The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1902-07-16
The Beef Cattle supply.

Of which he finds is an insufficient
supply Of beef cattle, the cattle ind das.
try not having kept up with the in.
crease of population.
There is, he says, a region 1000
miles long and GOO wide in the West
that was shrivelled last summer by
the scyerest drought in its history.
The region extends in northwest
direction, from the Rio Grande, and
includes great part Of Texas, Okla.
homa, Indian Territory, Missouri,
Kansas, and parts Of Arkansas, Iii.
nois, Iowa and Nebraska, and packers
get cattle from it between the end and
the beginning Of the grass fattening
season, or from October to June.
Lean cattle are shipped into the terri
tory during the summer months to be
got into condition for market. From
April lS to July 26 last year less than
half an inch of rain fell over the whole
region. Cattle died and those that
survived were sent to merket before
they were in fit condition. All the
beef country south Of Kansas City
was stripped of cattle and traders
then said it meant shortage for this
spring. About 25O,0OO were sent to
the Northwest, where there was plenty
Of grass and water, but they cannot
be marketed for two years. There
might be some relief in the supply Of
grass-fattened cattle from the South
west during June and July, but Mr..
Ogden doubts whether, under most
favorable circumstances. beef will
ever again be as cheap as it was FIVE
! years ago, as there are fewer cattle 10
proportion to population and the stu
alton is further Strengthened by an
export trade.
This is the explanation commonly
made by and on behalf of the great
beef corporations, and it is doubtless
true in large part. Certain facts,
however, are not usually mentioned
when the explanation is offered, es it
is offered frequently. One fact is
that while the supply Of cattle in the
indicated region has been more or less
reduced by the conditions described,
it is known that the corporations have
been drawing largely to make up the
deficiency, on parts of the country,
especially the Gulf States, from which
it had never drawn. before, so that the
shortage in the drought. stricken re-
gion was supplied in considerable part
from the surplus stock in more for
tunate regions. That material help
was derived from this source plainly
appears from the fact reported by the
latest bulletin of the export bureau Of
the treasury department that beef
cattle to the value Of s2,O00,000 was
exported during the month Of May,
while the exports Of dressed carcasses
and canned products for the month
brought the total up to $4,000, 900.
The shortage" evidently was not
nearly of Egyptian severity. To the
suggestion, again, that if the shortage
was as serious as it was alleged to be,
it might have been relieved in some
measure by imports from Canada,
the answer has been made that there
were mo cattle to spare in Canada"
but there appears to be some error in
this claim. The fact is noted that
the price of beef on the other side Of
the lakes has been 25 to 80 per cent
lower than the prices on this side dur.
ing the whole period of our high
prices, which proves that the shortage
has not extended across the line.
There are two views of the "situ.
alton, it appears, therefore, and we
can happily find encouragement in
both of them. IF, as is claimed, on
the one hand, the shortage does not
exist in fact, and the high prices are
of tho trusts ordering merely, con-
sumers may expect return to lower
prices sooner or later. If, on the
other hand, Mr.. Ogden is right in his
conclusion that beef will never be as
cheap again as it was before the rise,
cattle men and farmers generally in
the South are to be congratulated on
the prosperity thereby promised to
them. The population of the country
is increasing by millions every decade.
The area Of free pasture land in the
Southwest is not increasing, but de-
croasing. The farmers Of the coun.
Try must furnish practically ali its
beef supply in few years more; and
the Southern farmers will fiud that
condition especially favorable to them
if they will employ the opportunity it