EIGHTH ANNUAL YEAH BOOK-PART X. 531 



tion and assimilation, which may be quite as high in the scrub as in the 

 pure bred. The unfortunate thing, however, is that these pounds wall 

 not sell, and when scrub beef will sell at three to four cents well bred beef, 

 properly fed, may sell at from six to seven cents. Therefore, the one 

 may be grown at a loss and the other at a very considerable profit. 



For a long time agricultural papers have been preaching the gospel that 

 the scrub will have to go; but their gospel, if heard, has not always been 

 practiced. Fortunately, the forces of nature help the advocates of any 

 good cause, whether it be reform in agriculture or in politics or in the 

 lives of men. These high prices of land are compelling farmers to think 

 more carefully than they ever did before of the advantages of well bred 

 stock of whatever kind. 



Farming has become more diversified than it has ever been before. 

 We are discovering that the farm, with its environment and its im- 

 provements, especially the man who manages it, may be adapted to feed- 

 ing beef cattle, or growing hogs, or feeding sheep, or to dairying; and 

 it is wisdom to select the kind of stock to which the fai-m is best 

 adapted, but particularly to which the farmer is adapted. It is very 

 much easier to change fields and modify the buildings to accommodate 

 the man who runs the farm, whether owner or renter, than it is to 

 make a man over. This, however, is not enough. 



When any kind of live stock is selected, for instance cattle, as the 

 main product of the farm, then it becomes necessary to decide whether 

 they shall be grown and fed, or purchased and fed for beef production; 

 or if they are to be used exclusively for milk production; or if they are 

 to be used for combined beef and milk production. This having been 

 decided, the question of the kind of stock they should use, especially 

 the kind they should grow, and consequently the kind of sires they should 

 purchase, will determine itself. 



As farms advance in value and in price, an increasing number of 

 them must be used for both milk and beef production and fewer of them 

 for the exclusive growing and feeding of beef cattle. This will not pre- 

 vent an Incrase in the number of farms devoted to special purpose dairy- 

 ing. These two increases will go side by side, together with feeding 

 operations, while the growing of calves exclusively for beef must in the 

 very nature of things be confined to lower priced lands. 



This inevitable drift of things, the result of the advancing price of 

 land, should lead breeders to modify where necessary their methods 

 of breeding, and particularly so in the case of cattle that are used both 

 for dairying and for beef production. The growers of exclusively beef 

 cattle will not need to make any changes, nor will the growers of special 

 purpose dairy cows; but the growers of improved cattle that are capable 

 of being used profitably for this double purpose will need to make some 

 changes which we have been suggesting to them for a number of years. 



It is very important that breeders of this class pay special attention 

 to the development of the milking qualities in such breeds as the Short- 

 horn, Red Poll, Polled Durham and Brown Swiss; nor would any harm 

 come to the breeders of Herefords, Aberdeen Angus, and beef Short-horns 

 through increasing the milking qualities of these breeds. It 

 is a noticeable thing that in many cases the steers that have won prizes 



