THE DECREASING MEAT SUPPLY 255 



portions of the country a most hazardous business. 

 There was no telling when the price to the producer of 

 such animals would be so reduced by the heavy influx 

 of plains-grazed cattle and sheep to the markets as to 

 leave the old farmer on the wrong side of the balance 

 sheet. These abnormal conditions are now rapidly dis- 

 appearing. The grazing of the public domains has 

 been reduced to a system, so that it is possible, with a 

 fair degree of accuracy, to forecast the cost of produc- 

 tion of meat animals of those areas. This gives a 

 datum of substantial foundation to enable the older 

 farmer who wishes to produce meat animals to deter- 

 mine, with a very great degree of probability, the 

 amount of competition he will have to meet. 



A study of the second problem, however, the increase 

 in the number of meat animals, is naturally divided 

 into two correlated parts. The growing of additional 

 numbers of beef cattle will of course be accomplished 

 just as soon as it appears to the farmer that he can 

 get a greater profit by turning a bull calf into a steer 

 to be sold at the age of two or three years for beef, than 

 ho can get by selling him at six weeks for veal, which 

 is the common practice of to-day. Hence the increased 

 production of beef animals must follow the conserva- 

 tion of the calf. 



SELL OR KEEP THE BULL CALF. 



Under the present practice a calf at six weeks will 

 bring the Eastern farmer at least in the neighborhood 

 of ten dollars in cash. If the calf is kept for three 

 years and produces a steer that weighs approximately 

 twelve hundred pounds, the fanner may expect a price, 

 under present conditions, of from $80 to $100. Mean- 

 while, how much does it cost to maintain a steer for 



