( 71 ) 



ture. The pastures and 330 million tons of crops together 

 with the water were reduced to about 80 million tons of 

 highly prized animal foods. 



There was more moisture in the livestock products taken 

 out of the barn than there was in the feed hauled into the 

 barn. On a basis of dry matter, seven pounds of grain and 

 seven pounds of roughage, exclusive of pasture, were fed to 

 make one pound of these products. 



The highly prized livestock and livestock products repre- 

 sent about twenty-five per cent of the dry matter consumed 

 by the American people. 



Livestock Big Consumer of Crops 



Practically all food is produced from crops, the vast ma- 

 jority of which must be planted, cultivated, and harvested 

 annually. 



Agriculture produces certain crops for direct consump- 

 tion. Among these are beans, lettuce, and potatoes. Other 

 products are for direct consumption but must first be proc- 

 essed. Wheat as flour, oats as oatmeal, and buckwheat as 

 pancake flour are examples. These foods are the staff of life. 



Still other crops are produced to be fed to animals and 

 transformed into food for man. Beasts consume all of the 

 roughages, all of the pasture, and about three quarters of 

 the cereal grains. Man eats about 3 per cent of our most im- 

 portant food crop, corn; hogs and other animals eat 85 per 

 cent. Man eats about two thirds of the second most impor- 

 tant grain crop, wheat; livestock probably gets about one 

 sixth. Beasts get about 95 per cent of our oat crop. Man 

 drinks about 30 per cent of the barley crop, and beasts eat 

 about 60 per cent (table 2). 



