16 BEGINNINGS IN ANIMAL HUSBANDRY 



development. It is said that the meat-eating nations rule 

 the world; and when we realize that the people of North 

 America, Great Britain, France, and Germany are the 

 greatest consumers of this food, we are inclined to believe 

 the statement to be true. The average person in the United 

 States eats about 180 pounds of meat a year. With a 

 population approaching one hundred million people, it can 

 be easily understood that an enormous number of animals 

 must be slaughtered for food each year. 



Fig. 3. Fattening cattle in a Western feed lot. Photograph by courtesy 

 The Farmer. 



There is also another important source of food from ani- 

 mals, that of milk and its products. Cattle have been so 

 improved since domestication began, that today we have cows 

 producing remarkable yields of milk. A yield of 5000 pounds 

 of milk a year is very common; a large number of cows 

 have produced 10,000 pounds; a yield of 15,000 pounds of 

 milk in a year from a single animal is no longer remarkable. 

 Milk is a very nutritious liquid food, and supplies a place 

 in human diet as does no other substance. From milk is 



