No. 5. DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE. 329 



KEPORT OF COMMITTEE ON LIVESTOCK 



By WILLIAM C. BLACK, Chairman. 



"A condition and not a tlieory" confronts us. The people of 

 Pennsylvania are in a dilemma. They can choose either horn; to 

 soon become vegetarians or to breed and feed on their farms more 

 meat producing animals. The population of the United States has 

 increased 20 per cent, in the last decade and the number of meat- 

 producing animals has decreased in about the same ratio. The 

 spread between meat production and meat consumption under exist- 

 ing conditions, must become wider and wider as the years go by. 

 Not only the United States but the whole world is facing a famine 

 in meats, shoes and warm clothing. One county in Pennsylvania 

 has increased 151 per cent, in population in the last 20 years. In 

 my own county, on what was a farm, in three years, was built a 

 town of 9,000 people. It is predicted that when this European war 

 is over there will be a great inllux of immigrants to the United 

 States. The large increase in population is almost entirely of the 

 consuming class. Under such conditions it is not surprising that 

 only plutocrats and high salaried people, such as County Chairmen 

 of Farmer's Institutes can afford meat for dinner. 



When the "powers that be," ordained that we should have Free 

 Trade in the United States, the stockmen were paralyzed. They 

 saw vast numbers of livestock crossing our northern border from 

 Canada. They saw vast fleets of merchant vessels, loaded to the 

 gunwale, with meat from Argentina and Australia ; they saw our 

 meat market demoralized and our livestock men ruined. What has 

 been the result? The year 1914 has shown the highest average price 

 for livestock ever recorded in the United States. The shortage in 

 Canada is greater than in this country. During 1914 at one time, 

 cattle sold higher in Toronto than in the United States. During 

 the first three months of free trade, there came across the wide 

 waters enough meat to make one dinner for each person in the 

 United States. 



The causes of the high prices of meat are many. I mention but 

 few of them. The sub-division of ranges into farms, and ranches 

 for so-called dry farming. The overstocking of the ranges until they 

 carry but a small per cent, of the livestock formerly carried. The 

 large increase in the dairy industry, which is a negligible factor 

 in the meat supply; the high cost of incompetent labor; the slaugh- 

 ter of the innocents, roaster pigs, veal calves, baby beeves; the 

 greatly increased value of land in the corn belt, and the consequent 

 high cost of feed. The telephone also adds to the high cost of meat. 

 The resident of the town sits in a cozy room and orders by telephone 

 a pound of steak or a small roast which is delivered by a high sal- 

 aried driver in a high price motor truck, and the account is charged 

 on the butcher's book by a high salaried clerk. When the bill is 

 rendered, it is not surprising that the head of the house curses the 



