No. 5. DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 351 



JOINT SESSION OF BOARD OF AGRICULTURE, PENNSYL- 

 VANIA BREEDERS' ASSOCIATION, PENNSYLVANIA 

 DAIRY UNION, PENNSYLVANIA HOLSTEIN-FRIESIAN AS- 

 SOCIATION AND ASSOCIATED POULTRYMEN OF PENN- 

 SYLVANIA. 



MEAT CUTTING DEMONSTRATION 



PROF. TOMHAVE: If you have a question to ask at any time, 

 don't hesitate, and you will find, as we get along, there will be 

 times when somebody will have to work on this platform. I may 

 be able to get Mr. Bayard to do all of it; if I can, I can keep on talk- 

 ing, but there may be times when I have to make some cuts and 

 you can talk. I can ansAver questions just as well as not, and if 

 you find, as we go along, that it takes a little extra time, and we 

 apparently may be wasting some time, don't get excited, and we will 

 tiy and give you something that will interest you as you go along. 

 If anyone has come here with the expectation of seeing a demonstra- 

 tion, so far as skill and swiftness of cutting meat is concerned, I 

 am afraid he or she is going to be very much disappointed, because 

 I am not an expert at this cutting business, and for that reason you 

 will have to endure with me. I believe, however, there are some les- 

 sons we can learn as we go along. Furthermore, I believe it is 

 something that we should be interested in, at least to some extent, 

 both as breeders and as meat consumers. 



You have heard during the past day or two and during the past 

 two or three years, we are more or less concerned today about our 

 future meat supply. During the past ten or twelve years the sui>- 

 ply of meat animals in the United States has very rapidly decreased. 

 In the meantime, the population has increased at its normal rate. 

 The result is that today the meat producing animals on the farms in 

 the United States are far below normal. The result is that we have 

 high priced meats and there seems to be an apparent world short- 

 age of meat. I prepared a table a short time ago to illustrate by a 

 curve the relation between the increase in population in the United 

 States and the supply, or the increase or decrease in meat animals 

 since 1870. I found that from 1870 up to 1900, the four lines, namely, 

 a line of population, a line for swine, a line for sheep and a line 

 for beef cattle, practically ran parallel in an upward trend, but from 

 1900 to 1907, there was a check in the three lines representing the 

 number of meat producing animals. We find that since 1907 there 

 has been a further decline in all three lines, but especially so far as 

 the number of meat animals is concerned, and yet the line represent- 

 ing increase in population has increased at approximately 2,000,000 

 souls per year. That means that we are today up against a very 

 serious problem so far as our shortage of meat producing animals is 

 concerned, and it is going to take some time before we can again get 

 back to our normal supply. 



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