218 ANNUAL REPORTS OF DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE. 



supplementinu: the summer pasturage witli certain cotton by-prod- 

 ucts in finishing cattle for the summer or fall markets; to determine 

 the most profitable amount of cotton-seed cake to feed steers where 

 they are being finished on pasture for the market; to compare silage, 

 cotton-seed hulls, and Johnson-grass hay as feeds for finishing steers 

 in winter time; to determine the value to the soil, as measured by 

 succeeding cotton crops, of feeding cattle upon that soil. 



Results, so far as the work has progressed, have been prepared for 

 publication. They show that while winter feeding may be some- 

 times done fairly economically, summer feeding on grass has been 

 found most profitable. For example, during the summer of 1909 

 cattle were fed on pasture alone, at a cost of $1.03 per hundred pounds 

 gain, on pasture and cotton-seed cake at a cost of $3.21 per hundred 

 pounds gain, and on pasture and cotton seed at a cost of $2.39 per 

 hundred pounds gain, the profit per steer on these lots being $7.06, 

 $6.99, and $8.39, respectively. A lot fed a shorter time on a ration 

 of cotton-seed cake considerably heavier than that noted above cost 

 $2.70 per hundred pounds of gain, with a profit of $10.64 per head. 



When it is considered that these profits were made by feeding the 

 cattle alone, without hogs to follow the steers, it is apparent that 

 there is an undoubted future before the beef-cattle industry in the 

 South. There are large areas in the South well adapted to profit- 

 able beef production and where no cattle are now fed. There are 

 therefore great possibilities before the South to add to a beef supply 

 that is rapidly decreasing in relative if not in actual ratio to the 

 country's increase in population. 



During the fiscal year 1911 an investigation will be made into the 

 problems underlying the shrinkage of beef cattle in shipment, both 

 from the range and from the corn belt. 



PORK PRODUCTION INVESTIGATIONS. 



During the fiscal year just ended studies in pork production were 

 established at one of the farms in Sumter County, Ala., where beef 

 work is in progress. The object of this work is to carry out, under 

 farm conditions, some of the conclusions that have already been 

 drawn by the Alabama Experiment Station, and to determine the 

 profits that can be realized upon a herd of hogs when fed and handled 

 in a businesslike manner. In doing the work a complete record is 

 kept of the expense of making the various forage crops, the amount 

 of concentrated feeds given all hogs, the gain in weight, etc. In 

 July, 1910, there were 138 hogs in the test. This number will be in- 

 creased as time goes on. Purebred boars are being used with ordi- 

 nary sows. 



SUPERVISION OF PEDIGREE RECORD ASSOCIATIONS. 



The investigation of the draft-horse stud book, referred to in my 

 last report, was completed during the year, and the society publishing 

 the book was given two hearings before the Department. In general 

 it may be said that as a result of the conditions disclosed by this 

 investigation it has become necessary for the Department to exercise 

 the power given to it by the tariff law to pass upon the sufficiency of 

 the pedigree certificates of animals imported for breeding purposes, 



