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BULLETIN OF 

 MASSACHUSETTS BOAED OF AGEICULTUEE. 



BEEF PRODUCTION IN NEW ENGLAND, 



By Prof. J. W. Sanborn, /ormeWy Director of the Missouri Agricultural Experiment Sta- 

 tion, President of the Utah Agricultural College and Director of the Utah Agricultural 

 £.rperi7nent 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 considerable 

 period, afforded stock food at so nominal a cost as to have made 

 nearly impossible competition by those living on high-priced lands 

 and inadequate pastures. It practically obliterated beef produc- 

 tion 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 modi- 

 fying influence on prices of meat products. The basic cause of the 

 present satisfactory prices of meats is found in a constantly de- 

 creasing 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. 



