264 THE LURE OF THE LAND 



business by the competition of the great central slaughtering 

 establishments of the West and Central West. 



The temptation to sell live stock at the prevailing high 

 prices rather than to continue to carry them with high-priced 

 stock feed, possible loss from disease or accident, and uncer- 

 tain prices the following year. 



NO LONGER PROFITABLE TO GROW MEAT ANIMALS. 



From these data the officials of the Department of 

 Agriculture conclude that even at the prevailing high 

 prices it is no longer profitable for farmers to grow 

 meat animals. In other words, the cost of food for 

 these animals and the cost of taking care of them have 

 increased at a more rapid rate than the price of the 

 animals themselves when sold. It is generally con- 

 ceded by farmers who have lands suitable for the or- 

 dinary purposes of agriculture, that it doesn't pay to 

 grow beef cattle on the farm. It is more remunerative 

 to purchase the cattle at the age of two or two and a 

 half years from localities where grazing only is possi- 

 ble. Nearly all the farmers in Loudoun County, Vir- 

 ginia, grow beef cattle for the fall market, and prac- 

 tically all of them buy their cattle either from the 

 West or from the mountains of southwestern Virginia, 

 northwestern North Carolina, and eastern Kentucky or 

 Tennessee. On these mountains, where plowing the 

 fields is somewhat difficult and land is cheap, the steers 

 may be grown without much artificial feeding and very 

 little care, and perhaps at a profit to the farmers of 

 those localities. These young steers at two and a half 

 years of age cost the Loudoun County farmers about 

 $45 apiece, and by keeping them over winter and turn- 

 ing them onto the blue grass the next summer, the 

 farmer thinks he makes a large profit when he sells 

 them for from $70 to $80 apiece. 



