r — 
Published  by. 
The  Rural  Publishing  Co. 
333  W.  30th  Street 
New  York 
Rural  New-Yorker 
The  Business  Farmer’s  Paper 
Weekly.  One  Dollar  Per  Year 
Postpaid 
Single  Copies,  Five  Cents 
Vol.  LXXV. 
NEW  YORK,  APRIL  1,  1910. 
No.  4371. 
Beef  Production  for  New  England 
Past  and  Present  of  Beef  Production 
RICE  PROSPECTS.— What  is  the  history  of  the 
World’s  beef  production?  Have  we,  during  the 
last  few  years,  obtained  the  highest  prices  cm  rec¬ 
ord?  Are  not  the  prices  likely  to  drop  to  the  low 
level  of  a  few  years  ago?  What  is  the  outlook  for 
the  future,  judging  by  actual  conditions  and  past 
performances?  These  questions  cannot  help  being 
paramount  in  the  minds  of  hundreds  throughout 
the  country  today,  and  especially  in  New  England, 
where  there  are  many  seriously  considering  the  pro¬ 
ject  of  raising  beef  rather  tlpm  dairying.  It;  is  per¬ 
fectly  true  that  we  had  “ups”  and  “downs"  in  the 
business,  and  may  for  very  short  periods  have 
slightly  depressed  prices,  hut  those  cannot  he  of  any 
great  duration,  simply  due  to  the  great  economic 
fact  of  supply  and  demand.  As  these  two  latter 
factors  regulate  the  price  any  commodity  will  bring 
in  open  market,  it  simply  remains  for  us  to  inves- 
as  it  shows  in  actual  operation  what  the  consum¬ 
ing  public  will  pay  for  beef  when  the  supply  is 
limited. 
COSTLY  BREEDING  STOCK.— Besides  these 
sales  of  butcher  stock  many  sales  of  breeding  stock 
were  held,  and  the  prices  which  these  brought  would 
he  the  envy  of  our  best  breeders  of  today.  For  ex¬ 
ample;  the  hull  “Hampton,”  bred  by  John  Hewer, 
sold  for  $2,500  in  1S35.  Another  Hereford  hull  at 
about  this  time  was  shipped  to  Australia  for  $5,000. 
At  this  time  it  was  the  custom  for  the  best  breed¬ 
ers  to  “let”  their  hulls.  The  following  figures  dem¬ 
onstrate  very  clearly  their  demand.  John  Ilewer 
received  for  the  service  of  the  bull  “Sovereign” 
(404)  221.  $3,205.  For  the  bull  Lottery  (410)  183, 
$3,550.  For  Lottery  2d  (408)  1413  $3,225  and  for 
Defiance  (411)  217  $2,025. 
INCREASING  P( (RELATION.— 1 This  was  the  sit¬ 
uation  a  century  ago.  Why  are  we  not  returning 
to  exactly  tfie  same  condition  today?  The  popula¬ 
tion  is  increasing  faster  than  our  beef  supply.  The 
that  even  though  the  importation  of  foreign  beef 
during  the  first  three  months  of  1914  amounted  to 
one-fifth  our  total  slaughter,  the  price  of  beef  in  the 
Chicago  market,  1914,  nearly  equalled  the  quota¬ 
tions  of  one  year  ago?  L>o  you  also  realize  that  Ar¬ 
gentina  is  greatly  overtaxing  her  supply,  due  to  the 
sudden  rise  in  prices,  and  that  before  long  her  ship¬ 
ments  to  the  United  States  must  greatly  diminish? 
CHANGING  CONDITIONS.— Let  us  look  at  these 
various  phases  carefully.  It  is  a  fact  that  the  con¬ 
ditions  in  the  United  States  have  greatly  changed 
during  the  last  few  yea rs-  This  is  due  because  much 
of  the  great  Western  plain,  formerly  used  for  graz¬ 
ing,  has  been  out  up  into  grain  farms,  the  increased 
population  of  the  West  and  thus  the  greater  home 
consumption.  Recently  I  was  talking  with  a  prom¬ 
inent  cattle  man  from  Texas,  and  he  remarked  dur¬ 
ing  the  conversation  that  he  could  remember  where, 
in  his  county  a  dozen  years  ago,  there  were  ranches 
carrying  from  ten  to  fifteen  thousand  head  apiece, 
and  today  were  occupied  by  "dry"  farmers.  This 
A  Bunch 
tigate  our  supply,  as  we  know  that  demand  remains, 
and  always  will  exist  for  so  staple  a  product  as 
beef.  The  strength  of  this  demand  may  be  amply 
shown  by  citing  the  example  of  England  a'  century 
ago. 
