Live Stock Breeders' Association. 129 



years, and a steady advance in the price of land and labor. This 

 is very strikingly true of the best corn regions of Illinois, Missouri 

 and Iowa, and has forced the feeder to rely more and more upon 

 western or range cattle, which, in the meantime, have been greatly 

 improved in quality, so that a two-year-old range steer now is as 

 large and almost as mature in form as was the three or four-year- 

 old steer of twenty years ago from the same region. In the mean- 

 time, however, land values have advanced enormously in the range 

 country, and the ranchman is beginning to insist upon selling his 

 cattle younger and thus reduce expenses in making them. 



Fig. 5. Three-year-olds about finished. 



It may, therefore, be accepted as final that so long as the 

 cattle raiser, whether he be on high-priced land in the corn belt 

 or on the ranches of the west, will supply cattle of moderate ma- 

 turity, such as two-year-olds, to the feeder at enough less per pound 

 than he will sell calves or yearlings to enable him to meet the in- 

 creased cost of gain required to make them fat, so long will the 

 feeder continue to feed this class of cattle in preference to youngei 

 ones. 



GAINS MADE ON YOUNG ANIMALS ARE CHEAPER. 



The baby beef advocate has had for his chief argument the fact 

 that young animals make cheaper gains than do older ones, or that 

 the cost of a pound of gain increases as the age of the animal in- 

 • creases. This law is well established. This is primarily due to 

 the fact that growth, or lean meat, requires less food for its pro- 

 duction than does fat, for lean meat is a watery tissue compared 



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