40 



AGRICULTURAL PRICES 



at the central market and feeds them for five to seven months, 

 largely on corn. During the winter of 1917-1918, the chart was 

 not quite so accurate as usual, for the reason that the other ex- 



i<?o<? mo mi ma ma m* nu isn isn 



m<? 1920 



Illustrating the departure of prices of 1,300-pound native steers at Chicago from 



the ten-year ratio. 



penses did not mount at this time as rapidly as corn. While heavy 

 losses were incurred by cattle feeders, they \vere not so great as 

 indicated in the chart. 



The profits and losses of the big cattlemen of the far-western 

 and southwestern states are not to be measured by such a chart. 

 Their chief expenses are labor and the cost of pasture. Weather 

 conditions affect them directly, whereas weather conditions in the 

 corn belt affect cattle profits indirectly, thru the price of corn. 

 During 1917 and 1918, the western cattle men, with the exception 

 possibly of those in certain sections of the southwest, which suf- 

 fered from unprecedented drouth in 1917, made unusually good 

 profits. As a class, their profits were probably not as large as 

 the profits of the grain-growing farmers of the middle-west, but 

 were far larger than the profits of the cattle-feeders of the middle- 

 west. 



