NEED OF IMPROVEMENT 37 



and the enhanced value of lands, the time will come when it 

 will be difficult, if not impossible, to support as large an animal 

 population as we should like. 1 Surely it is high time even now 

 to push forward this increase of efficiency to the end that values 

 shall not be wasted, and to the further end that as population 

 increases, our animal friends shall be less a burden upon us as 

 we continue to enjoy their service. 



Further improvement needed. With some of our older 

 species the service is entirely satisfactory as to quality, but with 

 most of the newer and many of the older there is yet much to 

 be desired. 



For example, wheat and oats are, so far as we know, ideal in 

 their quality, except that we should like to see a larger propor- 

 tion of strong plants with less shrunken grain. This, however, 

 expresses itself in a matter of amount rather than ;n quality of 

 food product. The cow gives us good milk, but not enough of 

 it for the feed she consumes, and so others might be mentioned 

 that are satisfactory except as to amount. 



Coming to corn the case is different. This is preeminently 

 a stock food, but it is deficient in both nitrogen and minerals, 

 especially phosphorus. Can this deficiency be wholly or partly 

 remedied by mixture with other crops, such as alfalfa, for ex- 

 ample, or does something remain to be done in the way of 

 altering the chemical composition of corn itself ? If the latter, 

 the indications are that we can accomplish it. 



Horses are now certainly fast enough. A two-minute gait is 

 at the rate of thirty miles an hour, which is neither safe nor 

 desirable for ordinary use. However, in the opinion of city 

 teamsters, the horse is not yet large enough. For their business 



1 Let the student exercise his imagination in picturing the condition as we 

 approach the density of population of China, 400 to the square mile. How 

 then shall animals be kept ? Our population has doubled four times in the last 

 hundred years. What will be the condition if this rate of increase should con- 

 tinue another hundred years ? Let the student make some estimates covering 

 this question. Let him also determine the effect of education upon coming 

 problems of this kind. 



