30 INVESTIGATION IN ANIMAL NUTRITION 



year preceding and when the price for calves was the highest on record. 

 Then, as final proof, it is found in the record for the year 1914, when 

 natives brought $8.30 per hundred weight, the receipts of calves dropped 

 to 363,614. The enormous sale of calves during the 1910-1912 period 

 is distinctly reflected in the corresponding shrinkage of the receipts 

 of native steers during the 1912-1914 period. 



Comparing the cost of production, as shown in Table XIV, with 

 the average prices paid for native steers ranging in weight from 1,050 

 to 1,200 pounds during the years 1905-1911, as shown in Table XXIV, 

 it will be seen that there was little, if any, encouragement for farmers 

 in the Central West to raise steers for market. The rapid increase in 

 the price of land, the high price of feed and labor, the slow increase in 

 price paid for steers, made the farmer's end of the business so intol- 

 erable that many became discouraged. 



During these years of unsatisfactory market conditions for farmers 

 who had specialized in beef-production, many became disheartened and 

 turned their attention to dairying, and it is this crisis in beef-produc- 

 tion, more than all other influences combined, that started the unprec- 

 edented infusion of dairy blood into the herds all over the country. 



During the time the range was open, free, and ample to provide 

 the bulk of the beef needed in the country, it was a constant menace to 

 the development of a permanent and paying beef industry on the arable 

 farms of the north central states. Those who were fortunate or fore- 

 sighted enough to secure a large tract of land when it was cheap, and 

 those who secured small tracts by homestead, tree-claims, or other 

 methods could for a time compete with the range. But as the country 

 increased in population and the land increased in value, the chance for 

 making profits in beef-production on arable land, gradually dimin- 

 ished under range conditions. 



There are two fundamental and divergent factors bearing upon this 

 industry. On the one hand, the price level for beef must be such that 

 consumption will not be materially depressed, and on the other, it 

 must promise a profit to the farmers who rear and fatten the steers. 

 This calls for a number of reforms. (1) The wide spread between 

 the prices paid for steers and the price of meat to the consumer must 

 be narrowed. (2) There must be stability in the market, for without 

 this, great losses will be sustained by the beef-producers, which will 

 result in many abandoning the business. (3) Experimental, demon- 

 strational, and educational work must be conducted along practical 

 not spectacular lines. (4) Farmers must make radical changes in 

 their methods of feeding and handling steers in order to reduce the cost 

 of production, for economical production and early marketing are as 

 important factors in assuring profit in beef-production as is a promis- 

 ing and stable market. 



