352 Report on the American and Canadian Meat Trade. 
The significance of the terms "corner" and "ring," as applied 
to commercial speculations, is well understood on the other 
side of the Atlantic, and I fancy I detect a trace of them in the 
foregoing quotation. 
In Government circles the new trade is watched with keen 
interest. That the Government naturally desires to see the 
Western States settled and cultivated is beyond the need of argu- 
ment ; but it is felt that unless there be, nearer or farther, a 
market available for farm-produce, it is futile to expect emigrants 
to go West in numbers and occupy the land. It is a simple 
operation to raise fine crops of corn, wheat, oats, or barley on 
these unoccupied lands ; but where is the benefit arising from 
the crops when they cannot be got profitably to market ? Rail- 
ways are few and far between, and to " haul " the crops to market 
by horse-power is an undertaking which cannot be entertained 
for a moment. In the Far West the most profitable use to which 
the corn could be put when grown, has been, quite recently, 
to utilise it as fuel — and " splendid fuel " it is said to make. 
Cattle-raising, however, affords a far better prospect of success 
than corn-raising, providing only that there be a demand for 
the cattle ; and an outlet for large quantities of fat sheep and 
cattle is expected to have the effect of inducing many men who 
understand stock-farming to migrate Westwards and take up 
land in the unoccupied sections of the country, with a view to 
feeding the English dressed-meat trade. It is naturally thought 
that the new trade will have a beneficial effect upon the farming 
of the Western States. Where the land is at present devoted 
solely to grain-raising, it is expected the farmers will go to 
some extent into cattle, which they will fatten on the corn 
grown on the farm, and thus improve the condition of the land ; 
and in places where farmers have been in the habit of raising 
cattle which were afterwards fattened in the Eastern States, they 
will now turn their attention to fattening the animals themselves 
on home-pastures and on home-grown corn. The best authorities 
are of opinion that so long as Indian corn can be raised as 
cheaply as now, the cost of production of cattle will not increase ; 
nor is it expected that the cost of transit will increase much for 
some time to come, if ever. The great advantage of cattle over 
corn is that they can convey themselves to market if the distance 
be not too great, while corn requires " hauling ; " this is a con- 
sideration which will have great weight with those farmers 
especially who live some distance from a railroad. I quote the 
following from a letter by the special reporter of the ' Scotsman,' 
dated Kansas City, Missouri, May 15 : — 
" Farmers find it much more profitable to consume their Indian corn by 
cattle than to drive it to the market and sell it at an average of barely 30 cents 
