60 DRY-FARMING CONGRESS, WICHITA, 1914 



crop usually consists of alfalfa, small grain, and sugar beets. Alfalfa hay, 

 which is one of the easiest growing crops, one in which there is a very 

 large market, usually has its value cut in two. 



Therefore, growing livestock is not only profitable but an essential. 



Address of Dean Burnett 

 THE LIVESTOCK PROBLEM IN THE GREAT PLAINS. 



A generation ago, the Great Plains country was the pasture land of the 

 nation. True, the settlement of the region into farmsteds was well under 

 way, especially on the eastern fringe, but the great free range from the 

 Gulf to Canada stretched out toward the setting sun for unnumbered 

 leagues, inviting the cattleman to a land where grass and water were some- 

 times abundant, sometimes scarce, and sometimes altogether absent. The 

 conditions, however, were generally favorable, and the ratio of cattle to 

 population in the United States reached its highest point in our history, 

 while the price of meat animals was correspondingly low. 



Twenty years ago, in the year 1894, the United States Department of 

 Agriculture statistics showed 36,608,000 beef cattle in the United States, 

 with an estimated average value of $14.66. In January, 1914, the same 

 statistics show 35,855,000 beef cattle, with an average value of $31.13. It 

 will thus be seen that the number of cattle other than milch cows has re- 

 mained practically stationary in the last twenty years, while the price has 

 increased 112 per cent on farms, and other statistics show that the price 

 of meat products to the consumer has increased about 125 percent in the 

 last ten years. 



Dairy cattle have increased within this period from 16,500,000 to 20,- 

 700,000, and the average price has increased from $21.17 to $53.94 per head. 



Sheep show an increase by the United States Department of Agricul- 

 ture statistics from 45 millions in 1894, to 49,700,000 in 1914, but as the 

 United States Census shows a decrease from 61,500,000 in 1900 to 52,500,000 

 in 1910, and a continued decrease by the United States Department of 

 Agriculture statistics since 1910, it is fair to presume that here has been 

 no increase in the number of sheep in the past twenty years. In 1894, 

 sheep are quoted at $1.98 per head and in 1914 at $4.04, or an increase in 

 price of more than 100 percent. 



The number of swine has fortunately increased in the last twenty 

 years to meet the increasing demand for meat products, showing 45,200,000 

 in 1894 by the United States Department of Agriculture statistics against 

 58,900,000 in 1914. The price has risen from an average of $5.98 per head 

 in 1894 to $10.40 per head in 1914. 



In the meantime the population of the United States has increased 

 from 62,900,000 in 1890 to 91,900,000 in 1910, with an estimated population 

 in 1914 of 100,000,000 people, or an increase in population of 50 per cent in 

 the last twenty-four years. 



This increase in population has carried with it a pressure for the occu- 

 pation of land for farming purposes which in the earlier days was thought 

 valuable only for grazing. By restricting the freedom and limiting the 



