The Prescott daily news., 1915-02-02
MORE LIVE STOCK
 NOW THAN YEAR AGO
Government Statistics Contradict re- ports That Prices Will Reach Unprecedented Figures in
 Immediate Future.

information collected by the depart ment shows that all classes of live stock in the United States are in- .creasing in. numbers. Thus the real facts contradict, absolutely, sensation al reports that prices for meat and shoes would rise to unprecedented fig ures in the immediate future. 1t has even been said that Government sta tistician predicted meat at 50 cents a pound and shoes at $1O a pair with Tn the next two years. Such a pre- diction the real Government statisti- clans say, is quite unwarranted.
 On January 1, for example, the number of beef cattle showed an in- crease of 3.4 per cent over the num- Der year ago, and an actual in- crease of 1,212,000 head Heretofore the number of beef cattle in the United States has declined steadily since 1910. There are also more milch cows in the country than last year, the increase being 2.5 per cent, or in numbers 525,000. Swine, how ever, showed the greatest increase of all classes-9.6 per cent: On Jan uary 1, 1914, there were only 58,- 833,000 swine in the country; on Jan uary |, 1915 64,61S.00O This is &C., counted for by the fact that the pro- duction of swine can te increased more rapidly than that of other class es of live stock and consequently an enlarged demand can be met more readily.
 The prediction of 50-cent meat and S10 shoes was accompanied by the dec laratlon that France alone has taken from America nearly 300,000 horses within the last five months and that the other countries at war have drawn upon our resources in the same pro- portion. The facts are that more horses were on the farms of the
 United States on January 1, 1915, than there were a year before, the in crease being 233,000 head, of 1,1 per cent. So far from France alone hay ing taken 300,000 horses from us the total exports since the war began have lcertainly been much less than 100000 and very likely not over 75,0O0. Since there are approximately 25,000,000 horses altogether in the United States the drain on account of the war is scarcely alarming.
 It is, in fact, pointed out by Govern ment statisticians that the market value of farm horses has actually de- clined to such an extent that the av- craze is now about S6 head less than year ago. This decline is most no~ ticeable in the cotton States and in those States which make business of breeding horses for sale in other sections. Mules have declined even more than horses, their value being now $11.50 per head less than a year ago. The explanation is to be found in the depression on account of the cotton situation in the South, which is the great market for mules. An i'm provement in this respect will do much to restore the demand for horses, so that Government specialists, while ridiculng the notion of horse fam inc, are convinced that farmers will find it profitable to use good work mares for breeding more stock.
 As for hides, the situation is not quite so clear, but even here there has been much gross eXaggeration. From wo-ffths to less than one-half of the leather used in this country is import ed, about 25 per cent of the foreign hides coming from Argentina, 15 per cent from Canada, Il per cent from Mexico, S1a per cent from European Russia, and ' F per cent from France. Since the outbreak of the war lmpor- tations have shown a certain falling off, those for September 1914, for eX- ample, being only 34,000000 pounds, instead of 54,000,000 pounds the year previous. There is, however, little reason to suppose that this decrease will be permanent or of sufficient inn portance to create any real scarcity. Since the great bulk of the imported hides comes from countries that are not at war, shipments are interfered with in any way, and the only new factor to be considered is the possi- bility of an increased demand by the warrinp countries