FARM POLICY AND MANAGEMENT 115 



SO exclusively to sugar cane and tobacco that the 

 towns are very poorly supplied with even the com- 

 monest fruits and vegetables, and immense quantities 

 of such food products as corn, beans, rice, and pota- 

 toes are annually imported. 



It is usually only those farmers who are located 

 near the large centers of population that can find a 

 local market for all of their produce, and it becomes 

 necessary for them to devote at least a part of their 

 energies to the production of some staple to be sold 

 in the great markets. The nature of this staple 

 must depend largely on transportation facilities. 

 Those farmers who are distant from railroad or 

 water transportation must depend on live stock 

 which can carry itself to some shipping point, or on 

 products like coffee or tobacco that are valuable 

 enough in proportion to their weight to stand ex- 

 pensive transportation by wagon or pack train. In 

 most of the more inaccessible regions the live-stock 

 industry is the only available kind of agriculture. 

 The importance of live stock is, however, not con- 

 fined to such out-of-the-way places. On every farm 

 there are unsalable products of various kinds that 

 can best be utilized by feeding to live stock. Thus 

 half the feeding value of a crop of corn is in the 

 leaves and stalks. This is lost if only the ears are 

 gathered and sold. The straw from small grain and 

 the seed of cotton are useful stock foods, and so with 

 many other products. Whenever possible, enough 

 live stock should be kept on every farm to utilize 

 all products that would otherwise be wasted. An- 

 other very obvious advantage from keeping live 