FORMER  LEVELS. — But  few  people  know  that 
from  1775-1825  the  price  of  beef  in  the  London  mar¬ 
ket  was  much  higher  than  it  is  today,  simply  due 
to  the  scanty  supply.  Then  the  entire  amount,  for 
consumption  was  produced  at  home,  under  the 
intensive  system,  as  this  was  the  period  before 
opening  up  of  the  great  American  plains. 
To  give  some  idea  of  the  prices  then  obtained  by 
the  farmers  for  their  beef,  I  will  quote  a  few  sales 
made  during  that  time.  On  Sept.  17,  1789,  Mr.  John 
Western*  of  Creslow.  Buckinghamshire,  England, 
sold  15  oxen  to  a  London  butcher  at  an  average  of 
$243  apiece.  His  top  20  oxen,  between  1798  and 
1S11,  made  him  an  average  of  $531  apiece,  all  sold 
for  beef.  In  1812  he  sold  50  head  at  an  average  of 
$250.  This  shows  the  price  butcher  stock  was 
bringing  a  hundred  years  ago.  And  these  herein 
quoted  were  not  exceptions,  as  I  have  data  of 
numerous  other  sales  made  at  that  time  averaging 
equally  high.  This  also  strikes  me  very  forcibly, 
of  Young  Herefords  at  Work  on  a  New  Hampshire  Farm. 
world’s  beef  supply  is  actually  decreasing,  with  no 
more  enormous  tracts  of  grazing  lands  to  be  opened, 
as  there  were  a  hundred  years  ago.  The  population 
must  of  a  necessity  continue  to  increase,  and  while 
I  am  no  pessimist  from  the  consumer’s  viewpoint, 
or  a  rabid  optimist  from  the  standpoint  of  the  pro¬ 
ducer,  I  do  believe  that  the  public  will  he  forced 
to  consume  less  and  less  beef  every  year,  while  the 
price  will  grow  higher  and  higher.  Do  you  realize 
that  there  are  in  our  country  today  hundreds,  yes, 
thousands,  who  cannot  afford  this  most  staple  of 
meat  products?  Can  you  see  the  conditions  of  the 
market  thus  produced?  It  is  simply  this.  In  ease 
beef  goes  down  a  cent  it  brings  it  within  the  pur¬ 
chasing  ability  of  hundreds  more  people  who  had 
felt  that  it  was  beyond  their  means  before.  Thus 
a  greater  demand  is  created,  the  over-supply  quick¬ 
ly  exhausted,  the  price  rises  to  its  former  level,  and 
these  same  people  again  return  to  their  regular 
menu.  While  this  is  not  absolutely  exact,  does  not 
it  hit  the  case  extremely  well? 
DECREASING  BEEF  SUPPLY.— Do  you  realize 
that  during  the  last  two  years  the  total  beef  supply 
of  the  United  States  has  decreased  practically  eight 
head  per  hundred  of  population?  Do  you  realize 
Fig.  194 
seems  to  be  the  condition  throughout  much  of  the 
West 
LIVE  STOCK  CENSUS.— The  census  of  1900 
shows  that  there  were  on  farms  and  ranches  50,583,- 
777  cattle  other  than  cows  kept  for  milk,  while  the 
census  of  1910  shows  this  number  to  have  decreased 
to  41,198,434  head.  During  this  decade  our  popu¬ 
lation  increased  21%.  Our  exports  of  beef  de¬ 
creased  from  9.37  pounds  per  capita  in  1900  to  2.45 
pounds  in  1910  while  from  1910-1912  the  exports  de¬ 
creased  again  to  1.25  pounds.  The  imports  for  1912 
were  over  one  and  one  half  greater  than  the  exports. 
FREE  TRADE  BEEF.— As  this  all  occurred  un¬ 
der  the  old  protective  tariff,  let  us  view  the  situa¬ 
tion  as  it  is  today  under  the  free  trade  system.  As 
was  expected,  much  beef  and  other  food  products 
have  beeu  imported,  but  the  prices  of  beef  have 
failed  to  go  down  as  was  expected.  The  consuming 
public  simply  received  a  larger  amount  of  cheaper 
beef,  which  to  a  great  extent  has  been  consumed 
by  that  class  which  felt  they  were  unable  to  pay 
the  price  for  the  more  fancy  beef.  A  statement 
taken  from  the  United  States  Farmer’s  Bulletin  No. 
581  seems  to  demonstrate  this  statement  very  well. 
It  says  in  part,  “As  between  the  United  Kingdom 
