l62 MISSOURI AGRICULTURAL REPORT. 



Taken collectively the farms of America, in point of value and 

 productive importance, outrank all other manufacturing institutions 

 combined. Among the manufacturers of commercial commodities 

 vast sums of money are wisely spent in the investigation of ques- 

 tions and principles, the application of which will reduce the cost of 

 production, raise the efficiency of the article manufactured, and also to- 

 perfect the question of the distribution of the finished product with 

 the greatest economy. This work has been carried to a wonderful 

 state of perfection and when the time comes, if it ever should, that 

 even one-tenth of the intellect and capital spent in the application of 

 real, not imaginary, economical principles of production with refer- 

 ence to the farm as a manufacturing institution, then our country 

 will bloom as a rose and the scrub farmer and the. scrub animal will 

 be a vanishing species. 



Live stock farming — by which is meant keeping live stock on 

 the farm — is, and in the future will be the only safe means of main- 

 taining the productive qualities of the farm manufacturing plant. 

 Without live stock the capacity of the farm plant is annually do- 

 creased because of the inability to return to the soil the fertilizing 

 elements required to sustain the maximum limit of production. Some 

 will doubtless say : "What has all this to do with the pure bred stock 

 business, as the scrub animal will return as great an amount of fertil- 

 izing element to the soil as the pure bred ?" This is true, but where 

 the pure bred, or high grade, excels the scrub is in his ability to consume 

 the grain and forage crops of the farm, and, as a machine, most 

 economically convert them into a product for which there is always a 

 demand for the best at top market values. Experiment station work, 

 market reports and the practical experience of our most intelligent 

 and successful farmers, breeders and feeders, as well as expert buyers, 

 packing house owners and conveyors, are all on the side of the pure 

 bred or the high grade animal as being consistent money makers on 

 the farm. The above argument applies to the production of the com- 

 mercial products in its live state and forms the basis for our conten- 

 tions with reference to the advisability of making the breeding of pure 

 bred, recorded stock a part of our farm business. 



The fact that it requires the pure bred or high grade animal U> 

 acquire the results above mentioned argues the absolute necessity of 

 the perpetuity of the pure bred animal for breeding purposes, else, in 

 a very few short years we will find ourselves scarce of this vitalizing 

 material. The natural tendencies of all improved animals and plants 

 are to deteriorate unless cultivated and given congenial environments 

 and opportunities for improvement and development. IMan himself is 



