The copper era. (Clifton, Graham County, Ariz.) 1899-1911, 1908-08-27
PRICE OF BEEF TO REMAIN HIGH.
Range Cattle Are Pas ing and with Them
Goes the Low Cost of Meat.

There will be no more cheap beef.
Cheap range is thing of the past.
Cheap cattle and cheap beef must 90
with the cheap land" Colonel Ike T.
Pryor, president of the Cattle Raisers
Association of Texas, saws the people
of America must face the foregoing
situation. The high price of beef is
not temporary thing. 1t is the re-
suit of cutting up the cattle ranges
into farms. The consumer of meat
must pay big prices for beet as a
penalty for the breaking of the prai-
RE and settling the new country.
Colonel Pryor lives in San Antonio,
Texas, but controls commission COM
pany at the Kansas Citv stockyards,
and spends much of his time there
each year.
He has been president of the Cattle
Raisers' association three years. The
organization is composed of $500 cat
tlemen of Texas, Oklahoma and New
Mexico. The members control 5000
600 head of cattle.
1.-The number of cattle in Texas is
decreasing temporarily" Colonel
Pryor said. 1.-THE big ranches are cut
up into small tracts or farms After
the farms have been improved the
farmers will raise more cattle in the
same territory than the ranchmen
raised, but they will be more expen-
sive to raise and must bring higher
prices than the range cattle.
TEXAS KILLED 100000 CALVES IN 1907.
son a big ranch section of land
will take care o: thirty or forty head
of cattle. When that land is turned
into a farm it will take care of at
least twice as many besides growing
some other farm products. But the
farmer cannot afford to sell his steer
for the old price of grass-fed cattle
and prices must be such that he can
sell at a profit.
"The best evidence of how the cat
tie supply in Texas is cut down is the
fact that last year more than $50, 900
calves were sold for slaughter at the
Fort Worth stockyards. Beautiful,
white face heifer calves were slaugh-
tered by the thousands and the car
casses shipped east with the hides on.
If there had been plenty of range
those calves would have been sayed
to grow up.
"While many big ranches have been
cut up, not many have disappeared
entirely. Take a ranch of 100, 900
acres, for instance. The owner sells
10000 acres to a speculator, who, in
turn, cuts the tract up and sells it to
| farmers in small tracts. Then he sells
another 10000 acres to some one else.
The result is that he still has a ranch
and of course corresponding reduc
tion of range cattle must follow.
EVOLUTION OF THE CATTLE COUNTRY.
"The first ranches cut up were those
where the ranchman owned the alter
nate sections. The state owned the
other section and when the lease eX-
pired the state sold the land and there
was nothing for the cattleman to do
but sell his alternate section. The c..
| G. Slaughter ranches have been cut up
rs much as any. The Capitol Syndi-
cate ranch has been cut in two by the
sale of its lands to farmers. You will
remember that the state capitol was
built by a Syndicate that received 81
900, 900 acres of land for erecting it.
More than half that land has been
sold for farms and small ranches.
Many wonderful changes have been
made. l am yet young man, but
have driven cattle from Texas to
Montana when l did not see Il fence
kansas river and the Platte. First
we crossed Kansas as far east as Wei.
lington and Ellsworth, then we cross
ed about Dodge City, then at the
state line. Now when a Texas man
wants to send cattle to Montana he
sends them by rail.
"Once when we intended to eros:
the Arkansas about Dodge City, {
DG1Q DuHdlOGS ITOU Oul
course and we had to cross at Great
Bend I will not tell you the story fol
publication, because the younger gen
Grafton will not believe there ever
were so many buffaloes in the world
"Texas will be a greater cattle
state than ever after it is cut up into
farms, but for a few years it will not
show so large an output of cattle
The farmers will start raising grain
They will get to raising cattle wher
their farms are improved, and some
day Texas will ship more farm cattle
than it ever did ranch cattle.
"But the cattle will bring better
prices on the hoof, and of course tn,
beef will cost more to the consumer.
kansas City Star.
Prof Carl Won NOorden, one of the
greatest medical experts in Europe