346 BOARD OF AGRICULTURE. 



yet exceedingly gratifying. The census returns show an increase 

 in their value during the last ten yea»s far greater, proportion- 

 ately, than the increase in the value of farms. As has already 

 been remarked, improved implements have been so extensively 

 introduced that much hand labor formerly required is now dis- 

 pensed with, and as a consequence, production has been greatly 

 facilitated, and lower prices prevail than otherwise would. My 

 reference now is to a wholly different class of machinery from 

 farm implements, namely, to that which is employed for the 

 conversion of the grosser, bulkier, low-priced products of vegeta- 

 ble growth into such as command higher prices — into milk and 

 meat and wool and butter and cheese. Nor, in sajnng this, do I 

 ignore the fact that considerable improvement in domestic animals 

 has been effected ; but it has not been so great as it should be, 

 nor so extensive nor so great as it might and would be were its 

 importance properly appreciated, and if correct business principles 

 were brought to bear upon it. 



I select this point in farm practice chiefly for the purpose of 

 illustrating what I mean by the introduction of business principles 

 into farm operations, and to show, if I can, that such introduction 

 would lead to far greater and more persistent efforts to improve 

 our stock husbandly than have yet been made. 



Let us state the problem. You have as a part of the apparatus 

 of the farm a certaiu class of machinery which you employ to 

 make milk and meat. It differs from the mower and rake and 

 other lifeless tools in that it must be kept running, at large cost 

 all the time, day and night, summer and winter without cessation 

 bo long as you employ it. A large portion of the food consumed, 

 that is to say, of the raw material upon which that machinery 

 works, is completely used up in sustaining the necessary animal 

 heat, in carrying on the operations of life and in repairing daily 

 waste. To make a clear distinction, so much as is thus used, wo 

 will call The Food of Support ; — and it is an unavoidable and a con- 

 tinuous expense. It is onl} 7 that portion of food consumed over 

 and above this food of support which produces what you desire, and 

 this portion we will call the Food of Production In this light 

 nothing can be plainer than that, the more you can safely increase 

 the Food of Production in proportion to the Food of Support the 

 greater will be the profit. If you give only the Food of Support 

 that machinery affords no profit, but, on ' he other hand, involves 

 continued loss with no compensation but that of the manure 



