The Tabor independent. [volume] (Tabor, S.D.) 1913-19??, 1914-10-15
BEEFSTEAK SOON TO BE
"A RARE TABLE DELICACY
Livestock Men Say ~Prohibitiye Price of Beef is Only Start On
Long Journey UpWardHcattle Production Not Keeping
Pace With Increase of Nations Population-Packers Make
MarmaIade.

Freasons, but Il has actually happened
within the last month that Chicago
commission men, playing fair WITH
Itheir Hawkeye customers, have advised
them to ship their cattle to Kansas
City because prices there were better
than prices in Chicago. And Denver
mas been paying more for grass steers
than the animals would be worth to
the trade In either Chicago or Kansas
CITY. Another circumstance. unusual
but not so striking, is that hogs have
commanded better prices at times In
o Worth, Tex, than in Chicago.
Six Principal Markets.
In h six principal markets of the
west-Chicago, Kansas City, Omaha,
81. Louis. st. Joseph and Sioux City
there Is a shortage OF approximately
8 $1,000 head OF cattle since January /,
compared with the receipts for the
same period In 1919. Arrivals at every
market have slumped, and the killing
centers beyond the Mississippi have
suffered more than those west Of the
river. Kansas City Is short about 160,-
600 head. The decrease Is attributed
largely to h drought In the southwest
last summer. Kansas City traders are
quite sure corn fed cattle will COM
mand I'll a hundredweight In their To-
cal market before the end Of Septem-
Der.
Stock men say the department Of
agriculture bases It's forecast Of relief
on false premises, taking II for granted,
apparently. that the experience Of 1919
Will be repeated Relief then came
ing purposes. but the difficulty now Is
more fundamental, according to private
opinion, In that the cattle are lack
ing decidedly In numbers. A Denver
hauthority. disputing the Washington
Foptimists; predicts that cattle scarcity
VIII reach an acute stage next year.
Corn is about 6 cents a bushel higher
now that 1t was at this season last
year. Dry pastures in some parts have
resulted in thes sending OF half fat steers
to market. Fattening ON corn at pres
emit In an expensive process, n there
does moi seem to be any prospect that
corn. prices win drop materially.
Values spurrsd.
Current values for beef cattle have
spurred producers all over the country
to save their calves and mature them
into h heavy steer class. While that
policy makes veal scarce and costly.
1t Is welcomed as the right preliminary
campaign to re-establish the old FASH
Toned cattle business. The conserve
o or calves-male and female-win
not, In the view Of careful observers, be
more influential than In keeping prices
somewhere near h present level. Re-
Icent remarkable advance In the market
value Of western lands Is given as an
other reason why the future of the cat
tie industry does not appear rosy from
the consumers standpoint.
Some cattle men Of the northwest
say the government could do a vast
deal to restore the old conditions and
to stimulate production of beef and
mutton II 1t would make the broad ex-
panse Of federal land available for
grazing purposes. They contend that
the Washington authorities are too
much obsessed by dry farming and
irrigation ideas and too little i'm
pressed with what they could contrib
ute, IL they would, toward a rehabiIi-
tation Of the cattle business.
Mr.. Meeker, OF Armour & Co., says
the people are now learning, as the
packers have contended, that the price
of meats is a purely economic Ques-
ton, governed solely by the law of sup
ply and demand. Producers answer
that II hat had been the exact truth in
the hey-dey Of the beef trust" the
cattle industry would be on a much
more satisfactory basis today than II Is.
Now there Is a common fear, shared
by packers, producers, shippers and
commission men, that the beef steak In
to be denied the American people.