4 FEEDING FARM ANIMALS 



Bearing on profits. The relation between the grow- 

 ing of live stock and live stock products in any country is so 

 close and intimate that the statement is safe which 

 claims that the profits from agriculture increase or de- 

 crease with the increase or decrease of the live stock kept. 

 The only exceptions, probably, are new areas with virgin 

 soils, and limited areas with high natural adaptation to 

 some special line of production in which fertility may be 

 maintained for a time through the use of commercial 

 fertilizers. An illustration is furnished in the growing of 

 certain fruits and nut-bearing trees. The most prosper- 

 ous rural communities in any state or country are those 

 which devote the largest share of attention to live stock 

 and live stock products; as shown by the United States 

 census of 1900, the profits per acre rose and fell with live 

 stock values in the same. The relation between land 

 values and the value of live stock kept upon the land, is 

 close and intimate. In every state the highest land values 

 are found almost invariably where live stock values are 

 relatively the highest. Among the few exceptions are 

 tide lands which may be enriched by sediment brought 

 to them from the regulated overflow of tide waters. The 

 richest agricultural countries in the world are those which 

 are richest in live stock production. Results so uni- 

 formly invariable cannot be the outcome of acc 1 '^" ' f 

 They are effects which are produced by certain causr-y 

 ways operative in live stock producing areas, under any 

 system of mixed husbandry in which live stock is an im- 

 portant feature. The chief of the causes that produce 

 these results are discussed in succeeding paragraphs. 



Bearing upon fertility. The extent to which the soils 

 of the United States are being depleted of their fertility 

 is probably the saddest feature in relation to their culti- 

 vation. This results first from the extent to which the 

 elements of fertility are removed in the products sold 

 from the farm, chiefly in form of grain and bread stuffs. 

 The larger portion of these products are sold in lands 



