258 THE LURE OF THE LAND 



A baby beef weighing 900 pounds ought to bring the 

 farmer $90. If the animal be sold at two years, he 

 will have been fed for 730 days. From the beginning 

 to the end of his life he eats about 17% cents' worth 

 a day. The total cost of production is therefore 

 $127.75. The apparent loss on baby beef is $32.25 

 per head. The farmer, therefore, who had to buy all 

 the food to bring up a baby beef steer, would be rapidly 

 approaching bankruptcy. As in the other case, the sal- 

 vation of this process is in the utilization of food which 

 the farmer could not sell. 



The above illustrations show the fundamental diffi- 

 culty which has to be overcome before it is evident to 

 the farmer that the production of increased numbers of 

 beef cattle is desirable from his point of view. With 

 the production of pork and mutton the difficulties are 

 not so great, but not having had any very great deal of 

 experience in this line I refrain from giving approxi- 

 mate estimates of cost and of profit or loss. 



EXTENDING THE AREA OF PRODUCTION. 



The second part of the problem is one more of theo- 

 retic consideration, namely, the more general diffusion 

 of the production of meat animals. As has already 

 been intimated, the vast plains of the semi-arid West 

 and the fruitful cornfields of Missouri, Illinois, In- 

 diana, Iowa and Nebraska, have been the dominant 

 factors in the production of beef and pork. These 

 great centers of production have been supplemented by 

 great centers of distribution. After all has been said 

 that is deserving, and this is much, of the advantages 

 of great centers of distribution of meat products, it can- 

 not be denied that there is always more or less danger 

 of combinations, made possible by the existence of such 



