The progressive farmer. [volume] (Winston, N.C.) 1886-1904, 1902-05-06
TEE SOUTH AND THE BEEF TRUST.

TEE SOUTH AND THE BEEF TRUST.
A Good Sized Steer Fattened for the Market
Worth Two Bales Of COtton-The OppOrtun-
ity Of the Southern Farmer
Writing from Chicago to the Char
lotte Observer, D. A. T. presumably
Mr.. D. A. Tompkins, who has been
on trip West) emphasizes, as THE.
PROGRESSIVE FARMER has been SO
long doing, the Importance of cattle
raising in the South. He says:
While the Iowa farmer is growing
rich by means of the high price of
beef cattle and the so-called beef
trust is being abused high and low
for the high. price of beef, what is the
Southern farmer doing to make any
Of this hay while the sun shines2 For
several years the Observer has been
pointing out the opportunity there
was in cattle raising for the South
ern farmer. Attention has again and
again been called TO the fact that the
Western prairie grass lands were
coming year after year, under Quilt
vation, that the consumption of beef
was year by year increasing, that
the conditions in the South had been
growing more and more favorable to
cattle raising and that oottonseed
hulls and oottonseed meal together
with other ordinary food stuffs fur
nished everything necessary to fat
ten the beef cattle for market.
Present conditions more than JUS
tify every favorable thing that was
ever said in the paper on this sub
jeot One good sized steer fattened
for the market is worth the price of
two bales of cotton even at the pres
ent high price Of cotton. The cost
of raising and fattening one steer in
the South would probably be little if
any more than the cost of producing
one bale of cotton.
In the last ten years the South has
become a large consumer of beef but
has not proportionately increased it's
production Of beef. The usual pro-
portion per capita is consumed and
besides this many of the packing
houses have established cold storage
and beef market to supply the local
butchers with Western beef. Thus
the market for Western beef has
been very largely increased by the
increased consumption in the South
without any corresponding increase
in cattle raising and fattening.
The reason for this increased con-
sumption in the South is due to in
creasing manufactures. Great mum.
bers of people who formerly worked
on farms are now in factories. On
the farms they ate less meat than.
they do now and what they did eat
they produced. Now they buy beef
and it is this market which has made
it profitable for the packers of the
Northwest to open and profitably
maintain storage and sales branches
in the South.
II looks as though this is the day
of the farmer if he will avail himself
of the opportunities. Cotton is high
but beef is higher still. A good
farmer can raise a normal cotton
crop and still have time to raise some
cattle every year. It is more than
probable that this is a permanent
condition. The grass land is not in
the West any more. The increasing
cotton crops and increasing cotton
seed oil mills will improve the Con-
ditions in the South
Cattle and cotton are good supple
mental farm products each TO the
other. Besides the value of the cat-
tie, the Southern farmer would get
from the cattle lot of mnnure that
would take the place of commercial
fertilizers he now has to pay for out
of the cotton crop. In this respect
he has the advantage of the Iowa
farmer who cannot use the cattle
manure to such advantage as it could
be used for cotton in the South.
Our excellent contemporary, THE
PROGRESSIVE FARMER, shows that we
we're in error in making light of the
rural free delivery of mail. We are
very glad we were wrong, and hope