OUTLOOK FOR LIVE STOCK 131 



cern to the public. It is therefore desirable that producers should as 

 rapidly as possible approach an equilibrium in live-stock production, 

 where the total production more nearly conforms to a normal demand 

 for domestic meat products; and should formulate plans for the 

 supplying of the markets with this live stock in quantities and kinds 

 required. In this work Illinois will need to join with other states 

 and act in harmony with them. 



As this country grows older and the population becomes more 

 dense, the demand for cheap food will become more intense. This 

 means, among other things, that if the laboring man, who should 

 always be our largest consumer of meat, is able to eat as much meat as 

 the nature of his work requires, it must be furnished to him at a price 

 that is reasonable in comparison with other foods. 



This fact alone will force the practise of the greatest economy 

 in the production and distribution of meat. Already there is no 

 possibility of the producer securing adequate profit in the production 

 of live stock by following wasteful methods of production. In order 

 that the producer may receive the full benefit of a normal demand 

 for his product, the costs of marketing and of the distribution of 

 meats to the ultimate consumer are in importance second only to that 

 of economical production. 



Much work has been done to improve methods of maintaining, 

 fattening, and breeding of beef cattle. There still remains much to 

 be done, particularly with reference to establishing rather definitely 

 the place of the beef cow and the steer in systems of farming adapted 

 to Illinois conditions. 



THE DAIRY PROBLEM 



The live-stock problem as it relates to beef cattle and to dairy 

 cattle seems to be different in some respects. The community and 

 the individuals in a community who are in the dairy business are more 

 prosperous if they do not depend alone on milk production for their 

 profit, but on the selling of improved live stock as well as milk. That 

 is, the successful dairyman must be a breeder of dairy cattle as well 

 as a producer of milk. This applies as much to grade cattle as to pure- 

 bred cattle. 



The man who approaches the dairy problem from the standpoint 

 of raising dairy stock both for his own future herd and also to sell, 

 requires a higher degree of intelligence. The production of milk 

 alone as a source of income tends all the time to give inadequate 

 attention to the health question of the cattle. Whereas the man who 

 is breeding his own cattle for a future herd, expecting to get a part of 



