The herald., 1895-05-08
A Short History of the Beef
Famine
LITTLE OR NO LOCAL EFFECT
Navel Orange Stock Is Now Practically
b Cleaned Up
Conditions of the Market for California
Dried Fruit and the Prospects
for the Future

eat Of the Rocky mountains. and was
considered as of sufficient importance to
be made the subject of government in
qury.
Fifteen years ago series OF sensa.onal
articles was published in New York pa
per showing the prospects OF an lmme-
diate decline in the supply OF cattle, that
the country had reached the utmost
limit of beef production and that our pop
ulation was rapidly increasing. 1t was
stated that the pasture land IN the eastern
states no longer produced good grass
crops; that the great plains OF Texas were
fast being planted to cotton that little of
the land in the other southern states was
adapted to the production OF beef; that
in the more northern states farmers had
given their attention to milk production,
aud that the improved farms i'll the re-
naming states were carrying all the stock
which could be provided for.
The beef famine did not occur, but the
publication of those articles, which were
widely copied. caused many t. believe
that beef would become scarce and high.
and they set about to take advantage of
the prospective situation. Thousands OF
capitalists spectators and others OBJ
tanned control Of large ranches, stocked
them with young Texas cows. crossed
them with imported males and the era OF
cattle growing companies began. Many
milk producers substituted cows that
would produce both milk and beef for
those that bel nged to the d. stinct dairy
breeds. The silo was introduced. much
cotton and flax seed meal was used Tor
feeding stock and as result OF It all
there was a surplus OF cattle, and beef
prices went to the bottom.
The interest in beef production de-
cliup1. The ranches. ranges and their
herds, which were generally mortgaged,
were sold for what they would bring and
the business OF keeping cattle on the
great plains was asserted to be failure
Several severe winters followed, which
resulted in great loss of stick, and many
who had invested heavily in ranch and
cattle failed. The low price of beef
caused farmers to pay more attention to
wheat and less to cattle.
During the past two seasons Il severe
and protracted drouth has prevailed in
Kansas and Nebraska, and the ria ainfall
was very slight in Iowa and Michigan
and in portions OF II rumber of other
states. The hay crop was short in all
the prairie states and the corn crop small
in nearly all parts of the country where
it is the principal product. As conse-
ouence OF these unfavorabe condi-
tions all the cattle were sold last fall that
were in any way marketable. Farmers
in most parts of the great beef pr odricing
region of tn, country could not stafl-feed
their cattle last winter. as they did not
raise sufficient iood to iatten them. The
food supply was so short that cattle came
out OF the winter in poorer condition
than they went in and this seems to
have brought about the high prices of
today in the region east of the Rockies.
In view of the condition of the cattle
trade in the east it is satisfactory to note
the prices of meats at retail in Southern
CpI ~ a n 1aatc
from the choicest grades OF stock, alfalfa
and corr fed. at prices actually lower
than those prevailing heretofore. The
housekeeper can obtain prime porter
house steaks at 10 cents, prime rib beef
at 12ls cents, loin steak at l2ia cents and
round steak at 10 cents with the cheaper
cnts ranging fro:: to 8 cents per pound.
4 Il Il
Deciduous fruit growers who dried
their product last season found market
which offered very low prices and showed
at times disinclination to take fruit at
any price. For months after the COM
pletion OF drying the price offered for ap-
ricots and peaches ranged from to 8
cents. with the natural result that the ad-
vancing season finds larger proportion
of the dried fruit product still in the
hands of producers than at any other
corresponding time in the history OF the
industry. Just now Il very strange conii-
together unpleasant for the fruit grower
to contemplate. The lack of buyers in the
market was caused not so much by rea-
son + any lack of desire for Califrnia fruit
in the east as by reason of want of money
to buy. The industrial condition through
out the country is improving. and with
this improvement has come an increased
demand for dried fruits. with reasonable
certainty that the part OF the crop now
III the hands of producers will not fall
below the present quotations, ev II in
compet ition with fresh fruits. More than
one dealer reports comparatively good
trade, with shipments for the present
month heavier than for the correspond
ing period in April.
ns4 =
California orange growers are not the
only ones to find some advantage in the
freeze in Florida. AS evidence that the
citrus dealers of'Eu ope keep sharp eye
on. the American market may be stated
the fact that in 1894 from January 1st to
April Both European oranges were shipped
to the American markets to the amount
of 1877. 900 boxes; during corresponding
time in 1S the shipments aggregate 529.-
1000 boxes. Notwithstanding this enorm-
Gus supply of foreign products California
exchange 4ruit is now selling in the east
in competi ion with European at ex-
change job prices. The exchanges have
been enabled to do this only by reason of
the suspension of section of the inter-
state commerce law, relative to the long
and short haul, as otherwise freight
charges would have made competition
with Italian and Spanish oranges at 60
cents per box an impossibility. The
navel orange crop is retty thoroughly
cleaned up probably 50 per cent O. the
crop having been moved and the stten.
ton of the exchanges is now devoted to
seedlings still unsold. Owing to the
warm weather now prevailing in the east,
it mas become advisable to snip under ice.
This incurs an additional expense of from
% to 30 cents per box, which is assumed
by the purchaser.
4 4 q
At 80 o'clock today meeting of
deciduous fruit growers will be held at
the chamber of commerce to listen to
Horace W. Day, of Sgobel & Day. New
York. The meeting is called for the pur-
pose of organizing the deciduous fruit
growers on lines similar to those
already adopted by the growers of citrus
fruits, or rather. in cooperation with
the exchanges which have this year so
successfully handled the citrus crop. -
& = 4
The following dispatch from San Fran
cisco Yesterday is of interest: Washing
ton Porter arrived in this city last night
OH his annual business trip to investigate
the fruit crop prospects OF the Pacifi c
coast. The information which Mr.. Porter
brings is of cheering nature to Califor-
MIA fruit growers. He says; California