The Future Of Beef Production

It has been fashio.mble at different periods in the progresa of dietetic scicnce to exalt vegetable over animal foods - to speak of the moral oonsiderations that shonld lead to the abandonment of the tifsh of animale as food, and the snbstilution of a wliolly vegetable diet. It is true that vi taule bodies contain the same elementa as animal bodies, for the latter are. produced from the former - ar.imals are evolved from vegetables, and vegetables from minoráis. And as the mineral is advanced and progressed by entering into the struetnreof the vegej table, so likewise in the vegetable progressed by entering into the strnoture oí the animal. An animal grown for human food representa all the food element nf Vegetables in an improved state; and the, desh of the animal is no. i i v More easily div;.-t'.'!, ,nt pro. ■ '■■uuo-g trui yioi L rri vita] er)pr:i'y. We might, therefore, expeot that a people using a considerable proportlon of moat in their diet would be obaracterized by greater energy and enterprise than a people whoso diet is almost wholly vegetable. A oomparison of the people of Knrope with those of China will be a Bufficiently striking illustration; but if vve compare the people of the United States with those of tlie countries from which they eml crated. tho doctrine will be still for. ; ttii i i biuuii 'iir . i lie Americana are said to be the greatest meat eaters in the world, and their energy and en.erprise, cotn pared even with the parent stock, is in !ne proportion. Xt is aiso a Doticeable faet that the consumption of meat has been , gtaotly increasing, and more rapidly than ever during the last quarter of a century. The shipmentof beef from ' the United States to England during -t few jears has inereased the j use of meat araong the laboring J es of that country, and will, in the near future, enlarge the damand for a ñesh diet to an almost indefinite ex tent. If the per aijnla meat consumption of the United Kingdom equalcd that of the United Si ates, our surplus at present would be quito inadequate to ' p!y the deticiency of their home : duction. it is evident that the j sumption of beef is on the increase among the laboring populations of nearlv all Europe, aiid this increase of Í thp meat element in diet has steadily kept pace with improvempnts in feeding and rearing cattle. The average weight of bullooks at three years old has inereased from thirty to lifty per cent. in the last twenty-iive years. rbis has been the result of feeding f ir early maturity. And, perhaps, the most encouraging fact is that priees have inoreased as steadily as the quality of the animáis has improved, ïxeeot occasioual depressions, like the present, which are not owing to ' a.n oversupply, but to commercial i rangement. Our present prices for good beef cattle are at least twentyfive per cent. higher than in 18Ü0. in fact, beef cattle have held a more uniio,m market prioe than almost any niuot. The fa!l in prictis much lesa than in butter and tae, or in pork. It now seema probeonsuniption will (juits keep pace with production, although that is ükely to increase even more rapidly in the future than in the past. ïhe rationals of feeding - the different qualifcies of foods - is now much better unood by the stock farmer than at previeras period in the history of agriculture; and this will have a raarked etl'oot in the beef production of the next twenty years. But we chink that thi3 branch of agricuilure is less likely to be overdone than almost any oTher. The desire for this superior type of tooi' will inorease with the tiuciion. The countries of Europe I duce much Ies3 than the population orave for, and our resources will be drawn upon as fast as weshall beready i to respond. The ! er may go on with the greatest conftdenee ki the result; but he must ; momber that quality is more important than quantity. The best makesa