OUTLOOK FOR LIVE STOCK 269 



diverted to the eastern centers of population on 

 account of the greater demand for meat products 

 on the part of the West itself. This is illustrated 

 forcibly by conditions which exist at this writing. 

 Only a few years ago many thousands of hay-fed 

 cattle from the ranches of Montana were annually 

 marketed in Chicago and other eastern markets. 

 At present, although there is little, if any, reduction 

 in the number of these animals fed in Montana, 

 the East gets very few of them. Nearly all are 

 shipped across the mountains to supply the meat 

 demands of the Pacific Northwest and Alaska. This 

 present and prospective demand for animals and an- 

 imal products merits the attention of every American 

 farmer. He should carefully weigh the considerations 

 both for and against live stock farming before he 

 definitely determines to abandon it in favor of 

 grain production. He should become very keenly 

 alive to the advantages of stock farming and to the 

 returns which it is possible for him to secure from 

 it. As an average", he has never made the most 

 of his opportunities in this line, but conditions are 

 now such as to merit greater attention to details 

 of breeding and management and the securing of 

 correspondingly greater returns for his labor and 

 investment. To the individual farmer the methods 

 of profitable live stock production are of vital im- 

 portance, since upon their solution depends his own 

 ability to remain in the live stock business. To the 

 American farmer, as a class, the live stock problem 

 has even greater significance, because upon its in- 

 telligent solution rests, in a large degree, the future 

 agricultural prosperity of the country, and the hope 

 of ultimately placing the agriculture of this coun- 

 try on a permanent and stable basis. 



