THE AMERICAN BEEF SUPPLY.

Wairarapa Daily Times, Volume VIII, Issue 2236, 5 March 1886, Page 2

THE AMERICAN BEEF SUPPLY.

From a paper read- by Mr CoLdC?*, commissioner of the Agricultural of the United States, before the .recent meeting of the Cattle Growers' Association at Chicago, it would appear that we rnuat make up our minds to see the supply of beef from North Americagradually decline, Mr Colman showed that; in 1860, when the first accurate statistics in regard to • cattle-growing were taken, the United States had a population of 23.191,876 and 11,778,905" head of cattle, or 76(i cattle to each thousand of inhabitant;': In 1870 there were 814 head of cattle to each thousand of population, but in 1880 only 716, The beef eaters increase in number faster than the sources of supply. During the period .from 1860 to 1880 there was a prodigious increase in the herds, owing to the development of cattle growing in the grazing districts o{ the Western plains. Grazing sections it* the Far West are now pretty wAtocked. from the Rio Grande to line, and it is found that, when the herds' are increased,, and tliij grass is eaten too close,'it fails to seed, and e, ductive, supporting thereafter fewof , cattle. The best districts aro all taken up, and tho cattle on them materially increased. west of the Mississippi cannot be increased in the next decade as it has been in the last, and the prospeqt is, according to My Uolmim, that, from this time onward population will increase nmoh faster than the beef supply will which only Berve to meet theAmorloan consumption, and there will be nothine left for export to Europe, This ought to be good nqwa for tho British farmer.—lron.