OUTLOOK FOR LIVE STOCK 259 



ber of cattle in the country has more than doubled. 

 The pork and mutton supply of the country is more 

 susceptible than the beef supply to the factors in- 

 fluencing the market, due to the relatively short 

 time required in increasing very largely the total 

 number of either swine or sheep. A serious short- 

 age in the total number of cattle in the country, 

 however, is a matter which cannot be made up in 

 a few months, but takes years to replace. The 

 price of corn is so inseparably involved with the 

 production of meat that it may be considered the 

 greatest factor influencing both supplies and prices 

 of live stock. The present high prices of all the 

 meat-producing animals are due in a large degree 

 to two influences: First, the high price of corn, 

 and, second, the shortage in breeding stock, espe- 

 cially cattle and hogs, throughout the entire couri- 

 try. 



It is the supply of cattle, however which presents 

 the most interesting phase of the question of future 

 meat supply. While all of the corn-growing states 

 of the middle West are large producers and finish- 

 ers of cattle, the relatively cheap production of the 

 western ranges has always been a rather uncertain 

 element in influencing the market conditions and 

 supplies of cattle. 



In the entire trans-Missouri country the cattle 

 industry in every section was a forerunner of civil- 

 ization. As this advanced westward in the north- 

 ern part of the United States, the pioneer cattle- 

 man looked to the Texas ranges for the supply of 

 breeding stock. In this way the historic old over- 

 land cattle trail from Texas to Dakota was started. 

 Along this trail for a number of years great herds 

 of Texas cattle were moved to the northern ranges, 

 and distributed throughout Nebraska, Dakota, 



