LIVE STOCK AND PROFITABLE FARMING ix 



considerable of the organic matter is returned to the fields in the re- 

 sulting manure. Immense amounts of by-products result from the manu- 

 facture of the cereals and other seeds into flour, breakfast foods, oils, etc. 



While unsuited for humans, some of these by-products are among our 

 most valued feeds for stock. As the density of population increases and 

 the prices of foodstuffs advance, the feed supplied our farm animals must 

 to an ever increasing extent consist of substances resulting secondarily 

 from the making of human food, whether they be coarse roughages or 

 milling by-products. 



In some sections much of the land is so rough or stony that it can not 

 be tilled economically. Here cattle will gather the grass on the smoother 

 stretches and sheep will search out the herbage on the more inaccessible, 

 rocky slopes. Over great areas of the West there is too little rainfall to 

 warrant even dry farming, and irrigation will never be possible, either 

 because of lack of water or the roughness of the land. Yet stock will 

 thrive on the scanty but highly nutritious grasses and other forage. 

 Thru well-planned systems of grazing, with additional feed in time of 

 winter storm or parching drought, the western ranges should, at no far 

 distant date, carry even more stock than they did before large areas were 

 broken up into farms. In the cut-over districts of our country large 

 areas of land may be profitably grazed by live stock before they are 

 finally brought under tillage. 



4. Distribution of labor. Under exclusive grain farming the chief 

 demand for labor is confined to the periods of preparing the land, planting 

 the crops, harvesting, and later marketing the products. During the rush 

 seasons labor is high-priced, and often hard to secure at any cost. On the 

 other hand, live-stock farming offers employment thruout the entire year. 

 Winter, when little other farm work can be done, is the very season when 

 farm animals require the most care and attention, for they are then 

 usually housed instead of at pasture. Because the live-stock farmer can 

 thus offer steady employment he is usually able to secure men who are 

 both more efficient and more reliable than he could otherwise obtain. 



5. Intelligent and progressive agriculture. The whole world over, the 

 most enlightened and progressive agricultural districts are found where 

 live stock provides one of the chief sources of income. This is due to 

 several reasons : The live-stock farmer can not live from hand to mouth, 

 but must providently lay in a store of feed for his animals thruout the 

 winter months. This same care and foresight are then carried into his 

 other activities. Under some systems of agriculture the returns from the 

 year's crops all come in at once, which makes for extravagance and idle- 

 ness, with resultant poverty until another crop is harvested. On the 

 other hand, under most systems of live-stock farming, income is secured 

 several times during the year. 



The care and control of domestic animals, which are intelligent yet 

 submissive to his will, tend to develop the best instincts in man and make 



