398 EXPERIMENT STATION EECOBD. 



larger net profit than grain and hay farming to induce farmers to follow it. It 

 involves more work, more risk, and keeps farmers employed the year around. 

 (3) The meat production of the world has been at a standstill for the past 

 five years. No large increase can be looked for in Argentina or Australia, as 

 the economic and practical limits have about been reached. Any increase must 

 come from home production, on the farm mainly and not on the ranges. This 

 means that the problem of meat production must be solved on relatively high 

 priced lands. 



President Waters enumerated some of the ways in which science may help 

 live stock farming. It may do this by equalizing the feed supply from year to 

 year, by showing the farmer how a surplus of feed may be carried over, as 

 in the silo for example, to tide over lean years. Years of drought force the 

 selling of stock on a glutted market, which necessitates the farmer starting 

 anew. Fluctuating values, high and low, restrict production alike, for they 

 restrict the carrying of young stock; high prices stimulate close selling and 

 the slaughter of young stock. 



The improper balancing of feeds was cited as perhaps the greatest source of 

 loss in feeding. Science has made us cautious about compounding mathe- 

 matical rations, as was formerly done, and has taught something of the value 

 of proteins from different sources, and of the relations of mineral constituents 

 of feeds to efficient nutrition, growth, and reproduction. Again, breeding offers 

 further opportunity for improvement, and science may also help the' farmer to 

 meet the changes in the demand of the market. For example, the use of 

 vegetable oils has reduced the price of lard and increased the demand for bacon 

 and ham hogs. This may help to conserve the meat supply. 



Science may also help by disclosing the factors of growth. Already there is 

 a basis for a better understanding of this as a result of recent investigation. 

 Such investigation upon the stunting effect of food deficiency, for example, has 

 shown the practicability of letting animals grow when the farmer has feed and 

 letting them rest when feed is scarce; the retardation of growth is not so serious 

 as was formerly thought. These and other studies of growth factors It was 

 believed may have a practical bearing on meat production. 



Prof. H. W. Mumford, of the University of Illinois, discussed The Problem 

 of Meat Production on the High-Price*! Lands of the Middle West. He con- 

 tended that the seven corn-surplus States — Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Iowa, Mis- 

 souri, Kansas, and Nebraska — constitute the natiiral center of beef production in 

 this country. Corn-fed cattle are the distinctive feature of the cattle industry 

 of the country, and cattle raising in the corn belt provides a market for the 

 crops grown on the farnt and at the same time conserves the fertility of the 

 soil. 



As a result of changed conditions a large percentage of the feeders do not grow 

 their live stock but now purchase their stockers and feeders from the great 

 breeding ground of tlie Southwest. As a result of this change, the business of 

 cattle feeding has gravitated into the hands of large feeders, the capital, risk, 

 and business skill involved, and the distance from markets, deterring many 

 farmers from attempting to convert their corn into beef. But in order that 

 beef production in the corn belt may take its proper place. It was deemed desir- 

 able that the business should be distributed more generally among farms of 

 average sis^e. The belief was expressed that " an increasing proportion, and 

 eventually a large proportion, of the cattle matured In the corn belt must be 

 reared there," and It was thought that certain lands there might be advantage- 

 ously used for the purpose. 



