No. 4.] BEEF PRODUCTION IN NEW ENGLAND. 61 



BEEF PKODUCTION IN NEW ENGLAND. 



BY PROF. J. \V. SANBORN, FORMERLY DIRECTOR OF THE MISSOURI 



AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION, PRESIDENT OF THE 



UTAH AGRICULTURAL COLLEGE AND DIRECTOR OF THE 



UTAH AGRICULTURAL EXPERIMENT STATION. 



Are the present prices of beef and the promising outlook 

 for beef production in New England due to permanent 

 causes, or are they based upon transitory conditions? If 

 new industrial agricultural conditions are at the root of the 

 high prices of meat products they demand close attention 

 and call for a new attitude on the part of our farmers 

 towards the stock industry. The mighty expanse of free 

 ranges laden with crops accumulated in an arid region, 

 where they dry in perfection and remain palatable for a con- 

 siderable period, aiforded stock food at so nominal a cost as 

 to have made nearly impossible competition by those living 

 on high-priced lands and inadeciuate pastures. It practi- 

 cally obliterated beef production in New England. 



It is probable that the corn shortage of 1901 of nearly 

 one-half the usual production has aided the natural tendency 

 to enhanced prices of beef, and that a return to normal crops 

 will have a modifying influence on prices of meat products. 

 The basic cause of the present satisfactory prices of meats 

 is found in a constantly decreasing ratio of meat animals to 

 population. From 1892, when the number of meat animals 

 in the United States reached high-water mark, there has been 

 a .steady decrease in total number raised for the shambles. 



1892, 

 1899, 



37,651,239 

 27,994,225 



Sheep. 



44,938,365 

 39,114,453 



52,398,019 

 38,651,631 



