THIRD ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART VI. 299 



more cattle, and also more in proportion to population, than we ever 

 had before. 



The same number of breeding cattle gives us a much greater annual 

 product of beef now than it did fifty years ago. The stock of cattle 

 has been improved; it is more precocious; bullocks are marketed at an 

 earlier age; and the carcasses average heavier and better. "With dairy 

 stock there has been a similar improvement. The animals are more 

 precocious, the average yield is better, and the annual product has 

 greatly improved. 



All of this, of course, is of advantage to the producer. It means that 

 his breeding cattle are worth more money, that his sales bring him greater 

 returns, and that his products are correspondingly larger. 



These are the facts as we see them at this time. How can we ex- 

 plain the high price of cattle at a time when the numbers and products 

 are greater than ever before? It cannot be accounted for by any variation 

 in the crops of the country as a whole, or of any part of it; neither can it 

 be explained by any variation in the amount of exports of cattle or cattle 

 products. It is due principally to changed conditions in the United 

 States; to the great and universal prosperity which prevails; to the in- 

 crease in manufacture, and to the existence of a vast army of working 

 men who are able to purchase and pay for the best beef, butter and 

 cheese. We are manufacturing the iron and steel, the machinery, the 

 textiles, and other finished products for the world, and are feeding di- 

 rectly and without any restrictions the laborers who are necessary to 

 keep these enormous manufacturing enterprises in operation. 



The statistics indicate that it is pre-eminently the development of 

 the home market which has benefited the cattle market. 



For many years our breeders have been working incessantly, with 

 American energy and American intelligence, to establish in the United 

 States the highest types of the best breeds of cattle. They have spent 

 their money with a lavish hand for breeding stock; they have had the 

 advantage of the most fertile soil in the world, and of a temperate climate 

 favorable to animal life of all kinds. The cattle which they have pro- 

 duced have during late years held their own in the show rings with the 

 best imported. It has seemed to me that we have reached a point where 

 we might reasonably claim that we have as good cattle as exist in the 

 country, and that we might assert our independence of foreign breeding 

 stock. 



Firmly believing that the development and high character of our 

 pure-bred cattle warranted such assertions, I have taken steps to bring 

 our animals to the country south of us, who are just reaching that stage 

 of progress in animal husbandry where large numbers of such cattle are 

 needed to grade up the native stock. I have had in mind particularly 

 Mexico and Argentina as countries which must soon, of necessity, bring 

 their cattle to the modern standard. But the people of these countries 

 know good cattle when they see them and they want the best. It is use- 

 less to try and sell our culls in those markets. The first shipment of 



