LIVESTOCK FARMING 41 



is in the form of grass which is not as easily damaged by storms. 

 Corn, again, is not so seriously damaged by storms as are the 

 small grains. 



A dry wind, because of the evaporation of the moisture and 

 the blowing of the soil, does more damage to the grain farmer 

 than to the livestock farmer. 



Hail. Many a grain farmer has had his work for the year 

 brought to naught by a hailstorm. This is especially true 

 with the small grains. Corn is not so easily damaged by hail, 

 and pasture and other forage crops grown by the livestock 

 farmer are seldom if ever ruined. The damage done him by 

 hail is really very slight. 



Heat and Moisture. It takes heat, light, and moisture to 

 make all plants grow. But too much heat, especially if 

 accompanied by an excessive amount of water, frequently 

 causes large damage to grain crops by way of rust and blight. 

 This, again, is not the case with pasture and forage crops. 



Wet weather very often interferes with the seeding and 

 harvesting of the grain crops but, as a rule, is favorable to 

 hay and pasture crops. 



The absence of water, also, as in a drouth, is very harmful 

 to the small grain but not to the same degree to some forage 

 crops, like alfalfa and clover, or even to corn. 



Insects. The various kinds of insects such as plant lice, 

 chinch bugs, grasshoppers, army worms, etc., are more in- 

 jurious as a whole to the crops grown by the grain farmers than 

 to those grown by the livestock farmer. 



NATURE OF FARM PROBLEM 



The livestock farmer in one sense is a manufacturer. He 

 takes the grains produced by the grain farmer, or by himself, 

 and converts them into a higher-priced material. He makes 

 a finished product out of the raw material. This enables him 

 to get larger returns from his farm. Under some conditions 

 this requires more labor but the more labor one can employ 

 profitably the better off he is. Some people calculate their 

 profits by the number of men they can employ. 



A few examples to illustrate the difference between grain 

 and livestock farming may be of value. In these estimates 



