200 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



We have also heard already in this convention that profitable 

 and permanent agriculture involves necessarily the handling of 

 live stock. It is not possible in the middle west for us to conceive 

 of any other kind of successful farming than live stock farming. 

 This places the farmers in 'a class above mere producers of raw 

 material. The farmer produces raw material, it is true, but if 

 necessary that we must change those raw materials into the fin- 

 ished product, we must, like the manufacturer, use machines, and 

 in this conection I like to think of the animal as a machine to be 

 used in the manufacturing of the raw products — corn, hay, grass 

 and grains of the farm — into the finished products — beef, pork 

 and mutton — and as the efficiency of the machine, in the case of 

 the manufacturer, frequently determines the profit he is to receive 

 from his manufacturing operations, so the efficiency of the animal 

 machine will often, or generally, perhaps, determine the net profit 

 of the farmer per acre of land. 



This organization, the Missouri Improved Live Stock Breed- 

 ers' Association, is founded upon the idea that it is possible to pro- 

 duce efllcient animal machines, and the improvement of these ma- 

 chines is the primary object of the Improved Live Stock Breeders' 

 Association. It needs no argument at this time to convince breed- 

 ers of improved live stock that there is a difference in animal ma- 

 chines. It is not necessary for me to call your attention to the 

 fact that one horse will eat a bushel of oats, and when hitched to 

 a sulky and driven by an experienced driver will trot a mile in two 

 minutes, while another horse will eat a similar quantity and quality 

 of oats, and when hitched to the same sulky and driven by the same 

 experienced driver, will do very well if he is driven a mile in six 

 minutes. The difference is not in the oats, or the sulky, or the 

 driver, but it is altogether in the efficiency of the animal machine. 

 One horse eats a bushel of oats and obtains therefrom energy to 

 trot a mile in two minutes; another can only secure sufficient 

 energy to trot a mile in six minutes. Some cows eat a certain 

 amount of feed and produce 125 pounds of butter in a year. Other 

 cows will eat the same amount of feed and will make 300 pounds of 

 butter a year. There is no difference in any of the conditions 

 except in the efficiency of the animal machine. So I might go on 

 and show that the profit secured in our live stock operations lies 

 in the fundamental question of selecting the best animal machines. 

 There is not only a difference of individuals in the same breed and 

 class of animals, but there is a very wide difference between the 

 different classes of animals. That is„ there is a very wide differ- 



