OUTLOOK FOR LIVE STOCK 263 



that the state and individuals own all the land. 

 Conditions of range and climate in the Northwest 

 have served to develop a system of shipping south- 

 ern cattle in the spring to the northern ranges for 

 summer pasture. From the plains they are 

 shipped, in autumn, grass-fattened, to the markets. 

 The last five years have witnessed the inauguration 

 of a far-reaching change in the economic conditions 

 of both the far West and the southwestern cattle 

 country. From 1900 up to 1910, there has been no 

 perceptible change in the visible cattle supply. 

 This, it should be remembered, is in the face of a 

 20 per cent increase in population. Not only did 

 the supply remain stationary for eight years, but 

 within the year 1909, according to government 

 figures, the total beef cattle supply decreased by 

 more than 2,000,000 head. Exportations of pack- 

 ing-house products and live cattle have fallen off 

 in the last four years nearly 50 per cent. These 

 figures, together with the transitional and indefinite 

 state of the cattle business in the West, have caused 

 widespread interest in the cattle situation and its 

 future prospects. This shortage of 2,000,000 head 

 would be hard to replace, even if there remained 

 any section in which the cattle-growing industry 

 were capable of immediate expansion. The change 

 in western range conditions has removed any pros- 

 pect of an immediate future development in that 

 section. The middle states are raising more cattle 

 than ever before, but we can look to no sudden in- 

 crease here. Further than this, never in the history 

 of the government reports have so many calves been 

 slaughtered as is being done at present. Not only 

 are we decreasing our supply of grown cattle, but 

 we are drawing to a dangerous extent upon our 

 future supply by this slaughter of calves. 



