WHAT AND HOW TO FEED. 375 



century her yield of wheat per acre has nearly doubled. A similar result is 

 seen in Germany. The meat and dairy productions of the German Empire 

 have greatly increased in the last quarter of a century, and yet the soil has 

 been producing larger and larger crops each successive year. The acreage 

 under tillage is decreasing, and that devoted to grass advancing. Less acres 

 tilled, but more grain because of enriched fields— more grass for more stock. 

 To keep on cropping land and neglecting stock is to kill the goose that lays 

 the golden egg. Where no oxen are the crib is clean, says Solomon; we may 

 add the pockets of the farmers also. 



And what is true of British and German agriculture is, to a certain^ 

 extent, true of American. The live stock interests of this country are 

 assuming proportions that make it to-day the leading factor in our agricult- 

 ure, and I think I am not wrong in saying that this question of the profit- 

 able, the economical breeding and feeding of stock is one of paramount 

 interest to a very large majority of our farmers. In the production of 

 animal products the farmer is disposing of his surplus fodder, where the 

 refuse will remain to enrich the soil and make the wastes good. He is pur- 

 suing a plan which, if supplemented with fertilizing agents, will maintain 

 and even increase the productive capacity of his farm. Not that wheat till- 

 age should be given up entirely, I do not advocate that for a moment ; but 

 I advocate less acreage, better culture, higher manuring, larger yields, better 

 prices for what is raised, or at least more profit, and, in connection, such 

 attention to stock husbandry in one or more of its branches as shall contrib- 

 ute, in approved ways, to the building up of the farm and make the invest- 

 ment of money in land more desirable because more profitable. 



Another important consideration in this connection is the great saving in. 

 the cost of transporting animal products as compared with grain. Have 

 you ever stopped to think that you can send eight dollars' worth of cheese 

 or twelve dollars' worth of butter, or from two to three dollars' worth of 

 beef, pork or mutton to New York or Boston as cheaply as you can send one 

 dollar's worth of wheat? 



WHAT ANIMALS TO FEED. 



We have to-day breeds of cattle with distinctive qualities that have made 

 them popular, and deservedly so, for certain purposes. Our native stock, so 

 termed, is much of it more or less commingled in blood with these thorough- 

 bred cattle, or their descendants, and I have no doubt that females could be 

 selected from our native stock of grand milking and feeding qualities, and 

 these bred to thoroughbred males, carefully selected to perpetuate and inten- 

 sify the qualities we desire, will result in our securing such stock as can be 

 handled and fed profitably. What I have said of cattle applies to other stock 

 as well. A large majority of animals kept on American farms have 

 ■ not been selected or bred for any particular purpose. They are the result 

 too often of accident, or the commingling of strains of blood that have no 

 affinity for each other, that can only result in deteriorating the constitution 

 and the qualities that make an animal of practical value. The importance 

 of a careful selection of breeding stock can not well be over-estimated, but 

 it receives very little attention from nine-tenths of the farmers of our 

 country. It is a fact that inferior farming has no chance of success nowa- 

 days. It is all that good farmers can do to hold their own and realize some- 

 thing like a fair return on their investments, and in no part of our farming 



