Food Cost of Production 401 



farmer feeds his cows silage or roots, and grain, with 

 but little hay, w^hile another fattens steers on dry food 

 alone. A comparison of production in the two in- 

 stances on the basis of the gross weight of food con- 

 sumed w^ould be absurd, because wdth the cows the dry 

 matter is largely diluted with Avater. It would be 

 equally absurd to accept the dry matter in the ration 

 as a standard. In instituting a comparison between 

 bovines and swine we must remember that the former 

 consume materials much less digestible than do the 

 latter, and so a unit weight of food does not represent 

 the same w^eight of available nutrients with the two 

 classes of animals. 



We should, so far as possible, reduce rations to 

 their units of nutritive value, and so the digestible 

 dry matter is now the nearest approach we can make 

 to a basis for comparing rations with each other or 

 with the production wiiich they sustain. It follow^s, 

 then, that if we wish to show the comparative economy 

 of production in dairy farming and in beef farming, 

 food alone considered, we should express this relation 

 on one side in terms of digestible dry food substance. 



What shall we consider as a unit of production ? 

 We may answer this question from two standpoints. 

 We may measure production by the quantity of the 

 commercial article which the farmer places on the 

 market, or by the actual contribution which any 

 given production makes to the food resources of the 

 human family. More specifically stated, we may deter- 

 mine the relation of a unit of digestible food sub- 

 stance to the live animal, beef, pork, milk, cheese. 



