THE BEEF SUPPLY 



him?" Just at that instant a little old gen- 

 tleman with a squeaky voice answered from 

 the far end of the church near the door, "Ye 

 c'n place him in my pew, if ye wan' ter. I'm 

 agoin' ter leave." 



More than funereal tediousness is wont to 

 mark the presentation of statistics and dis- 

 cussions based thereupon. However, the 

 considerations below are so weighty that I 

 venture to urge all present to retain their 

 pews to the end. 



Is the supply of beef cattle keeping up 

 with the demand? 



In a sense, if the least time and space are 

 allowed for, the supply and the demand of 

 an article traded in are always equal. Any 

 cause tending to sunder them is at once an- 

 nulled by its own operation. If the supply 

 begins to run ahead, prices fall and demand 

 increases to meet the supply again. If de- 

 mand starts to grow away from supply, 

 prices rise and demand falls off, or else sup- 

 ply increases to meet the demand. The 

 effect of these movements is immediately an 

 equation, at some price or other, between 



153 



