The independent. [volume] (Elizabeth City, N.C.) 1908-1936, 1921-08-26
FOR SALE AT ALMOST ANY OLD PRICE,
10000 TO 100000 SCRUB CATTLE
Outside Markets Closed to North Carolina Beef
Cattle Just at Time When Eastern North
Carolina Farmers Must Get Rid of
Their Free Range Stock

J
land State Board of Agriculture
closing that state to shipments
Of ticky cattle and the disman-
tlement Of quarantine pens at
Baltimore and Frederick, Md, in
the District of Columbia and at
Wilmington, N. c., affects the
owners of 10000 to 100000 head
of free range cattle in twenty
two eastern North Carolina
counties in a way that should
cause alarm.
It means that on Jan. l, 1922,
when the statewide stock law
goes into effect the owners of
these free range cattle will find
every outside market closed to
them except the markets Of Nor
folk and Richmond, and Norfolk
and Richmond can not begin to
handle the scrub cattle that must
be sold at that time.
THE owners of 10000 to 100000
head of scrub cattle in eastern North
Carolina will have to dispose of this
stock because it is not profitable to take
it up and feed it. Free range cattle
are profitable only so long as they for
age for themselves and live on the pub
lie domains and in the wood and fields
of others than their owners.
The owners of these cattle were put
on notice last February that they would
have to do something with this stock by
Jan. 1, 1922 1t is not apparent that any
one is making any serious effort to solve.
the problem confronting these owners.
There is a special session of the Gem
eral Assembly in December and many
are living in hope that the special ses
sion will grant them an extension Of
time or abolish or amend the stock law.
The order closing the stock yards of
Maryland to North Carolina cattle fol-
lows: SAOn and after this date (June
11l.no cattle originating in any area
under Federal quarantine on account of
southern sp1enetic or Texas fever shall
be transported or driven into Mary
land, and transportation companies are
hereby notified not to accept shipments
of such cattle when consigned to any
point in this State
AS result of this order the South
ern Cattle Quarantine pens at the I'm
ion Stock Yards at Baltimore, and J.
A. Whitfield Co., Frederick, Md, have
been dismantled and disinfected. Simi-
lar action is being taken at the Ben
ming Stock Yards at Benning, D. G. and
at the Carolina Packing Co. at Wash
ington, N. G.
The plight of the owners of these cat
tie is distressing. It, is going to mean
an immediate economic loss Of hundreds
of thousands of dollars to eastern
North Carolina The fact that stock
law means an eventual economic gain
of millions does not offset the fact that
at the very outset Eastern North Caro-
lima owners of 10000 to 100000 head
of scrub cattle are going to find them
selves without a market for something
that must be gotten rid of.
It would be great economic crime
to shoot down these cattle and sell
them for fertilizer or leave them to
carrion. But they are not desirable for
food. The only outside demand fo1A this
class of stock has come from the max
ers of bologna and frankfurter seusagss.
Occasionally the sausage makers find
hind quarters of this class of beef suit
able for curing and selling as dried or
clipped beef. But ifSEhe sausage ma
kers could use so many as 10000 to
100000 head of scrub cattle at once,
North Carolina can't get these cattle
to market. The owners will be abso-
lutely at the mercy of local buyers.
One thing in favor of the cattle own
ers in this section of the state is the
fact that this section has produced q
vast surplus of forage crops this seas
on. There is a bumper corn crop for
which the market is extremely doubtful
and there is soy bean crop that prom
ises to double any previous years yield.
Out of this surplus forage thousands of
cattle may be carried over for months
and not forced on the market at once.
But the owners of these scrub cattle
are not in every case owners of for
age crops. They are going to- fall the
victims of some of their more fortu-
nate neighbors. Many big landowners
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