The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1910-01-31
order to make

wise be necessary in order to make a
reasonable net profit
at is not to be implied from this that
the butcher or meat retailer has NOT
made money. particularly IN Lne lase
rev years, and that he has not con-
tributed in a way to the rise in meat
prices which have in recent years pre-
vailed. A quarter of q century ago. the
butcher, by reason of hard labor ana
good business Judgment, made COM
Portable living and in the course OF a
life of reasonable length accumulated
a modest home and perhaps owned a
small shop and modest business In
recent years he has been among the
most thrifty class of merchants, ana
has been able to make investments In
cold storage plants, and investments
outside of his business. In other words,
he has his full part in the profit-shar-
ing which has occurred among the mer-
chants of recent years and has con-
tributed not a little toward the increase
in the cost of his wares.
Farmer Ceased to Be Packer.
1.-THE farmer has contributed not
little to this general result, but in
way different from that which has been
ordinarily ascribed to him. He has
ceased to be a meat packer and has
come to rely upon the central packing
house and the meat shops for his meat
supply. in the main. Formerly he cured
at home most of his own meat, and the
country merchant bought from him
practically all of the cured meats which
he retailed during the year. To correct
this tendency among the farmers, the
Kansas Agricultural college has this
year put Oh course in slaughter1ng
and meat curing.
luton not to eat meat by dozen or
million people will not solve the prob
lem. We cannot maintain our soil fer
fifty without a live stock industry.
Such a policy If general and persisted
in would be fatal to the live stock in
dustry of our country upon which rests
all permanently prosperous agriculture,
and such change in our dietary stand
ards would bring the American 1aborer
to the low plane of efficiency of the
poorly nourished European laborer.
Our wheat crop last year robbed
Kansas soils of more than twenty mil
lion dollars worth of plant food. This
sum would have bought. at a valuation
of nearly one hundred dollars per acre,
every acre grown in this crop in the
leading wheat county of the state, Bar
ton. Or, it would have bought all the
lands grown in wheat last year in
Shawnee, Riley and Brown counties, at
valuation of one hundred and fifty
"The 49, 900 bushels of corn grown
by us last year took from the Kansas
soil over twenty-five million dollars
worth of plant food.
compel Kansas farmers TO sell LnelT
crops as raw material, and thereby sus-
tain a yearly loss of plant food of more
than fifty million dollars, instead OF
permitting them to feed them to i'm
proved live stock. and return to their
land fully three-fourths of this fertility,
would bring disaster to our agriculture.
In this case the Kansas farmer would
face a constantly diminishing crop
yield, whereas to meet the demands Of
increasing population he must double
his yield per acre in the next third OF a
century.
Laboring Men Must Eat Meat.
Compel the laboring man to abstain
from eating meat, and as has already
been stated, his standard of efficiency
is Immediately lowered. OF all of our
people, the man who labors with his
hands and the growing child can least
afford to materially reduce their con-
sumption of meat. The beefsteak has
played an important role in our civil
ization. The meat eating nations of
the world have dominated in all ages,
and such self-denial as we are now