64 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. [Pub. Doc. 



The statistics further show clearly what is apparent to 

 most people, — the relatively great importance of the dairy 

 cow among the animals of the farm, particularly in New Eng- 

 land and in the northeastern States generally. 



The present high price of not only beef but of all meat 

 products, with no indication of a lessening price in the future, 

 has brought home the question of meat consumption with 

 great force to a large proportion of the consuming public, and 

 the problem that confronts a great many people at the present 

 time is the source of the meat supply in the home. Without 

 attempting to take up the question as to whether the people 

 in the United States eat more meat than is necessary, and the 

 relative advantages and disadvantages of a vegetarian diet 

 or any similar matters, I think it is safe to assume that the 

 per capita consumption is likely to decrease, but I think that 

 most of us, inheriting the ideas of our beef-eating English 

 ancestors, will go a long way before we entirely forego meat 

 as an important part of our dietary. It behooves us, then, 

 as farmers to bestir ourselves to discover if we may not pro- 

 duce more meat as a profitable part of our farm industry. It 

 is not necessary to call your attention to the fact that the 

 conditions in the United States with regard to the production 

 of beef have been anomalous for the last fifty years. In this 

 time vast areas of fertile soil have been opened up for settlement 

 and development. The crops easiest to produce on these vast 

 areas have been grass and the cereal grains, notably corn, and 

 the latter has been produced in abundance far beyond the 

 capacity of the people to use as grain. A large part of this 

 raw material has naturally gone into beef as the easiest method 

 of marketing this crop, without regard as to whether such a 

 practice was on the whole an economical one. We therefore 

 became, and have remained up to the present time, a beef- 

 exporting country, and beef has been relatively cheap. The 

 ease of its production in the central west has put the eastern 

 farmer entirely out of competition in the production of beef. 



Two factors have been prominent in causing a decline in 

 meat-producing animals: first, the taking up of vast areas of 

 practically free pasturage upon which beef-producing stock 

 could be raised; and secondly, the increased use and market 



