162 IOWA DEPARTMENT OP AGRICULTURE 



their supply of cattle from Honduras. The most that they ever 

 bought from Honduras was 25,000 head in a year. They have a 

 fairly good foundation down there for starting the cattle business, 

 but giving them the benefit of the doubt, the most that they could 

 produce and ship to this country would be 35,000 to 36,000 head 

 a year. Of course, the nearest point would be Honduras. I don't 

 think that number of cattle would cut any figure with the price 

 or with the industry in this country. 



Mr. Ryan: How would it be if the animals were slaughtered 

 down there? 



Mr. Downing: It isn't practical to slaughter them there, bo- 

 cause you can't get enough cattle to keep your industry going. 

 There is also the disadvantage of a tropical climate. 



Mr. Thorne : Aren 't there large tracts of land there ? 



Mr. Downing: There are large tracts of mountains. When 

 yon get down into Argentine Republic, it is a nicer country. That 

 is the good agricultural country of South America, and that is our 

 beef competitor at the present time in the south; but nothing in 

 Central America from Mexico to the canal, will ever count for 

 anything. Cuba has already sent three shipments of chilled beef 

 — the first since the war; but I don't look for Cuba to ever do 

 very much. 



Mr. Gunn: You spoke about the Argentine Republic being 

 quite well advanced. What would be the result if we could have 

 dressed beef shipped in from Argentina? Couldn't it be pro- 

 duced there much cheaper than here? 



Mr. Downing: That depends on what kind of beef you are 

 talking about — whether it is corn-fed or grass-fed. They can pro- 

 duce grass-fed beef cheaper than in this country; they don't know 

 so much about the corn-feeding and finishing there as here. Ar- 

 gentine Republic is responsible for our decline in exports. It 

 is furnishing England with a large amount of her beef; and, as 

 Argentine came to the front American exports began to go down, 

 and at the same time our own consumption began to increase. 

 There has been more or less in the papers regarding the possibility 

 of Argentine beef being shipped into this country. The so-called 

 beef -packers' trust now controls two of the largest plants in Buenos 

 Ayres, and their total shipments of mutton and chilled beef ex- 

 ported to England amounted last year to almost one-half of the 

 total amount shipped out. They are rapidly coming to the front 

 down there, and while they do not control the situation, so far 



