ELEVENTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK — PART IV. 129 



Meat production will never occupy a permanent place in American 

 agriculture until it is placed upon a more stable basis. 



The clamour of the consumer for cheap meat gets a more ready 

 audience than the cry of the producer for a reasonably certain profit. 



The writer does not overlook the fact that the widespread demand 

 for meat by the masses will depend largely upon the price of meat as 

 compared with other articles of food. It is for the interest of the pro- 

 ducer, therefore, that meat be sold over the block at as low a price as is 

 consistent with allowing every necessary factor in the trade a reasonable 

 profit. If there are unnecessary factors in the trade, and if any neces- 

 sary factor is getting too large a proportion of profit, these facts should 

 become common knowledge, and some way should be found to eliminate 

 them and distribute the profits. These are matters for careful investiga- 

 tion. Producers do not possess enough facts upon which to base intelli- 

 gent action. 



Is it not safe to assume that the meat producer does not ask to be 

 subsidized? Nor does he demand an unreasonable profit. His chief diffi- 

 culty is that in the present disorganized condition of the meat producing 

 industry, he can not insist on or demand anything, not even his rights. 

 If he profits by his ventures, he takes it as a streak of good luck; if he 

 loses, he grumbles some, but finally accepts it as inevitable. These losses 

 have been getting more common, and hence the general tendency is away. 



How can we consistently advocate more general livestock production 

 when it takes the expert to come anywhere near hitting the high point 

 of the market? We find a strong market prevails for a limited time only, 

 to be followed by a prolonged dull market, these changes frequently oc- 

 curring without the certain argument of an increased demand and short 

 supply, or vice versa. To be sure, the producers are sometimes at fault in 

 precipitating or at least aggravating these conditions; but not always. 

 Producers could here plan to be as well informed as to supply and demand 

 as other interests are. | 



In my judgment, the problem of making it possible to produce profit- 

 ably in the corn belt a large amount of meat, that can be sold at a price 

 which the masses can afford to pay, is a larger question than that of 

 improving our export demand, as helpful as that may be. It will not 

 be long before it will be a very live question whether the stockmen of 

 this country wish to permit meat grown on the cheap lands of other 

 countries to compete with their products in the markets of the United 

 States. I refer to meats bound to be produced in large quantities in 

 Argentina, Uruguay, Paraguay, Brazil and farther north countries of 

 South and Central America. 



Consumers must sooner or later reconcile themselves to at least the 

 present scale of prices for meats. In other words, the era of cheap 

 meats has passed. With the rise in price of meat, consumers in the 

 United States will clamour for the opportunity to purchase the cheaper 

 meats of those countries. Bear in mind that there will be no one who 

 will be particularly concerned except the meat producer. Not the 

 packer; because he is fast becoming the principal factor in the meat trade 

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