848 ANNUAL REPORT OF THE Off. Doc. 



ment, practically reached a stand still, and the large tracts that 

 were once the grazing ground of the cattle are being cut up into 

 smaller farms. We find the people that have been doing this, re- 

 turning from the west, returning from the skimming process, to 

 the east, and beginning to do things right. And I predict that the 

 same tiling will occur in our cereal growing. We will have to do 

 tilings, and do them right. Now, the very fact that he had these 

 large ranches in the west to compete with, made the man who would 

 grow in the east, produce a better article. If .they in the west could 

 grow quantities which we in the east could not reach, then the only 

 thing left for us to do was to grow a more approved quality, one 

 which was in demand. The time was when they raised steers to 

 weigh from eighteen hundred to two thousand pounds, but to-day 

 that is not done in this country; the steer that is most in demand is 

 the one weighing from twelve to fifteen hundred pounds, and it 

 would not be objected to if he did not weigh over twelve hundred 

 pounds, if he reached the market of sufficiently high quality. 



Now, the question arises here as to whether or hot there is any 

 chance of financial success in breeding to these ideals in this coun- 

 try, and I have some facts here that were furnished by the Chicago 

 market; I have taken the Chicago market because I know more 

 about it than any other market, and because they handle more cattle 

 there than they do in the Eastern markets. The last five years pre- 

 ceding this one, the average price of the steer brought from the west, 

 and sold in Chicago, up to the weight of fifteen hundred pounds has 

 been $6.03 per hundred. On the other hand, the average price of 

 steers weighing nine hundred pounds, that have been sold in Chica- 

 go — of course, that includes some of the very inferior class — and 

 a great number of the feeders weighing up to nine hundred — those 

 weighing nine hundred pounds have averaged $4.40 per hundred, a 

 difi'erence of $1.63 per hundred, or 27^c. of each hundred pounds that 

 is added between the nine hundred and the fifteen hundred pounds. 

 Now, that does not always prevail, but it is a voucher we may use 

 in arriving at a conclusion that it would pay us to feed the steers 

 heavier than we have done up to fifteen hundred pounds. That is, 

 we have 27|c. for each hundred pounds again. We can be pretty sure 

 with this to go on, but in order to make sure that there may be no 

 mistake, we will go a little further, and we find that for the past 

 fourteen years, the average price of the fifteen hundred pound steer 

 was $.0.51 per hundred, while the average price of the nine hundred 

 pound steer was $4.25, a dift'erence of $1.26, or 21c. for each hun- 

 dred pounds higher. 



T think we can safely say, therefore, that there is a gain of over 

 twenty cents for each hundred pounds that we put on the steer. 

 Now, it sometimes happens that if the steer is of sufficiently high 

 quality, that a low weight steer will sell very close to, or even some- 

 times in advance of the heavier steer, and I wish here to read a short 

 article from a Chicago paper, "The Stock Yard," of last Friday, 

 which will give you some idea of the present market, and the indica- 

 tions that are held out: 



''Basing on supply and demand there will undoubtedly be an ex- 

 cellent market in the present year for finished stock especially choice 

 quality, and it is quality that counts, as for instance this week, two 

 lots of over one hundred and sixty head of fancy 'fully matured' 



