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Show THE LIVESTOCK SITUATION BETTER USE OF OUR FORAGE AND GRAIN. , My general letter in regard to the use of our forage and grain for livestock live-stock feeding, particularly hogs, and the inquiry sent out to a large number num-ber of people, met with hearty and, favorable response all through the eleven western states and it lokos like we are on our way to make a home market for our feeds and at the samle time produce an all year round meat supply for which there is such a big and constant demand on, the Coast. Included in the list were bankers, newspapermen, merchants, chambers of commerce, livestock producers pro-ducers and agriculturists, so that we have a fairly good cross section of the setup of the western states. There is more than 50 million dollars dol-lars each year awaiting the farmers who are in a position to supply the pork requirements of California. Isn't this worth going after? It is also well to keep in mind that Los Angeles spends more than 100 million mil-lion dollars annually among the eleven el-even western states largely for something some-thing to eat. The legendary pot of gold at the end of the rainbow has finally been found and awaits the livestock pro-, ducer of the western states. We want to have a meeting soon at a central point in the inter-mountain, country where we can talk things over. Our latest census promises better than ZVz million people in Los, Angeles county. Inevitably, we, should join together to serve this, great western e'mpire. The conditions in this section are peculiar to the west and can best be served by face, to face discussions by western people. peo-ple. There are a number of things that need 'to be ironed out and the most pressing one is to build up a more profitable and stable market; for our feeds. The time and place of the meeting will be announced Inter. GENERAL LIVESTOCK CONDITIONS. CONDI-TIONS. A lot of jokes have been pulled about the unusual weather conditions of California. We have a real rain, now more than two inches in May almost without precedent. It looks like we are going to have summer grass and summer grazing. Surely we will if we get more rain. Some of the old-timers recall a similar incident inci-dent many years ago. As a rule, out of season rains do more harm than good because they come in the, nature of showers and if it turns hot afterwards, plant life is destroyed, but it looks like this is the real thing and that the range may be greatly, benefited. Cattle are slow to come in due to backward range conditions during the winter months and it is probably, just as well, as we must reckon with the fact that while the supply is short, the demand is also less due to decreased demand by reasno of substitution. sub-stitution. Values are holding up splendidly on the Coast markets. In fact, prices are substantially better than in the east. It looks reasonable that there will be no cattle shipped from this section to the east this year because of the short supply and the fact that they will bring more money at home. Lamb conditions have not improved and until the surplus is taken care of, there is apparently no chance for improvement. Hog values remain steady. This is our light season and nothing in sight in the way of increased spring pig crop that threatens the future, but we must all keep in mind that a prolonged business depression means decreased purchasing power so that a smaller supply doesn't necessarily reflect higher prices. About all that can be said at this time is that we should go to market when the stuff is ready and do our best to see that at no time the supply at a given point exceeds the demand. |