The Denison review. [volume] (Denison, Iowa) 1867-current, 1912-09-25
HIGH PRICES OF
FARM PRODUCTS
WaIlaces' Farmer Says Days of Low
Priced Cattle and Farm Prod
ucts Are Over.
MUST QUIT KILLING CALVES
Keep More Cows and Grow More
Grass-Raise As Much Grain on
Less Land.

When prime cattle sold at $3.50 in
Chicago and at corresponding prices,
taking into account the difference in
freights at Kansas City and Omaha
and Denver, the attention of the pub
lie was sharply directed to the sub,
ject. Farmers, we notice, are not
complaining much about this, but con-
sumers are complaining a great deal.
We see a lot of good both to the con-
sumner and producer in these high
prices of meat.
Looking at it from the consumers
standpoint, it is not altogether a bad
thing. While the English-speaking
races ca meat as long as they can
ge- it, they are likely to eat toe mCCn
of it, and particularly those classes
that are not at hard manual labor. who
always want the choice cuts and can
pay for them. One good thing in these
high prices of meats is that it will
compel people to study economy in
purchasing. They will discover what
the scientists have told us for years.
that there is more nutriment in a
round steak than there is in porter
house; that considering its price and
food value the cheapest cut is what
is called the flank steak. When meat
was low, people wanted only the
choice cuts, and those who could at
ford to buy meat turned up their
noses at the poorer parts, and these
had to be sold at any old price. When
this class of people learns to cook
meat, they will change their policy
and select according to nutritive value
rather than tenderness. That's one
good thing that will come out of this
advance in the price of beef.
We do not expect cattle to continue
as high as they are now, but the days
of low priced cattle and of low prices
for any other kind Of farm products
are past, and will never return. The
question arises: How are we to get
the cattle? Well, we don't know any
other way than to raise them. We
must quit killing the calves. The sale
of a calf for veal, if it has in it the
capacity of making good beef, is a
terrific economic waste. We say IF.
Possibly the best that can be done
with the progeny of the extreme dairy
type of cattle is to use for veal those
not needed for breeding purposes.
If the American people are to be
furnished with meat 1--WE may as we'll
give over to the Argentine the task OF
feeding the English people, then we
must grow more calves. To grow more
calves we must keep more COWS. To
keep more COWS we must grow more
grass That means lessened acreage
of corn, and that again means more
corn to the acre. So these high prices
of meats will be good thing in the
long run for farmers, irrespective Of
their present profits.
In short, we will have to readjust
our farming. We cannot go on as we
have been doing for the last thirty
years, growing grain for sale on the
worlds markets. The inevitable re-
suit of this is the wearing out of the
land. We cannot make some of our
Illinois readers believe this. Some of
our Kansas readers do not believe it
at all. But it is our business to tell
the truth, to preach the gospel Of
sound agriculture; and that gospel
absolutely prohibits the continuous
growing of one kind of grain, wheth-
err small or large, or any possible ro-
tation of grain on grain for number
of years in succession. The chinch
bugs tell us we must not do it. The
corn root worm tells us the same
thing. The corn root louise breaches
the same lesson in the imperative
mood present tense. If We do not
listen to these friends of ours, whom
we regard as inveterate enemies, then