92 



THE HIGH COST OF LIVING 



it takes to secure a delivery from a shipping-point 

 fifty miles away. 



Gradually, cattle, sheep, and hogs ceased to be 

 raised by the ordinary farmer. They, too, secured 

 their meat from the Western packers. Ultimately 

 the local slaughter-houses were bought out by the 

 packers or were put out of business by competition, 

 and the local meat-dealers became in effect mere 

 agents of the great packing-houses which controlled 

 the meat supply. 



This is one explanation of the reduction of live 

 cattle and with it dairying. An examination of the 

 statistics of cattle in the country shows the extent 

 to which the raising of cattle of all kinds has dimin- 

 ished. 



The statistics of domestic animals on farms, ac- 

 cording to the census of 1900 and 1910, are as 

 follows : 



The number of dairy cows increased by only 

 3,687,104 in ten years, while the number of swine 

 and sheep decreased by about fourteen million head. 

 The total loss in all cattle was five and three-quarter 

 million head at a time when the population of the 



