TWELFTH ANNUAL YEAR BOOK— PART IV 143 



First of all, the greatest American crops are corn, alfalfa, cotton aBd 

 wheat. Three of these are food crops, but only the last can be consumed 

 to any great extent by human beings. Both corn and alfalfa hold indis- 

 pensable places in the rotation, because they are heavy yielders, and 

 for the additional reason that corn is an exceedingly good cleaning 

 crop and alfalfa a source of nitrogen, but both are animal foods. Other 

 crops, to be sure, may be equally useful with corn for cleaning pur- 

 poses, but they are not suitable for human consumption, and all the 

 nitrogen producing crops that work well on land in large areas are dis- 

 tinctively fodder crops. ■' 



These considerations, together with their special adaptability ' to 

 our soil and climate, will retain both corn and alfalfa as permanent 

 elements in American agriculture, and because that is true, if for no 

 other reason, the live stock industry is to be regarded as permanent. 



A second reason why live stock will remain as a permanent feature 

 of American agriculture is the Anglo-Saxon's love for animals. Sta- 

 tistics of western Europe show that with the increase of population 

 the percentage of animals does not decline, but remains practically 

 constant, as per the following table, for which I am indebted to i'ro- 

 fessor Mumford. 



LIVE bTOCK AND POPULATION. 



Country. 



Belgium 643.4 279.8 1907— .24 



Britain 345.8 404 1908—25 



Germany 290.4 262 1910— .25 



Germany 1907— .33 



United States 25.6 67.8 . 1867— .51 



United States 1910— .77 



This inherent love for animals and for their production is evidently 

 a racial characteristic with our people and it constitutes a second rea- 

 son why animal industry is likely to prove a permanent feature of our 

 agriculture. 



A third reason for the permanence of this industry lies in the scale 

 of civilization which we shall undoubtedly adopt and maintain. If the 

 American ideal were to produce large families for the sake of the lahor 

 of the children, regarding every member of the family as an asset for 

 earning a living, our population would rapidly approach the point where 

 the land would be no longer able to support it, because people multiply 

 by geometrical progression indefinitely, and the land has a very low 



