Ttcenty Years' Changes in our Foreign Meat Supplies. 4*j7 
and Connecticut, we can see still more plainly what we are coming to in the 
near future. In 1850 New York had 606 cattle to the thousand inhabitants ; 
in 1880 she had but 460. In 1850 Connecticut had 575 cattle to the 
thousand inhabitants; in 1880 she had but oSO.'' 
These altered proportions, which now obtain between the 
cattle and the men of so large a section of the United States, 
and the growth of urban communities with considerable popula- 
tions in the West, are yet more notable to-day than when these 
words were spoken, and lend point to Mr. Colman's reference to 
the fact, on which he emphatically insists, that the Eastern 
States, as a whole, are rapidly approaching the conditions which 
hold good in the older European countries. That means, as 
a necessary corollary, a growing dependence on the beef of the 
Western States and a growing tendency to absorb the native 
surplus. Apparently in twenty-one years the proportion of 
cattle to population, in such a State as New York, will be as 
low as that in Germany. Indeed, considering the Commis- 
sioner's own estimate that the consumption per head so largely 
exceeds the European standard. New York has already a 
relatively smaller beef supply than Germany, and in twelve 
years she is likely to have no greater one than England. 
It is important for us here to realise, what the American 
himself is seeing, that time is running with us in this question. 
Unless some new and unlooked-for check or change in the rate 
of American development soon occurs — and we have as yet no 
sign of this in the tide of emigration which is daily crossing the 
Atlantic — the meat of the United States will all be wanted at 
home. As Mr. Col man in the same address which I have 
already quoted puts it : 
In 1880 we had 50,000,000 of inhabitants; in 1905 we should have 
100,000,000; in 1930, 200,000,000; in 1055, 400,000,000 ; in 1980, less than 
!100 years hence, 800,000,000 of inhabitants. AVhere are these teemins; 
millions to live ? On what are they to subsist ? Where and how are the cattle 
, to be bred and reared that must be relied upon to furnish beef? To keep up 
I our present beef supply wc must increase our stock of cattle to 70,000,000 
within 20 years, and to 140,000,000 within 45 years. Is it possible for us to 
accomplish this under the most favourable conditions ? In the States east of 
the Mississippi in 1850 we had 15,300,000 cattle ; in the 30 years from 1850 
i to 1880 the cattle in these States increased only 5,000,000 head, or 33i per 
j cent. Taking the country as we find it to-day, is there any reason to suppose 
that the percentage of increase will be any greater in the next thirty years 
than it has been in these States during the last thirty ? 
Looking at the newest figures we have available, it would seem 
that the feature just referred to is even more marked in 1887 
than in 1885. Out of the 48,000,000 cattle of the United States 
in the present year, 27,000,000 at least must now be sought for 
