702 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



of the corn belt herds of cattle roamed, where the cost of keep even 

 with careful herding was about a dollar a head during th« summer sea- 

 son, and where the cattle could make from 200 to 300 pounds' gain at 

 this minimum expense. Every fall, men rode over the country, bunch- 

 ing up weanlings and yearlings for further development under the same 

 condition, and two and three-year-olds for feeders in the older portions 

 of the corn belt and in the states east. When we say this, we are simply 

 reciting what now seems ancient history to our older readers. 



Then came the opening up of the great western plains, the range 

 country, and the improvement of the stock by the use of the best beef 

 sires. In time, farmers found it cheaper to go to Omaha, Kansas City 

 or Chicago and buy up lots of feeders, assorted as to size, weight and 

 color. They found they could do this cheaper, or at least easier, than 

 tiaey could be bunched up in the decreasing herds in fenced pastures. 

 From that time on, the corn belt became a feeding country instead of a 

 breeding country. 



Then came dry farming, so called, and the enormous speculation in 

 grazing lands, and the breaking up of the ranges through the advent of 

 the settler and homesteader. In the last five or six years the supply of 

 these feeders from the range has been steadily decreasing. The ranges 

 have emptied out, and the fenced ranches are either gone or going, not al- 

 together, but to an extent that seriously affects the supply of feeders 

 and advances the price. We have sold numbers of carloads of cattle 

 at from $2.75 to $3.25 per hundredweight, which would be snapped up to- 

 day at more than twice these figures. 



In the meantime, our cities have been growing, and the demand for 

 milk increasing, until the demand of Chicago and St. Louis eats into 

 the beef growing country of Illinois, that of Cleveland and Cincinnati 

 into that of Ohio. Pittsburg, Buffalo, New York and Boston take about 

 all the possible milk production in Pennsylvania, New York and the 

 eastern states; and they are even now drawing on Canada tor milk to 

 supply New York and Boston. The supply of feeders from these milk 

 producing sections has become a negligible quantity. 



Therefore, if the corn belt is to feed cattle, it must grow more and 

 more of them itself. Our readers may not see just how to do it at a profit; 

 but they will be forced to find a way before a great while. There will 

 always be more or less cattle grown on the ranges — more in the com- 

 ing years than now, because of the failure of the dry farmer to realize 

 his expectations. Much of this dry farming land will revert to pasture 

 and again be grazed by sheep and cattle. Persons who are familiar 

 with the history of the range know that in this we are simply reciting 

 ancient history. We have seen great ranches, that were once great wheat 

 fields, on which men expected to make fortunes by dry farming or some 

 other kind of farming, and failed. 



Meanwhile, in the last twenty years the amount of irrigated land has 

 been increasing, lands that grow alfalfa of the very best quality. Alfal- 

 fa is growing in favor all over the eastern country; but the freight 

 rates will sooner or later, in fact, are already beginning to impress upon 

 alfalfa growers the importance of feeding it on the farm to cattle 



