142 IOWA DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE 



the text which I have tried to discuss narrows down to three important 

 factors: Selection, feeding and fitting. If the work has been well per- 

 formed, the selection must of necessity be a uniformity of breed type 

 and conformation. The feeding process, if carried out properly, has 

 produced a finished product in a ripened steer. The fitting and trim- 

 ming, if successfully done, has brought about a uniformity of condition 

 which, when attained, must of necessity have quality and merit. 



AFTERNOON SESSION. 



President Sykes presiding. 



Hon. Eugene Davenport, dean of the Illinois College of Agri- 

 culture, addressed the convention on the subject, "The Redirec- 

 tion of the Stockman's Point of View." 



THE REDIRECTION OF THE STOCKMAN'S POINT OF VIEW. 



HON. EUGENE DAVENPORT, URBANA, ILL. 



We are living in a transitional period in the evolution of live stock 

 husbandry in this country. The time has passed when a man on his cay- 

 use can produce cattle by the hundreds by simple process of herding 

 on the public domain, and walk them into market, feeding and fattening 

 as they go. This period is behind us, but we have not yet developed 

 those forms of animal husbandry that will ultimately go with a finished 

 American agriculture. It is but natural that many difficulties and not 

 a few losses should be encountered in making an adjustment that is so 

 radical and that has come upon us so suddenly and with so little warn- 

 ing — an adjustment, moreover, that calls for some radical changes in our 

 point of view as well as in our habits and methods of carrying on the 

 business. It is to some of these readjustments that I would call your 

 attention today. 



I find a fairly widespread feeling that the live stock business, par- 

 ticularly the cattle side of it, is at best nearing its end, and that people 

 who from habit persist in feeding for the beef market are staying with 

 a practice long after it has ceased to be profitable. These people have 

 been impressed with the fact that our population has on the average 

 doubled every twenty-five years since this country was discovered, and 

 that at anything like the present rate of increase we shall shortly need 

 all the land on which to grow crops for human consumption; in other 

 words, that American lands will soon become too valuable for the sup- 

 port of live stock. 



Now this is a hasty conclusion, and one which ought to be analyzed. 

 In my opinion, live stock husbandry is a permanent feature of American 

 agriculture for a variety of reasons, chiefly the following: 



