South Bend news-times. (South Bend, Ind.) 1913-1938, 1913-12-03
TO STUDY MAKING
OF CHEAP MEAT
Department of Agriculture to
Institute Commission to In
veStigate Most Economical
Beef Producing Methods.
BY VICTOR ELLIOTT.

WASHINGTON, Dee. "A COM
mission to investigate the most eco
nomical methods OF producing cattle
DDS Of marketing beef and pork will
be created this winter under authority
of congress or by direction of the de-
partment Of agriculture.
The cattle range is vanishing, the
price of corn rises each year. forage
crops are diverted into the manUfac-
ture of higher food products, Argen.
tina, with her vast herds and broader
Irairies, is invading the American
market and the ability OF the United
states to maintain a trade balance in
it's favor is threatened each year
through the decreasing power to eX-
port meat products.
These are some of the considera-
tons hat have forced live stock eX-
perts to the conclusion that the sub
ject of beef and pork production is
one demanding study.
Five pounds OF corn properly fed,
will place a pound of meat on a hog
according TO farmers who have con-
Quoted the operation. Ii has been
found that two pounds of cOr and
three pounds of alfalfa will produce
an equally good pound of pork in IN
equally short time. Alfalfa not only
grows in what would be poor corn
land. but it's long roots make it n of
the most valuable assets for turning a
poor soil into good soil. A ton of
orn at so cents a bushel is worth
about $40; a ton of alfalfa is forth
perhaps half that sum.
Farmers assert hat by feeding al
falfa they can reduce by n third the
cost of producing pork. The alfalfa
effects q double saving, diminishing
{hn rnc+ Of nrndFrnfnu noaQT and of the
same time increasing the value of the
land.
The came considerations apply to
the production Of beef. Corn fed
with rough feed produces meat about
as readily as straight corn diet. These
are superficial instances of how pro-
duction can be cheapened by changing
systems of feeding. There are many
who believe hat savings quite as large
can be effected in other ways n that
the problem is so important that 1t
merits close study by a commission or
experts.
The production of beef in the mid
die western states has been made more
difficult and expensive within n last
six months by a continuous drouth,
which was not broken until autumn.
The corn production in Missouri val
lev states was in some hard
" more than half the normal crop.
The partial failure or crops was Cd
served generally. AS a result many
farmers sent their stock to market,
having neither surplus feed to run
them through the winte nor ready
money TO purchase corn at prevailing
high prices. =,
Only a few years ago the economical
production Of beef was not a subject
that required study. Throughout the
west there were millions of acres or
a land on which cattle grazed. me
range cost cattlemen practically noth-
ing and the natural production or 1000
was sufficient for immense nerds. But
the homesteader the manufactures OF
barber wire, the irrigation engineer
the railroad builder and the sheep
herder have changed all this. The
fight was not a f%gurative struggle;
cattlemen yielded the range only at
the point of a and even now arm
ed warfare between catlemen ana
homesteaders is not uncommon. But
the range has been shriVeled each
year as the enveloping circles OF land
hungry immigrants has closed IN upon
the hapless cattlemen and he has been
forced to go out Of business or else
study new methods Of producing beef
and pork.