LIVE STOCK AND SUCCESSFUL FARMING 23 



to stay on the farm, when inclination and outside influ- 

 ences pulled in an opposite direction. The bond between a 

 grown person on the farm and the members of his herd or 

 flock is also strong in a large proportion of instances. This 

 is evidenced in the regret which the farm matron 

 feels when she sees a favorite cow of the herd driven 

 away to the shambles, and in the disturbing thought 

 that comes to the farmer when a herd or flock which he 

 has been feeding for months is driven away for slaughter. 

 Such thoughts never come into the mind when grains 

 are sold or any other class of vegetable products, and 

 they evidence the fact that the relations between the far- 

 mer and his dumb dependents were to him a source of 

 pleasure while they lasted. 



The increase in the profits of the farm through the 

 keeping of live stock has already been discussed. (See 

 p. 2.) When such increased profits are wisely and 

 promptly shared with the members of the family who 

 help to earn them, the bond becomes still stronger, which 

 binds them to the farm. 



The keeping of live stock on arable farms is of that 

 character known as intensive. It creates labor (see p. n). 

 Because it does, it makes possible more of sub-division 

 in farms than would be possible under other conditions 

 of farming. This results in increase and greater prox- 

 imity of farm homes, with all the benefits which flow 

 from the same to the schools and churches in rural parts, 

 to social life, to the municipality, to the adjacent villages 

 and towns and to the nation at large. 



The great relative importance of live stock has been 

 dwelt upon at length because of its importance. The part 

 that it is playing and the far greater part that it is going 

 to play in building high the pillar of the nation's prosper- 

 ity, are but dimly understood by farmers even in the 

 aggregate. Hence, the justification for trying to impress 

 this thought upon the student of agriculture, when cross- 

 ing the threshold of a treatise on Feeding Farm Animals. 



