Evening capital news. (Boise, Idaho) 1901-1927, 1917-12-02

M ! ~ dustry of tFe United State,
0Ss9X@4O This country is the cher
meat producer OF thy world, and just now
when all the natiofs are fighting, 1t be
comes most important as one OF the great
centers OF the fobd supply. Let us look
at all the assets ii the nations and take ac-
count of the stock now on hand. have
before me repqtts from the Department OF
Agriculture giving the latest statistics OF
cattle. hogs, and sheep for all parts OF the
world. Thev show that we have now on
our farms 81 100000 cattle. 6s.ooo,ooo hogs
and 40 100000 sheep. These alone are more
than double the stock OF Germany and Nus
tria- Hungary You might add the animals
from Bulgaria and Turkey, and the whole
wouldlnot nearly equal those OF our coun-
try.
Inaddition. our allies in Europe have vast
numbers of domestic animals. At the be-
ginning OF the war Russia had two anc one
hall times as many cattle as Germany. Fine
number was 52OOO00O and at the same
time it had about 100000 sheep. 1t ranks
as the fourth sheep country of the world. its
only superiors being the United States. with
100000, and Argentina and Australia,
each of which has more than SO.OOO,OOO. we
NAV fairly reckon Australia with the allies,
although the meat has to be brought about
1900 miles in getting to Europe, and the
Same is true OF Canada, which has sCir..
;lya al mil
mails to aid in filling the stomachs OF the
soldiers in France. At the beginning of the
war Germany had 100000 cattle, 17,0O0,
600 hogs and 100000 sheep, and Austria
Hungary had only from one-third to one
half as many. On the other hand, France,
Great Britain and Russia had at home and
in their colonies about 81 100000 cattle, 2S,-
100000 hogs and 2O2 100000 sheep.
But among these great stock raisers OF
the world Uncle Sam stands alone He is
the Job OF the twentieth century. and, like
the man in the land OF W, his substance
makes him 'the greatest of all the men i'll
the east He is the chief cattle raiser and
owner among the nations. Last year his
live stock was estimated at value of S.
1872 100000, or more than S35 per head of
our population. This referred only to the
stock on the farms and ranges, and outside
OF that there was an additional value of cat
tie, sheep and hogs, which amounted to over
So per family. The wholesale packing
houses and Strengthening establishments and
the farms upon which the animals are raised
represent capital OF hundreds of millions,
and it is estimated that Uncle Sans whole
eat-producing plant is worth in the neigh
borhood OF eighteen billions of dollars, or
enough to give every American family 5000
worthNof stock in the company. This does
not include the receipts from transporta-
ton or the retail trade
The numbers Of the cattle, sheep and hogs
raised herr are 50 great that if they were
divided equally every family would have
three cattleAtwo sheep and three hogs and
there would Nbe many thousand little pigs
and lambs to spare.
As consumer OF meat the United States
also stands at the head OF the list. There are
many countries where almost no meat is
eaten, and it is said that over half the
worlds population lives upon food other
than meat. The nations which have sur
plus OF meat for export are all meat-eating
countries, and they are comparatively few
in number. In fact the world S export trade
in meat products is maintained bv only nine
nations. 1t is from the United States. Ar
gentina, Australia, Canada, Denmark. Mex
leo, New Zealand, Uruguay and Russia that
the worlds supply Of meat is obtained at
about fifty billion pounds per year, and this
is consumed by the people of comparatively