io6 AGRICULTURAL ECONOMICS 



d) USE OF CHEAPER FOOD 1 

 BY G. F. WARREN 



As our population is becoming larger we are being forced to use 

 cheaper kinds of food. Beef is one of the most expensive foods 

 because so much feed is required in order to produce a pound of it. 

 It has been estimated that a given amount of grain will support five 

 times as many persons as will the meat grown from it. As population 

 increases, the price of grain rises faster than does the price of meat. 

 During the last ten years corn has risen in price much faster than 

 have steers. This is the reason why farmers are not raising more 

 beef. The childish suggestion that each farmer should raise two steers 

 a year would result in a very much higher cost of living if farmers were 

 foolish enough to follow the advice. This advice ignores the fact that 

 we cannot eat the grain and also produce beef from it. Laws are often 

 introduced in Congress and in state legislatures to prohibit the killing 

 of heifer calves, in the apparent assumption that calves live on air. 

 The food in the milk that it takes to produce a given amount of veal 

 will support more persons than will the veal. The longer the calf is 

 fed on milk the less is the supply of human food. The comparative 

 prices offered for the milk and for the veal produced from it are 

 measures of the comparative need of the city for these products. 

 Hence, calves are not kept long except where milk is cheap. Few 

 cattle are raised except where feed is cheap. 



A given amount of feed will produce much more human food in 

 milk than it will in beef. Dairy cows are therefore increasing about 

 as rapidly as population. We keep a little more than one cow for 

 five persons. In addition to milk, this number of cows provides about 

 one veal or one old cow or buU for beef for each family each year. 



Hogs are much more efficient users of food than are steers. A 

 given amount of grain will produce many more pounds of pork than 

 it will of beef. For this reason hogs are increasing in number while 

 beef cattle are decreasing. 



Poultry are very efficient users of food. As meat rises in price, 

 more eggs are used. From 1890 to 1910 the population of New York, 

 Chicago, Boston, St. Louis, Cincinnati, San Francisco, and Milwaukee 

 increased 78 per cent whereas the receipts of eggs increased 183 per cent. 



When population becomes very dense, roughage and waste prod- 

 ucts be used will for producing milk and we shall raise only as many beef 

 cattle as can be kept on the remaining supply of roughage and pasture. 



1 From Bulletin 341, Cornell Experiment Station, pp. 20 >. .$. 



