The Washington times., 1915-02-08
BOUND N PRICES
OF MEAT FORECAST
Farmer Beginning to See Re.
duced Income Because Of
High Grain.
CONTINUED from First Pase.)


Il was commonly expected. and per-
fect1y reasonable to except, that 1t
would 70 higher. Instead. It has been
going lower. That would be perfectly
reasonable If the war had caused the
Grain went up while its twin-brother.
livestock, went down.
Now. the relationship in this case 10
more than twinship. 1t is a sort Of
tf1nity: grain, livestock, meat. They
ought to travel together. as the SIAM
ese twins did; instead. grain went up
70 tne senlth. livestock went away
down. ana meat remained about sta
ucnsry. more Illogical condition
could hardly have been developed.
For the future, this situation. accord.
ing to the authorities, presakes tho
proeeoility of big bulge in the price
or meats. They say that the price OF
both livestock and meat ought. in nor
NAL circumstances. to have assembled
along with the price of grain. But
just ABOUT the time the war broke out,
the foot.and- mouth disease did. too The
Ioot-and-mouth disease gave an awful
scare TO the average stock raiser Hs
wanted to get rid Of his stock before
=! T. should be guaranteed or ordered
so ne began rushing his stock to mar
ket. fnished or unfinished. This, being
an entirely abnormal condition. caused
prices OF stock to go down when other
Why Prices Broke.
Rut that was not the only element
Farmers borrow money during the sea-
Eon when they ere carrying the feed
1918 full OF stock. preparing 1t for the
market. When the war broke out and
financial conditions were utterly disar-
ranged. a great many leans of this kind
were called. The farmers, in order to
pay. were compelled to sell: and the
Iueh Of stock to market broke the price.
1t has not yet come back to a normal.
But all this really served to accentu.
ate the abnornality of the situation. At
a time when they should have seen
going down; and the farmer tends TO
sell on a falling market. So he was
unloading his supplies Of stock: and
an unreasonable unloading points to a
shortase Of the supply another season.
ltes OF livestock have been cut down
by this abnormal condition, the country
VIII come back to normal. 1t is fast
getting there now. Then, it will realize
intp hogs at $s.GS or steers at $3.50. with
nut loss. The price Of stock will have
to 60 ur, because the foreign demand
Will Insist on keeping the price Of grain
up.
Meat Prices To Bound.
When the balance is thus restored, the
price of livestock and meats will have
to 60 up. That is the contingency
against which the public IL being in
vited to brace itself, It is true that the
department, ,,Qf Agriculture found rath-
the increase. though a siadsome sign
was still not as, great as the proper
tional increase of population.
1t has been calculated by Congressman
Good that the farmer who fed hogs
pounds, and then sold the hogs at $6.06
a hundred, actually lost $3.50 a hog.
The impression that the great American
farmer is sucker Of such quality that
dates back to the time when he used to
buy mining stock. He doesn't buy it
any more. He knows better way to-
make easy money.
the man who in 1918 fed steers at the
then prevailing prices of corn and of
live stock. made profit Of $1.Ss per 100
pounds on the weight Of the steers. In
: 1: he pao %as' 81 R'ot esnts 81 'f BIT and an
quotations at the end Of January. 1915.
he is making a loss Of 32.55 per loO
pounds.
Is the farmer going to stand that?
Not unless he Is more of a farmer than
Mr.. Good thinks he Is: and Mr.. Good
thinks he knows. for he has to convince
a>farmer district, once every two years
before 1t will elect him to Congress.
The long and short Of the business is
80 the experts allege--that the present
low price. of live stock points to time
in the not distant future when thsre
Will be q reaction in the opposite direc-
tion. and when the prices will go up &c
high that Mr.. Goods constituents will
buy still more automobiles. provided
they can find room on the roads ia OPP
crate them. The people who eat Ynea,
will be able to resume their inquiries 81
to whether some satisfactory substitute
has been provided by science.