516 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



work was chiefly in the investigation of problems of the cattle 

 feeder. For twelve years I carried on a series of investigations in 

 cattle feeding, and therefore the discussions which you will have 

 here and the problems which concern you are problems of which I 

 have some knowledge from experience. 



I have somehow come to believe from the observations which 

 I have made that the cattle feeders, and the cattlemen generally, 

 occupy a somewhat peculiar position among other lines of stock 

 raising. I do not know what the psychology of the problem is 

 because I am an agriculturist and not a psychologist, but somehow 

 the big brainy fellows in the live stock business are generally in the 

 cattle business at one time or another, and the intelligence that is 

 represented by the men who handle cattle is of the highest order 

 among the animal husbandry men. 



Now, gentlemen, you have met at a time when the problems 

 of cattle feeding are real problems, and whether you will be able to 

 solve the question or not as to how the consumer is to get cheaper 

 meat and how the farmer is to get more for his cattle at the same 

 time, is a problem. 



Now, the difficulty with our business is the uncertainty which 

 surrounds it. We put a bunch of cattle on feed today and by the 

 time they are fattened and ready to sell the market has gone down 

 and we are out of it. And then if we all agree that cattle feeding 

 is unprofitable and all go out of the business, in some mysterious 

 manner the price always goes up. If any organization of the 

 cattle industry could be brought about so that there should be some 

 kind of stability so that the prices of finished cattle should have a 

 stable value, not six cents this year and ten cents next year, it 

 would solve most of the difficulties that confront the cattle feeder. 

 1 am sure you agree with me that that is true. 



Now, I myself am not expecting to pay less for the beef which 

 I eat. I have not been able to solve the problem of how it is pos- 

 sible for the farmer today, on land worth sixty to one hundred 

 dollars or a hundred and fifty dollars an acre and with labor twice 

 as high as formerly, and with the ranges turned into farms, I have 

 not yet been able to work out to my satisfaction how it is possible 

 for us to reduce materially the cost of the finished steer. If the 

 people of this country want to eat good beef they will have to pay 

 more for it than they have paid in the past. I am not speaking 

 now of a temporary condition or of the prices which now prevail, 

 but I am satisfied that the competition of the dairy cow and the 



