The Brookings register. [volume] (Brookings, Brookings County, S.D.) 1903-1971, 1915-10-28

cows, for foundation stock, enable one
to start in the cattle business in the
South with an outlay of far less CAPT
tai than in most other portions of the
country. The question viewed from
a strictly commercial standpoint ap-
parently spells nothing but success for
the people Of the South if they can be
aroused to their opportunity. The fed
eral government has already been do
ing pioneer work in the movement in
the South. A systematic fight on the
cattle tick was conducted. This plague
which was what was formerly called
Texas cattle fever" has been con-
Quered.
The government has computed the
cost Of raising cattle in the South, and
1T was found in the work done in CO.
operation with the Alabama expert.
ment station that when p~asturage
vas charged to the animal at the rate
of fifty cents per month, and winter
feed, consumed was charged at market
prices; when taxes, insurance, fencing
and repairs were considered; when in
surance was maintained on the ami
mails, and when the manure produced
was credited at $1.25 per ton, the cost
of raising animals to the age of twelve
months, twenty-four months, thirty
months, and thirty-three months was
1925, $2.2S, $3.50 and 1921 per hun
dred pounds, respectively"
The Secretary of Agriculture in his
1914 report reminds n of the old re-
tort: ANY kind of an idea is better
than none at all" For twenty-five
years the meat supply of the nation
has commanded the concern of the
people, and though conditions have
been drifting the report discusses the
question in the following language:
1T remains true that the nation
faces a serious situation in the mat
ter of its meat supply. Just what fac
tors have brought this situation about,
no one can define with certainty, and
no systematic effort has been made to
define them until recently"
The government has apparently
awakened rather late to the necessities
of federal regulation of the sale Of
meat, but it is to its credit that a sys-
tenn of meat inspection has been form
ulated in recent years.
The demoralized condition of the
meat industry has caused us to turn
with alarm to South America in the
hope that it may help to supply the
demand. Argentina and Uruguay have
already made shipments to the States,
while Mexico and Cuba may be expect
ed to help furnish relief to the situa-
ton. The bureau of animal industry
says: Certain distant countries hav-
ing sparse population and vast herds
and focks, combined with abundant
natural grazing facilities, have now
taken the place of the United States
as the worlds greatest Of the meat
surplus. South America and the Aus
tralian colonies, particularly the form
er, have in the last decade produced
immense quantities of beef and mutton
for export, but shipments have been
received in our reports from those
places, mostly of beef from Argentina,
and the probability is that the trade
will 500 grow to considerable proper
tons"
While books and newspapers are dis
cussing this subject, the plain fact re-
mains that the American people are
very much at fault in that they have
maintained an attitude of stubborn
resistance to a condition that is fiat
tening their pocketbooks, in order that
their pride and their appetites might
not suffer. Older nations have met
similar problems. 1t may be that peo-
pie in the United States will in time
pay seventy-five cents a pound for the
best cuts of meat; if so, it shows that
that the purses are more powerful than
the brains. The food research labora-
tory of the National Bureau of Chemis-
try at Washington discusses this mat
ter in plain English. This is n of it's
statements: zone of the greatest diff
fculties in the way Of utilizing our
piscatorial resources is the ignorance
Of the American people, especially of
the native-born well-to-do people, in re-
CARDS to the kinds of food and their de-
STABILITY as food from the viewpoint
of both nutriment and palatability, and
the methods of cooking which tend to
advance their food value" In explod-
ing the common belief that fish do not
furnish as much high-grade food ma
terial as meat, the laboratory gives an
analysis of the protein content of meat
and fish, which is as follows:
Kind of meat and per cent. protein:
Beef, loin, medium ..............17.9