420 



Missouri Agricultural Report. 



</5 



>>^->-: 



^f<;^;^ 



It pays to have good cattle to eat good grass. 



The notion that high-priced land and the cattle industry 

 do not go well together is fast being proven a fallacy, and the 

 supply for the future must no doubt be produced upon land that 

 is susceptible of intense farming. The effect that free meats 

 will have upon our business this year is somewhat problematical, 

 but it is a safe guess that a business which increased 600 per 

 cent in four months will hardly make a less showing in the next 

 twelve. The old adage that "a good beginning makes a bad 

 ending" was fully exemplified in the past year, and in the closing 

 months the feeders' profits dwindled away almost to the van- 

 ishing point. The lesson of the past ought not to be soon for- 

 gotten. They emphasize the fact that we cannot place too 

 much reliance in the weather bureau, nor give too much credence 

 to the advice of the fellows who are haunted with the specter 

 of a famine, for first one thing and then another happens to jar 

 our faith and shrink the profits. The man who has stayed in 

 the game while his neighbors were getting out ought to be re- 

 warded for his nerve this year. Alarmists are again working 

 their imagination overtime lest the future supply of cattle will 

 be exhausted, but my notion is that when any business becomes 

 reasonably certain of safe and easy profits it will become suffi- 

 ciently attractive that it will stimulate greater production. I 

 see no reason why the rule should not apply in the live stock 

 industry. 



