1918.] FUTURE OF THE NEW ENGLAND LIVE STOCK INDUSTRY. 53 



for loss from cholera. This is one of the evils that is now 

 being- successfully cumbattcd, llirout,^!! the excellent work of 

 our state agricultural collct^es and experiment stations. 



Manufacturing, Xot i^arming. 

 Yet, in my judgment, all of these causes are contributnry, 

 not primary. The real cause of the decline of our live stock 

 industry I believe to be the fact that we have been manu- 

 facturing rather than farming. We have bought the Inilk of 

 our feed stuffs, nearly all except the ruughage, and have tried 



"to make a profit by turning this purchased feed stufif into 

 milk and Initter, beef and pork, rather than by raising the 

 necessary feeds. \\'e have failed because we have neglected 

 one of the fundamental laws of economics — that it is always 

 cheaper to pay freight on meat than on the grain needed to 

 produce this meat; and on butter and cheese rather than on 

 the feed needed to produce this Ijutter and cheese. We can- 

 not compete in the production of beef or pork, butter or 

 cheese, or in any animal product except raw milk, unless we 

 can at the same time compete in raising the bulk of the feeds 

 on which these products are grown. 

 Let me cite a few^ illustrations : 



Taking the average yield from the whole United States, 

 four-fifths of an acre of corn with one-fifth of an acre of 

 clover make a fairly well balanced ration and will produce 



• about two hundred thirty-five pounds of live pig, or an acre 

 yield of about one hundred seventy pounds of dressed pork. 

 The weight of corn needed to produce this weight of pork is 

 about one thousand, five hundred pounds. It will always be 

 cheaper to pay transportation on the two hundred seventy 

 pounds of meat than on the one thousand, five hundred 

 pounds of grain. Therefore, if we are to engage largely in 

 the hog-raising iridustry, we must grow our own corn or its 

 equivalent, or else feed our hogs on city wastes or some- 

 thing other than corn and the small grains. There is no es- 

 caping this conclusion. It is one of the things that must be 

 done, else our hogs must be fed largely from the garbage can. 

 Let me take beef as another illustration : 

 The average acre, given up to corn for grain and silage, and 



"to clover hay. produces about one hundred forty pounds of 



