 1871 to 1890 q basis, Indiana had 275
head of live Stock for each 100 inhabitants.
Mirror