THE DECREASING MEAT SUPPLY 259 



centers, that are inimical to the producer on the one 

 hand and the consumer on the other. 



In other words, the practical control of the meat 

 products trade by a few immensely wealthy corpora- 

 tions is an element of danger which cannot be too care- 

 fully considered. If the production of meat animals 

 could be encouraged in all parts of the country, so that 

 every farmer would have a few animals for sale, and if 

 these animals could find a market in near-by centers, 

 thus increasing immensely the numbers of centers of 

 distribution, the dangers of the monopolistic system 

 would be largely neutralized. It is highly important, 

 therefore, tnat smaller centers of production be encour- 

 aged, and these, in turn, would make it possible to es- 

 tablish smaller centers of distribution. 



HARDSHIPS OF TBTJST CONTROL. 



At the present time the farmer who produces a few 

 steers, as is the case with myself, from fifty to one 

 hundred per year, when he goes into the market meets 

 the competition of the great distributing firms. Theo- 

 retically the price of cattle on the hoof in Virginia 

 should be greater than in Chicago. This is true be- 

 cause the great majority of all meats consumed along 

 the Eastern border of the United States come from the 

 packing centers of the Middle West. Nevertheless, I 

 believe it would be more profitable for the Virginia 

 farmer, if he could ship in carload lots, to send his cat- 

 tle to Chicago. There he would get from 1 to 2 cents 

 a pound more on the hoof than he does at Bennings or 

 Baltimore. 



An illustration of this is found in my recent experi- 

 ence. My cattle lost 45 pounds a head in shipping 

 from Bluemont to Bennings, a distance of 55 miles. 



