The Cairo bulletin., 1910-09-06
MORE LIVE STOCK
MUST Be RAISED
RECEIPTS A. MARKETS MILL
IONS or HEADS LESS IN
1909 THAN IN t908.s
CAUSE OF HIGH PRICES
Says Jas. J. Hill In Paper Read Be,
fore Live Stock Expos-
ton at Portland,
Oregon.

Portland, Ore, Sept. 5.-James j,
Hill was the principai speaker before
the Live Stock Exposition today, His
lpaper was as follows:
"A nation that means to preserve
| its prosperity and control its owa
| destiny must make sure tiat its food
supply is adequate and will continue
| to be SO, To reverse our movement
toward industrial dependence, food
scarcity and permanent high prices,
which has already gone far Is the
item of the conservation program
more important to us ,Ian all the
others combined. This means con
servation of the soil. ii requires no
expensive machinery, no suoordina-
tion of local to federal interests, moth.
| ing but industry, intelligence and will
ngness to follow the teachings OF
experience. To insist upon 1t is eS
necialiy the duty of al who. like
those gathered here, have interests
inseparably connected with the pres
ervation and increase of soil produc.
tivity.
The raising of live stock has a
two fold relation to the food supply
CT any country. Directly, it furnishes
the meat diet, and Indirectly as the
most valuable of all aids to the cuft!-
vation of the soil and the growing of
crops, it helps to furnish the breal
diet. The interests which you repre-,
sent may, therefore, be said to act
doubly upon the agriculture of the
country and contribute twice to its
welfare
Since people learn mostly by the.
pressure of some need, the sharp rfse'
in price of all kinds of meats has
turned attention to the state of the
live stock interest, Retail prices in
some cases double what they were a
few years ago stimulate inquiry. In
vestigation shows that live stock pro
duction has not kept pace with the
demand upon it,
THE receipts of all kinds of live,
stock at the Chicago stock Yards for
the year 1909 were I,54f,997 less than
in 1908, although the totaf valuation
increased over $4,000. The receipts
of hogs at thirteen principal markets
in the United States were 5,5S6,312
less in 1909 than in 1908. The to:al
number of cattle in the country has
declined 100000 in the last three
years, and of hogs 100000
Necessarily prices have gone up.
The breakfast table OF the rich ami
the dinner pail of the poor are both
affected. AS one would expect from
these figures, native beef cattle and
western range cattle sold for the
highest prices on record In the Chit
cago market in 1909 Hogs brought
the highest figure received for twenty
seven years, Increase OF populations,
changes in agriculture, drift of popula-
ton cityward all have helped to re
strict production anr to add TO
price.
These are few of the facts bear
ing on the direct relation of the live
stock interest to population, prices
and the, general welfare. AS our popu
lation increases by anywhere from L..
100000 to 100000 per annum, and
practically every person is meat
cater it follows that When the num-
ber of the principal food animals
either remains stationary or begins
to decline, the cost of living rises
and the pinch begins. Not even the
extraordinary prices paid for live
stock have thus far been able 10
raise production to the level Of dc.
mand.
at is desirable that we should not
only feed our own people but main
tain those declining exports of food
animals and other food products byI
which we have so considerable an ex-
tent paid our debts in the past.
in the last five years our exports
OF meat and dairy products fell from
| s211 100000 to about 100000, 900;
and of cattle, sheep and hogs fror,
| s43,500,000 to about S13,000O00 This
illustrates the swift decline in all out
exports Of food products; trade
change so sudden and so tremendous
that the country may well take alarm.
Unless we change our industry
wet must soon cease to be self-sIp-
lporting as far as food Is concerned,
| This sounds absurd in view o. our i'm
, mense expanse Of fertile land, our
relatively scanty population and the
part we have played in reeding the
/ world in the past But the figures
iprove it. Our foreign trade In cereals
/ tells the same story as that in meat
products. Between the FIVE years
ending with 1904 and the five ending
4 On