In some sections of the country dairying has encroached to such an extent on the beef cattle industry that the latter has ceased to be a factor of importance in those localities. The beef cattle industry of the North is divided into two departments: first, producing in the Far West; second, preparing for market in the Middle West. The Western producer can only provide grazing, and must then ship to the Middle West feeder, who raises the corn with which he prepares the cattle for market. The shortness of the grazing season makes it impossible to put a thousand-pound beef on the market in a year; consequently the stock must be shipped to the Middle West in September, October or November, to be fattened and prepared for the market. The breeding herds and the stock not ready for shipment to the feeders of the Middle West exist on the thin grasses, through eight months--from September to June. These sections of arid soil and thin vegetation are further handicapped by the winters of intense cold, and of enforced housing and feeding; for, during six or seven months, and even eight months, of each year, there is scant vegetation to support animal life, and the struggle is a severe one to sustain life itself against the encroachments of the bitter temperature which so long prevails. If the Middle West farmer should go into cattle-raising, his position would be almost identical with that of the cattle grower of the Far West, as his pasturage would be exhausted in October, and it would be necessary to feed the cattle until May; otherwise, his loss would be tremendous through partial starvation and exposure to inclement weather, and he could not count upon the survival of more than 75 per cent of his herd from one pasturing season to the next. The farmer of the Middle West has six months of open weather, which must be devoted exclusively to planting, cultivating and harvesting his corn crop, and this crop takes up his land, leaving no acreage available for summer pasturage. He produces corn in the summer, and begins feeding in the fall. According to the quality of cattle received from the Far West, he feeds 60, 90, and up to 120 days, when they are ready for market, and, according to the old saying, are "corn sold on the hoof." Even the adoption of intensive methods does not enable the Northern grower to successfully compete with the Southern grower, because production in the North is limited to one-half the year, and the other half is wholly unproductive, during which period his stores are being consumed, without any returns whatever. To house cattle during the winter is scarcely better than to leave them exposed to the rigors of climate, as confinement brings the scourge of tuberculosis; whereas in the South, and wherever life is spent in the open, cattle enjoy immunity from this plague.