Saturday news. (Watertown, S.D.) 19??-19??, 1913-11-06
HIGH G MEATS.

Go where you will, in any part of the world, you will
hear people complaining about the high price of meat,
whether 1t IS beef, mutton or pork. The greatest and most
frequent complaint is about the high price Of beet.
In our Judgment the prime reason for the high pr1ce OF
beef is the fact that cheap grass-grass on land owned ny
:En government aud which can be had for the grazing-is
becoming scarce all over the world. With the occupatloH
Of lands heretofore given over to grazing, cattle that are
good enough TO eat grain will gradually h"""nne dearer IN
price; and farmers will not feed them unless they can get
a prlc" that WIN furnish them d Legitimate profit.
We learn from the best authorities that there is no
such glut Of cattle in Argentine, from which country Eu-
rope is now supplied with meat, or in Brazil, from which
n'rat eaters hoped a large suplAy could be obtained, as Is
generally reported. The Argentine has seven million peo~
PIC ana twenty-six raiIlion cattle, but the proportion Of cat
IT, to people is constantly decreasing. The actual supply
x now from three to four million short Of what it was a few
years ago, and the decline IS still going on.
The Argentine folks have the same sort Of human ma
ture that our western people have; ard whcu prices are high
they sell off their stuff. They have oone this to such annex
tent that even with the best Of management it will take
some years before there is any increase in the surplus OF
cattle business and has barely enough cattle to supply its
own wants; and the cattle they have are sncn as would not
meet the requirements of either the RngIi,h or the AMI
erican consumer" OF beef. They are good canning stock,
that about all; and this is all they will he until after years
OF Improvement.
We have been receiving "A good MANY cattle from Mex
lco; but Mexico is now in tia tlroas of Il revolution, and
there need be no expectation of any increase in the supply
from shat source. A great deal Of the MeNican beef is Of
poor quality and tick infested; and revolutions so not fur
llSA a good opportunity for either graduating tick or
breeding up cattle stock.
Notwithstanding the amount of n4aat that England gets
from the Argentine and mutton from Australia the Eng
llsh farmer, and especially the cattle feeder, would be in a
very b" way, II 1t were not for Ireland. ireland is one
OF the best grazing countries in the world, three. or four
counties with land so rich that it will MAKE cattle sufficient
y lat Tor anything but an epicure, without grain, and d
large quantity Of grass rich enough to- grow the best kind
Or FEEDERS or as they call tlem, '-stores.'
Nowhere i'll the world can the suppIv Of beet cattln bo
Increased rapidly under the most favorable circumstances.
People are complaining of the high price of pork. Con
snlhers imagine that as a brood SOW will produce on an
average. hFe pigs III a veal, the supply Of pork can be in
creased rafadly; and 1t would be If it were. not for fine ray
ages OF cholera and the high price Of corn. There are so
many uses tor corn other than cattle feed, and such a small
az" ~ ~ "hLcn II can be grown successfully, that corn is
pound TO be flgh priced, and the farmer considers not only
40" many. pigs a brood SOW will produce; but now much
tolll IL VIII sake to ut 1t for'the' market. So he is inclined
to go slow La that line.
AS long as these conditions. continue. people who eat
meat must expect to pay a high price forit. And the bet
ter the quality the higher the price they WIFE EHve to pay.
-Wallace's Farmer.