134 Missouri Agricultural Report. 



what special phase of live stock farming will prove most profitable 

 and enduring. 



It is true that hogs and sheep possess important advantages 

 over beef cattle, particularly with respect to the cheapness of pro- 

 duction and a somewhat higher average price at which the live 

 animal sells when fitted for the market. On the other hand, cattle 

 possess certain very marked advantages over all other classes 

 of live stock, such as comparative freedom from parasites, 

 contagious diseases, injury from other animals, and the ability to 

 convert large quantities of coarse and otherwise unmarketable ma- 

 terial into food of very high value to mankind. 



Fig. 1. Cattle of this breeding can be made fat at almost any age. Yearlings 

 used by the Experiment Station in feeding trials. 



These facts become more and more important as the country 

 becomes more densely populated and the diseases and parasites on 

 our farms naturally increase in prevalence and extent of injury, 

 and especially do they become more important when the necessity 

 for manufacturing meat out of cheap and mainly coarse material 

 grows larger. 



The practice so common now, particularly in the corn belt, of 

 converting large quantities of palatable and concentrated material 

 like corn into meat products cannot long endure. This corn will 

 sooner or later become so valuable for human food that it cannot 

 be profitably converted into meats, and our animal products must 

 then be manufactured chiefly from the coarse waste materials of 

 the farm and the by-products of our factories. 



It is perfectly obvious, therefore, that cattle utilized wholly or 

 mainly for the production of beef must continue to be an important 

 phase of our agricultural industry for an indefinite time. 



If, therefore, this class of farm animals does not yield so large 

 a profit as other kinds of animals on our high priced land and in 

 the present state of the labor market, the situation is to be met 



