Evening times-Republican. [volume] (Marshalltown, Iowa) 1890-1923, 1904-09-30
SEES BETTER PRICES IN FUTURE
His Prediction as to Horse Industry
Came True - He Says We Will
Have No More Corn !surpIus-corn
and Meat Prices Must Remain High
Figures to Prove 1t.

good horses were selling at $50. Stall
lions that once were worth $4,000 were
going begging for an offer. Some had
been put into harness and others kill
ed. Those articles were generally we'll
received, altho some were credulous,
going SO far as to claim that horse
less age was approaching. Now that
a good horse will sell readily at $3.50
to $780, l think 1 may fairly claim
that the view then held has been fully
vindicated.
The horse market would now seem
to be at its high water mark. and while
the demand is going to continue In
the production is now in such scale
that it is fair to presume that the
scale of prices will be descending
rather than ascending. But no one
need look for the bottom to fall out
Of the horse market. 1t must continue
to be profitable business. The same
causes that are to raise cattle ana
hogs to u higher level and maintain
that level, will make horses profitable,
Notwithstanding the supply to demand
is now never more nearly normal than
for some years.
With horses and hog, exceptionally
strong, why should cattle border OH
famine conditions? Farm sales indi-
cate a famine condition among cattle
men. Stockers and feeders that were
eagerly sought one and two years ago
at and even Az cents, now are dull
around and 3A, Notwithstanding the
corn fed steer is one cent higher in
the Chicago market. 1t Is quite evil
yet, In the writer's Judgment, there
stock UP than right now. Cattle must
find higher level. Good mich cows
are selling well, but that is not be-
cause they are cattle, but because they
give milk. Stockers and feeders drag
and yet the steer calf. and the yearl-
ing steer and the likely heifer can and
will soon make the owner more dollars
than ever before.
What warrants such statement?
For fifteen years the range business
has been declining. The cattle bust
ness in the mountain states, where
vast herds at one time ranged, is prac-
tically extinct. Range cattle still
come to market, but they come almost
wholly from the two Ds,kotas and from
Texas. The cowboy is known only
in fiction and a great business, that
had millions in it, has passed into
history. The agricultural states, the
states that raise corn and hay, must
in the near future, from the very ma
ture of the case, produce the cattle we
consume and export.
But this is not all, nor the only, nor
the most important cause at work. Il
any intelligent man will examine the
corn statistics of the United States
back to 1870, he will see that the day
of cheap corn has passed. 1t takes
corn to make beef and pork, no sub
stitute has ever been found, and there
is none in the world. The corn belt of
America liz all under cultivation. The
corn product can be and will be in
creased but it must come thru improved
agriculture and not from more acres,
because we have no more. II corn
reaches and maintains higher level,
that, as we'll as the increased values
of corn lands, must operate to make
meat higher. UP to a recent date the
laboring man of America has been
favored in this-he has had cheap
meat. The future contains no prom
Use of cheap meat Already the beef
trust has been able to make him feel
the exactions of new conditions, but
the feeders of cattle on the hoof have
not responded owing to the various
conditions, principally to the fact that
the businessl of producing cattle had
become thoroughly demoralized, and
the dying and bankrupt concerns
of the west have helped to
maintain a glutted and unstable con-
dition.
In 1910 the corn crop of the United
States was 377,00O,000 bushels; in 1880
1t has arisen to 827,0O0,000. At that
time it was worth nothing in the west
because Of transportation charges and
lack of demand. In 1870 1t reached for
the first time the 1,O00,0O0,O0O mark
and kept we'll under the 2,000,000,000
mark until 1880. During all these years
the west had cheap, miserably cheap
corn, principally owring to the fact
that the world, not even the west ITSELF
had learned how to use it. From 1880
to 1890 1t never reached the 1000, 000-
600 mark but once. in 1889, and yet
prices were better than when we pro-
duced only 100000 bushels. In 1893
as 1 now recall it. corn exports had
risen to about 30,000,000 bushels, while
six or seven years later, after we had
taught the world to use corn, we were
sending abroad nearly 300,000,000 BUSH
els. Glucose factories, large users OF
corn, had come into existence, while
other extra uses had made a market
for SOC, 900, 900 bushels of corn more than
the market Of 1900. From 1890 to 1900
we passed the 1000, 100000 bushel mark
five times without producing any sur
plus except from 1895 to 1897, and
these We're years Of panic and universal
stagnation irl business.
So great has been the use and uses
Of corn over what II was thirty and
forty years ago, that when our corn
crop falls below 2,0O0,00O.000 bushels
the comm .rcial world figures on a
corn famine. and yet between this
point and $500. 100000, point never
reached but once In our history, lies
the only hope Of q surplus. me writer
speaks in all serious ness when ne says
that he does not believe a surplus that
will materially lower prices. possibly
men who don't think and study may
.aaga 9eeh Z sAsz- want e. hut 7'ae'