WORLD'S MEAT SUPPLY.

Sun (Christchurch), Volume I, Issue 89, 21 May 1914, Page 7

WORLD'S MEAT SUPPLY.

A FAMINE FEARED. SOME OF THE REASONS. By Cable. — Press' Association. — Copyright. (Received May 21, 8.10 a.m.) LONDON, May 20. , The "Daily Mail," referring to the suggested world meat famine, states that cattle in Argentina are so cxpen- ', »ive that land-owners are unable to properly stock their land, and the public demand is so great that the animals are , sold- whenever they are saleable. The • demand 1 for milk in England had led to the policy <)f slaughtering instead of ""• rearing - - calves, and* the difficulty had ••v increased by the Japanese becoming meat ••■ •?•■ eaters.- -, ••/ __. ■ • [A- recent cable message, announced •• that there are widespread fears, that the ■ wbrldV demand for meat will shortly outrun ttie-supply, ;•' and that, the result "will be a large advance in the prices • ■-' of food generally. For some months • past there has been evinced in commer- ; eial circles considerable anxiety as to. the future of the world's meat supply. . '■ The United States,' which in- former - years was a large exporter, has now to ." ( import her, supplies!. A banker in WashringtonJ who for many ; years was con- ' fleeted with the eattle business and has : - every phase of it," was / quoted by the "Wall Street Journal" . some, as having; said that '' the best means of increasing.our supply of beef" is ; becoming every hour a more itt ''-' pressing; question." With this as a text,

a'writer in the" Journal''. cited the strange indifference of the public ■ to' ■ thispressing question. When beef was. 'V abundant, no more thought was taken. * of its cbnser'vation than was taken of big game; Both were so plentiful that , it seemed .unnecessary to protect the sup- , ply. But prices for beef finally, began \ to irise. Consumers felt the pinch and ' believed tbe blame rested with the packvers,! or the "Tryst." While this abuse, . -says the; writer, "may not have been . r amiss, it diverted attention from the : prime cause.'? That eause lay in the " fact that homesteaders for years had been " drawing a constantly narrowing •• circle around the range steer, who is , now making his last stand for the semiarid "region." Meanwhile farms are not producing beef. The following statistics were presented by the" Journal" to show Tiow the supply declined in recent .years:— Exclusive of Jan'l. AH cattle. Dairy cows. Population. ~ < 36,030,000 96,496,000 •1912—57,899,000 37,200,000 95,510,000 ■ 1911—60,502,000 39,679,000 93,793,000 J^to— 72,534,000 '51,566,000 87,321,000 '"'':■' Steers form the maiiTsupply of beef, '■' and these of all ages never constitute more than one-third of" the second column. Reducing, the supply, of..cattle to a per capita basis, the proportion is; Per capita Per capita for exclusive of all cattle. dairy cows. 1913 .... 0.586 ... 0.374 1912 .... 0.607 .. 0.389 1911 .... 0.645 ■•;. 0.423 1907 .... 0.831 .. 0.594 Eeduced to percentages, these statistics show that, .between January 1, 1912, and January 1, 1913, animals, exclusive of dairy edws, decreased 11.5 per .', cent, and that between 1907 and 1913 ~,-. the*decrease was 27 per cent. As to ,pr t icef, it appears that between 1906 and ; ICl.y.fat tattle in Chieago increased 50.9 .. per, cent., and, of course, the wholesale price of Pressed beef kept pace with the price for fat cattle. The writer contends that the problem of our beef supply in the future "must be worked out in our own borders," and that "the ' sooner we realise the fact the better it will be for us." Much might perhaps be expected from the free entry of ca.ttle and beef, but the writer believes that these expectations would be disappointed. Figures for imports from Argentina* indicated that 8,000,000 pounds may come from that country in a year, but the writer finds this fact "good only .as far as it goes', since it only averages 1* dunces a year for each person. ". Argentina has 20,000,000 head of cattle only, and the herd in that country has. not increased in the past four years. In Europe this demand fairly equals the European Bupply. : Canada has only 6,800,000 head, and of these 35 per cent, are dairy cows. Such facts show that there is "a world-wide shortly age of cattle."