22 



been a gradual decrease in numbers, but not a corresponding de- 

 crease in the amount of beef produced. 



It is a prevalent belief of those who are in a position to judge, 

 that the number of range-breeding cattle has recently, and is now, 

 diminishing. Opinions as to future developments differ widely 

 and are influenced largely by local conditions. Homesteaders who 

 begin operations under adverse conditions in some sections of 

 the range country will require a number of years before they will 

 be enabled to produce enough cattle to equal the number they dis- 

 place. In some localities farming is restricted to valleys and other 

 limited areas capable of irrigation or the growing of special crops, 

 leaving large areas of open range lands of the poorer grade. Un- 

 der proper management, these remaining range lands are capable 

 of a larger production than they are at present yielding. In still 

 other sections, extensive areas unsuited to any purpose but graz- 

 ing await more efficient management. Speaking of the western 

 range as a whole, the writers believe that within a few years, if 

 not in the more immediate future, the failure of farming ventures 

 in many range districts, the value to be derived from a small drove 

 of cattle on a well-established farm by the utilization of otherwise 

 wasted roughage, the enclosure, conservation, and more efficient 

 management of private and public ranges, the demand for milk 

 and beef in growing western cities, and the demand for feeding 

 cattle in the corn-belt will result in an expansion of cattle raising 

 in the range district; provided, of course, present market prices 

 continue, and judging from the present demand this seems probable. 



Altho the receipts of range cattle at large markets have been 

 quoted to depict range conditions, they are not a correct criterion 

 of present conditions. Quite naturally the increase in the western 

 population and the growth of such markets as Omaha, Ft. Worth, 

 Denver, and Portland, have reduced the number of range cattle 

 annually received at Chicago and other older markets. It is 

 readily seen that the somewhat gradual decrease in range-cattle 

 receipts at Chicago from 886,000 in 1890 to 376,000 in 1910 has 

 been, in large part, the result of the increase of population and 

 the growth of slaughtering centers thruout the range country. 

 Figures which might be quoted from various western markets in 

 no way take into account the cattle which are slaughtered in small 

 outlying towns and are used locally to supply the rapidly-increas- 

 ing population in many of the newer sections of the western coun- 

 try. With the settlement of the western range lands by the small 

 grain farmers, there is a growing tendency to utilize a part of the 

 crop in fattening cattle for local markets. This may seem a small 

 factor in anv one section of the West, but taken in the aggregate 

 for many states, it becomes a large factor in the disposal of west- 

 ern cattle. It is not argued that there has been no reduction in the 

 number of cattle in the United States, or even in the West. How- 

 ever, "the passing of the range" is many times used with too much 



